Besides that the trip was AMAZING so lemme explain the good parts. The first night we got lost again getting to our hotel. Most likely my fault again..whatever we ended up taking a cab and it totaled less than two dollars. Moroccan currency is ridiculous about 11 Dirham to the Euro..we were loaded. This was fun and made me feel really guilty at the same time. The first night we decided to walk to the Mosque, which I had read was the biggest tourist attraction in Casablanca. The Hassan II Mosque is the second largest mosque in world I think.. It was huge. I kept thinking it couldn't get any bigger then we would walk closer and it was crazy. When we were there the sun was setting and the building is right on the ocean so the whole scene was gorgeous. The prayers are also played over a loud speaker so we could listen to them...I mean I know zero Arabic but it was still interesting to listen to. The night would not have been complete though without a weird encounter..I attract them.
We were just sitting there watching little kids jump in the waves..listening to Arabic prayers and all of the sudden this guys starts talking to me a Kristen. We were initially very excited because someone who spoke any language besides Arabic or french in Casablanca is very rare. This mans English was excellent! He promptly started asking about our travels and how we liked Morocco..then pulled out a camera and started video taping our answers. Asked me how often I visited mosques, what my reactions are, and if I want to visit him in Dubai.. Now were are all FB friends.
Later that night (before a man tried to purchase us) we went for some Moroccan food. Meatballs and fried eggs in a tomato sauce..why Americans have limited fried eggs to breakfast I will never understand.
The next morning we left really early and walked to the beach. We got super lost and ended up walking close to seven miles until some nice people pointed us in the correct direction. The beach was very pretty..in a deserted lonely way. There was no one there so we really didn't stay very long.
After that we went shopping! We went through the Medina or the market part of town. The Medina is the really poor part of Casablanca there were mostly just shops and merchants everywhere and kids playing soccer EVERYWHERE. It was really neat though because throughout the whole Medina section you could hear the calls to pray and the prayers themselves from serial worship spots scattered around. It was just a really interesting experience.
We also went to see the main Cathedral in Casablanca. Currently the population is about 98% Muslim, but at one time the city/port was under Spanish and Portuguese control (hence the name) and much of the population was catholic. I researched before we went because I like learning and I am really cool. The cathedral was really interesting mostly because it was abandoned..there are no current worship services and when we were there construction crews were removing a bunch of stuff from the inside. I just thought the whole thing was very interesting. After that we went to a modern art museum..that was closed on Mondays. opps. Then we had the biggest ice cream things in the world that ended up being less than a dollar. Then I bought a I Love Morocco shirt.. the two events may have been related.
All in all I really did love Morocco. Once we realized that it wasn't exactly the beach resort vacay we had imagined, it was fun. The city was absolute chaos. No traffic signals. I saw people getting beaten in the street for trying to steal stuff..no police anywhere. There were also no women in any store or restaurant we went into. Also every map and street sign was in Arabic but they spoke in french. Basically the city was a chaotic, crazy, and dirty mess but sooo amazing and beautiful as corny as that sounds.
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