A Weekend in Rabat

This Friday we were out of school for a holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. Since Morocco is further west, we are the last Muslim nation to finish Ramadan.  There is also all this stuff I don't quite understand about not being on the same schedule as Saudi Arabia. There seems to be a little rivalry there that I don't understand as of yet. Morocco has very interesting dynamics in their relation to the rest of the Arab world.

Back to my trip details, we left on Friday morning on the train to Rabat, which is only an hour away. Rabat is the capital and things run at a little slower pace than Casa, exactly what we were looking for in our first break. Most everything was closed due to the holiday, but we did find a few places open.  A real treat that evening was that the Medina, a local market, opened up and we were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this odd array of wares and smells.  I got a Jilhab, which is a traditional outfit that lots of Moroccan women wear.  I'm planing a post later this week with pictures and more about how women dress here.


On Saturday we slept in, which was wonderful!  Then we went to Chellah which had Roman ruins and an old Islamic school.  You know me, I can't pass up an opportunity for a trip to an ancient site.  It was a lot of fun to walk around with people who were experiencing Roman ruins for the first time.  We finished the day with a trip to "Mega" mall, which was not so mega after all.  Overall, a nice little getaway!

You can check out more photos from our recent trip to Rabat:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=271136&id=620259852&l=f9500fc09b