2nd to 6th of December, 2017.
My second time in Rabat started with a nice guy taking me out the shit place where I was hitchhiking and leave me beside de highway. There, this personal driver, who at the beginning looks like just want to help, review hardly want my phone number and I think that when he realized I would not give it to him (because I did not tell him I had not one), he decide leave in a shit place on the entrance (or exit) of Rabat, far away of everything.
After walking for a while and ask for information to a policeman, I am waiting for a bus. Unfortunately, all the other ones which are coming, are always completely full, so I am considering how it would be get in with The Monster.
So I decide ask for information again, this time for two friends who are also over there and who, at the beginning, were laugh on me. In the end and after a long Goggle Translate conversation, they help me a lot and even give me some money to take a taxi, what according to them would be the best way to get at McDonald’s. Yeah! At that point I already had a place to stay in Rabat thanks to a CS who accepted my last minute request. So after everything arranged, and the boy ask me to be his girlfriend (what made me open my phone and show him I did not had any SIM card on it, which made the girl laugh a lot) he talks with a taxi and I am finally going to McDonald’s (one of the many others I would be there).
Over there, waiting for Ahmed, I start to look for the information about the Mauritania and Senegal Visa. That would be just the started of a long search.
When Ahmed arrives, I like him instantly. We go to his apartment and leave my stuff there to could go eat: At The Medina. As you all know, last time I was in Rabat I did not go there because I did not feel safety. Now, I am going in the middle of the night. Of course it is totally different when you are with a local. But even so, I was kind of “What a hell I am doing here?”. It is super cool, though.
He tells me about being at Chefchaouen, travelling with some other travelers he just met. I tell him I want to do that but it is difficult find another travelers because I never stay in Hostels.
We decided for pizza after I remember him I am vegetarian. Fifteen Dihrans for a really good pizza. When we are almost done, Ahmed makes the joke which followed us my whole stayed with him. He says: “At my signal, we run, OK?”. I say – What?? He keep saying that it is true and when I insist it is a joke, he ask me to look in his eyes and guess if it looked like a joke or not. My most honest answer was – I just met you! I have know idea if you are seriously or not. After we laugh a lot, he review that obviously was a joke, confirming how absurd it was with this simple sentence: “Do you do not know this people?!” The ironic thing is that, in the end, I did not pay anyway because he did not let me
Back at home, he introduced me this tv series called “Rick and Morty”, which I gently called Ricky Martin. It is an awful completely black humor program, that I have no idea how it is in the third season. The world is going crazy! Anyway, it is funny sometimes, and makes you think about the rest of the stuff that are going one in the world, but at the same time is – What a fuck it is going on with this shit?
Next morning I go to the Embassies just to take the information, which at the end reviewed being a stupid plan because if I had my passport and the copies and the money with me, I simply could have started the process and come back next day to finish, which would save me one day.
The other bad news it is that the Visa to Senegal can be done just in Casablanca. That is a really bad joke that the universe did with me. Because if you think about I was with my hands tied: Where I would go after Mauritania? Would I take the risk passing through the Congos? How I would pay for all the Western countries Visas and still be able going South and then go back North by the Eastern coast?
The first solution I find it is flying to Luanda, Angola. It is not that cheap but I could afford. Maybe have a really hard time after. Of course I decide that after passing long hours at McDonald’s on my second day there.
Next morning, when I walk into the Mauritania Embassy and make all the arrangements (pretty much easier that I could expect), I also walk to the Angola Embassy to sadly discover I could not take my Visa out of Brazil. This is so ridiculous! I cannot even explain in words how ridiculous this it is.
So I get back home disappointed and frustrated. I could not give up of my plans going South.
Ahmed is in there and I explain everything to him. I cook, we eat, talk a little, watch R&M ad then I leave to McDonald’s again to try figure out what to do.
I find a cheap flight to Cairo, Egypt. Even cheaper than the one to Luanda. I thought I could go South by the Eastern coast then, and after hit Namibia, try get my Visa to Angola at the border. Looked like a good plan. I also found a guy looking for an AuPair in Cairo and send him a message. At last, after spend over three hundred Euros on a ticket plane, I had to restore my money somehow. Another thing it was two travelers, one form Serbia and the other from Slovenia, sending me a message, saying that they were going to Mauritania too and suggesting we go together. So basically, I left the house pretty miserable to come back exultant with fresh good news.
When I get in there, I find SARA with Ahmed, she is a very nice German girl, who was spending three months in Rabat studying. It is pretty nice to tell them the good news. After that, we watch another episode of R&M and then they tell me we are going out to me see some friends.
That night I realize how Rabat could have a huge and crazy night life. I had no idea! So many people on the streets, going everywhere, so many cars and places open until late, places full of people. Anyway, it really got me on surprise.
The Coffee we go is the opposite, just a few people. I meet Ahmed friends, pretty nice people also, and two “new” guys: an American one, who married with a Moroccan woman and just have a baby (what made me think what a hell he was doing there while his wife was back at home probably taking care of the baby?), who I did not liked that much; and a guy from Congo with whom I have a nice conversation about good movies and also about Congo: he really advice me not going there during the elections time.
Me and Ahmed could not find any cheap place nearby to eat, at least no open ones, so we decide go back home where I would cook.
Next morning I would sleep until late because my Visa would be done just at 2 p.m., which mean I would have to spend another night with Ahmed. He says there is no problem, of course.
That night he goes out with another friend but invite me to join them with SARA and other travelers in a kind of meeting for travelers. We leave the house at the same time, he shows me where I supposed to go and then find his way. Unfortunately, he gave me the wrong coordination and I could not find the Coffee place.
Back at home, I organize all my stuff, I eat and with my Visa from Mauritania on hands, I plan my way to Marrakesh. I decide to take a pettit taxi to the exit of the town and expend ten Dirhans instead of walking for over one hour.
