After a successful few days in Turkey I’m looking forward to part two where I’ll head to the southeast, but for the next two weeks it’s off to Morocco. The first stop here is Casablanca: what a disappointing city. The idea of Casablanca brings romance to mind but the city itself is far from it: generally uninspiring. Admittedly we didn’t have time to do any sightseeing – not that there is a lot of interest, but the Hassan II Mosque would have been worth seeing, and although tacky I suppose a visit to Rick’s Cafe should have been done! The only saving grace was meeting a young man named Khalid in the Chamber of Commerce, in our search for someone who spoke English, and who proved to be very helpful.

And yes I have to admit to being too tired to think, and subsequently eating pizza (in the land of couscous and tagines) at no less than Pizza Hut for dinner. It was awful and I won’t be doing that again!

Went to the Quartier Habous, or “nouvelle medina”. This area was built in the 1930s as a model development, and its neat rows of streets have a “toy town” suggestion to them. The variety and prices of olives in the olive bazaar were astounding. You can buy 1kg of high quality olives for 14 Moroccan dirhams (approximately 78 Indian rupees); contrast that with the 450g jar of fairly ordinary olives I bought recently in Bangalore for double that price! This was paradise. Having happily tasted lots, I left for Marrakech.