Speaking of African cities, did you all know that Eritrea is an Art Deco wonderland?

I want to have a drink here.

I have a hard time thinking of Casablanca (and Alexandria) as real places. Weird.

I have a hard time thinking of Casablanca (and Alexandria) as real places. Weird.

Right? t /Jesse

Eritrea sounds marvellous. And in typical fashion I will forget everything except old and poor, which doesn't say all that much. I remember more about how the people look and dress than anything else. Maybe because the fruit of a lot of my father's travels was pictorial. I still have some national costumes burnt into my brain from 30 years ago. Oh, and folk tales. That was the other thing he brought back a lot. While shopping for friends in Nairobi I was stunned to see some of the very same books he'd bought us as kids. Surreal step back in time.

::sigh:: Calgon? Take me away? While walking and cleaning up my email inbox after doing a long-overdue errand, I smacked my head into an overhang while taking a corner. Luckily I didn't break the skin, and I just filled a prescription for the one painkiller that does anything. So mostly I feel inept. Real inept.

I have a hard time thinking of Casablanca (and Alexandria) as real places. Weird.

When we were in Morocco we wanted to go to Casablanca just because. We had no real plans to stay, just to touch the ground and move on. I don't remember what city we were in going through the bus station again and again, unable to find the Casablanca bus, until someone told me that Moroccans don't call the city Casablanca. They call it (sp?) Dar Bida, which means "white house", just in Arabic. The bus with the guy in front yelling "Dar Bida! Dar Bida! Dar Bida!" was very easy to find.

We spent maybe one night there, ate at (probably one of a dozen) Rick's Cafe, and moved on with our trek. It just didn't seem as interesting as the other places on our list.

I have a hard time thinking of Casablanca (and Alexandria) as real places. Weird.

What David said.

That was an interesting article, Hec-- it's amazing to think of these places as frozen in time. One of the research books I have is Havana Before Castro and the most fascinating section to me is the one on the Havana Riviera, the hotel that was Meyer Lansky's baby, that opened in 1957-- the book has side-by-side photographs of the hotel circa '57 and fifty years later, in '07 and literally, next to nothing has changed. The dining room and lobby, in particular, are almost chilling.

One of the research books I have is Havana Before Castro and the most fascinating section to me is the one on the Havana Riviera, the hotel that was Meyer Lansky's baby, that opened in 1957-- the book has side-by-side photographs of the hotel circa '57 and fifty years later, in '07 and literally, next to nothing has changed. The dining room and lobby, in particular, are almost chilling.

It made me think of Havana, too, Barb. I love those cities and places that get stuck that way. Or wind up being caught between some legal borders like Kowloon City was in Hong Kong - a complete anarchist city within a city.

Berlin before the wall came down, or Trieste sliding back and forth between countries but really kind of a city state.

I'd like to go to Rabat, in Morocco, because part of it is the old port city of Salee, where the pirates the Salee Rovers sailed from. My ancestor the pirate was one of the leaders, and I'd like to go there and say, "Yeah, I'm descended from Murat Reis."

We went to Rabat just so we could take the high speed train. Uh, there were a lot of great-looking places in Morocco, and we only had so much time. That was another touch-down and leave visit.