Excited to see all the souvenirs in the Casablanca and surroundings market? Here are a few photos of what you can expect to see on the way and buy once you get there! Be sure to check out the other post on Casablanca (and the warning about women in Agadir, Morocco) before you fly over or get off the cruise ship though!

Our ship was scheduled to port in Casablanca and I have to say I was more than a little excited to be visiting this culture-rich city. I had told Veronica all about it before we left for our trip and even considered renting the old Bogart movie.

A week before we were scheduled to arrive political bombers had attacked the Embassy region of Casablanca so our cruise line decided it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel the port destination. You’d think that since this was just an attack on the Embassies that the tourist areas we were headed to would be safe, but it was the one year anniversary of another bombing attack that took place in Casablanca in 2006 – so Celebrity Cruises thought it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel.

Since we were on such a wild and wonderful adventure I didn’t get upset. I heard many other people on the ship bitching though.

Casablanca is a strange and wonderful place that I hope to introduce my daughter to at a later date.

The markets (souks) are rich with culture and gorgeous fabrics and the buskers (sellers, performers) are diverse. Be careful however with your digital camera – if they catch you taking a photograph of them they’ll work hard to get your money for the priviledge!

In May of 2007 I took my daughter for a trip to Europe.

We actually started our journey from home (in rural Ontario) at 3 am, headed down to Syracuse, NY airport (the fares were less than 1/2 the cost than flying out of Toronto or Ottawa and only added 2 hours of driving to our trip).

From Syracuse we flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we spent 1 and a half days – shopping, sleeping and a little swimming in the hotel pool.

The hotel wasn’t the most beautiful or the most elaborate – but the staff was friendly, the rooms were clean, and the service (including the continental breakfast) were awesome for the price we paid! Comfort Inn, San Juan – I promised to write them a great review on Priceline, but by the time we arrived back at home (1 month later) the option to review the hotel was gone from my user account. I would have given them a 4.5 out of 5.

From San Juan we hopped on a Celebrity Cruise ship and the next 14 days deserve a blow-by-blow description so I’ll save that for later. Our ports of call were (i) St. John’s Antigua, (ii) Ibiza, Spain, (iii) Casablanca, (iv) Morocco, (v) Barcelona, Spain, (vi) Villefrance, France, (vii) Rome and I forget where else right now – but I’ll work it out as I upload photos and stories.

When the cruise ended we took off from Civitivechia Italy to Rome – then by train to Lucca (a small Tuscan town).

Five days later we began our long flight home to Syracuse.

And we’ve been dying to get back to Italy ever since!