We didn't have much time in Casablanca and hadn't much hope for it since, like Tangers, all the word we had heard was: avoid it if you can: It isn't nice and it isn't characteristic of Morocco.

Casa is bustling with a wide variety of fashions and services. It is fast paced like any European or American town with the same too-much-data phenomenon that leaves eyes a little glassy. It has the poor and richer cheek to jowl in startling contrast like many big cities. It has beef tagine for 10 Durhams ($1.70 Canadian) or 120 Durhams ($20 Canadian) depending on where you buy. Like in Oujda you can pay 50 Durhams ($8 Canadian) for a one star hotel room or 1000 Durhams ($166 Canadian) for a 5 star with suited porters if you wish.

In Casablanca, satellite dishes were more common than clothes hung out to dry and both could be seen along the long flat roofs. It was similar to Fes and Oujda in being heavily polluted with pervasive diesel fumes, garbage and urine smells but had much more garbage blowing along the streets than any other city we've seen. It at the same time has some spectacular modern architecture (Having only a day there we didn't photograph much.)  Besides the famous movie Casablanca that wasn't filmed here, Casa is most famed for the gorgeous Hassan II mosque (below) beside the Ain Diab beach.

Although every settlement had an area set aside for the King's visit, Casa was notable to us for the frequent diverse billboards of King Mohammed VI and the high percentage of cafes airing his broadcast. Of course, this may not be typical since the day we were there it was the anniversary of the monarchy returning from exile to remove the French colonial power from power. 

From the time we left Figuig's door to entering our home door in Canada, it was 67 hours including the 4 hours time difference. 28.5 of these hours were spent moving on wing or on wheel, about 5.5 of these hours were in line ups for boarding passes, customs, passports, X-rays scans of baggage, body and bag inspections, (no baggage claim time since we has carry-on only), at boarding gates and waiting for taxiing the plane. About 10 of these hours were in in necessary stopovers between bus and train and plane plus just over 20 hours in an overnight stopover waiting for a connection between train and plane. We got home around 3:30 a.m. by our body's clock.  

2002, Pearl and Brian Pirie       | Trip Main Page |