It's morning in Casablanca and I can't sleep. We're going to wander around the market for a bit and then take the train to Fez. It sounds like we haven't spent enough time in the place where the best last line of a movie ever is spoken, but it's a grimy town and I really want to see the medina in Fez. We both have plans to buy leather bags near the tanneries there. Unfortunately, Casablanca, being coastal, has a great breeze during the day, which hit us when we stepped off the sweltering train from Marrakesh yesterday. Neither of us particularly wants to leave the "cool" and get on another train, especially one that will be travelling for four and a half hours to a place probably as hot as Marrakesh (I'm terrified to check the weather forecast). But it's Fez and it must be done. Besides, after Fez, we just head north into mountains or port towns, which will hopefully be more comfortable.

Last night, we went to a restaurant that was listed in Lonely Planet as a Quick Eat. They specialize in seafood platters. We ordered a portion for one and a stewed eggplant (supposedly an appetizer) and finished neither. The dipping sauces were the key: one tomato, olive and coriander, the other hot sauce with lime. We had planned it to be a small snack before a somewhat classier meal but it definitely finished us for the night. A similar thing happened in Marrakesh the night before. In the Djemaa-el-Fna, the main square, grill stalls are set up in the evening with tables, and a hundred restaurants are created. We walked through the smoke, castanets, dance circles, and henna, and sat down at a place where there were a lot of people eating and no one trying too hard to get us to sit. The couscous and beef on skewers that we ordered came with the bread that accompanies all Moroccan meals (to be used instead of utensils) and the tomato olive sauce that makes good food even better. It was intensely filling (at least in part because it was so hot outside) and we had a nightcap of ice cold orange juice. And through all this, we barely spoke to one another because there was just so much to take in.