248 Boulevard Sour Jdid. Place du Jardin Public, Ancienne Médina, Casablanca
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Isn't it Christmas time again? Today I want to talk about my Christmas trips in the past three years. I won't talk about the far ones. In the last issue, we talked about Egypt (friends who are interested can read the previous article). In this issue, we will talk about Morocco.
From the map, Morocco and Egypt are both North African countries, separated by Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. They are collectively known as the five North African countries. I have been to four of these five countries, and I really don't dare to go to Libya! The biggest difference between these five and the traditional understanding of Africa is that they are not black but more like Arabs. Many people would say that they are Arabs, which is actually true. But to be rigorous, Morocco is mainly the descendant of the Berber (pronounced bo) people, so their mother tongue is Berber, but most Moroccans speak Moroccan French, which is different from the other four brothers who use Arabic as their mother tongue!
Actually, this is my first time to Morocco. I chose this month to avoid the harsh summer in Morocco. Can you stand the famous Sahara Desert? But this time I stayed in a desert tent hotel on purpose. I took a minibus from Mezouta and then an off-road vehicle into the desert, and then changed to a camel team to continue walking to the heart of the Sahara Desert. The stars were beautiful at night, but I was almost frozen to death. Although we stayed in a tent designed and built specifically for foreign tourists, and there were air conditioners and heaters in the expensive suite, I still caught a cold the next day!
Let’s just talk about Christmas Day, December 25, 2018. I was in Casablanca. Casablanca is the city with the best name in the world in my opinion, just like the English name of the flamingo, Flamingo, haha! Let’s not talk about it for now, let’s talk about Rick’s Cafe. There is no Christmas decoration or atmosphere here, but I learned in advance that the menu was slightly adjusted to show the difference that night, that’s all!
Of course, RICK’s Cafe is famous for no other reason than because a movie, and a masterpiece that is deeply rooted in people’s hearts, “Casablanca”, the Chinese translation of which is “North African Spy”, was filmed here! Actually, I haven't really watched this movie. Before planning to come to Morocco, I wanted to catch up on it several times on the plane, but because it was a black and white movie and in Arabic, I couldn't finish it, haha. This time, I specially booked dinner on Christmas Day. I remember clearly that when I arrived at the door of the cafe at 5:40, there was already a long queue at the door 20 minutes before the door opened at 6 o'clock, and there were many Chinese tourists who came to the door to take pictures. I knocked on the door and said that I had booked a full meal in the evening (it was actually not too expensive, much cheaper than eating a meal of Dadong roast duck in Beijing). He invited me in very gentlemanly. At this time, the people queuing outside were not happy and protested why I didn't queue up. The old waiter was no longer gentlemanly and shouted at them: "This gentleman has booked a week in advance and it is a full meal. You didn't book and many people will only drink a cup of coffee, so you have to queue up!" Hearing these words, I felt a sense of superiority in my heart, but it soon cooled down. In fact, in the face of the equality of all beings in Islam, as long as you spend more money, you will also be treated as a distinguished guest!