All in all, my travel experience was really great, even though I was especially worried about it! My overnight flight was full of crying babies and the most ill-timed, poor-tasting meals, so needless to say I didn't get much sleep. Yet the next leg was where I expected to run into some troubles. I landed in Casablanca, where I would have a 12 hour layover in a French and Arabic-speaking country. I had heard that Royal Air Maroc (the airline) would put me up in a hotel for the day for free, if I could only find their office to get the voucher! I had intended both to study French a lot this summer and to write down some useful French phrases for this interaction... but neither one really happened. But luckily thanks to some good directions I found my way. I also ran into a couple Americans who also spoke no French, so we were in it together!
The hotel was really, really nice. Far better than spending 12 hours in an airport terminal! The pool looked awesome, but by that point I just pulled the curtains shut and took a nap while watching the one English tv station! The shower was wonderful as well. By the time I got ready to ride the bus back to the airport, I felt very refreshed and ready for the second leg of my trip!
That night I landed in Ouaga (Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso) airport. My flight had two stops, one in Ouaga and the other in Niamey, Niger. As I was getting off the plane in Ouaga, I wasn't positive I was in the right city... but luckily a nice flight attendant pointed out the door when I showed her Ouaga on my plane ticket. The airport... well there wasn't much to it. I only remember 3-4 partially enclosed rooms with cement/dirt floors. But who knows, it was all kinda a daze as I was trying to claim my bags and get through customs, maybe there was more to it than I remember!
