Morocco, day twelve: Casablanca
Here's looking at the road, please.
Not much happened today because it rained in the afternoon, but in the morning I had a couple of lessons to enjoy and then moved from the lovely Hotel Astrid to couch-surf Fi Student which had been the original plan on Sunday.
In the morning I checked out of my hotel room and had a little wander around the neighbourhood for a morning coffee which I took on a little terrace on the corner of Rue Farhat Achad and Rue Al Habacha. I was approached by a shoe shiner asking whether I'd like him to shine my boots for me, which I declined for reasons of normally using dubbin, not polish, and also not really wanting to use a shoe shiner. The suited man next to me, fiddling with paperwork and also enjoying a coffee, was perfectly happy to succumb to the highest level of decadence and I found it a most curious thing to watch. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with being a shoe shiner – all of us have to eat, after all – but even embracing my spirit animal, the sloth, harder than I have ever embraced it before I simply can't imagine myself not being able to look after my own shoes. Also, Docs look awesome when they're battered, but that's another thought process.
Boots resolutely not shiny, I took an inDrive to Chez Student in the suburbs during rush hour traffic, something of an upgrade from yesterday's experience. It truly is precision driving – there was some micron-distance passing between cars, beeping all the while, and even then still room for a moped to get in somehow.
I was impressed, and I'm much calmer about it now because they know what they're doing and this car didn't have too many dents on it.
