Okay so I have to be real, I came into this trip with a whole mental image of what Morocco was going to look like and Casablanca immediately said absolutely not. We landed at around 7 in the morning so I was already running on zero sleep and whatever was left of my dignity, and the city just hit different in that early morning haze. I expected pretty much everyone to be dressed super conservatively but it was actually a mix, some people were dressed conservatively and some weren’t, and a lot of people were just in light blouses and everyday fits that looked like literally any other city. I think being a big coastal city with a ton of tourism brings out this really cool mix of people and styles and I was just not prepared for that at all. Also the sand and dust everywhere finally made sense once I realized we are literally right by the shore. Obvious in hindsight, but nothing really prepares you for the feeling of it until you’re actually standing in it at 7am barely functioning.
Then we went to the Hassan II Mosque and whatever was left of my expectations just kind of packed up and left. The place is massive in a way that pictures do not even come close to capturing, and before we could fully take it in we already had a whole situation with a security guard who was convinced we didn’t have tickets and was not going to drop it. Our tour guide had everything handled but this guy was genuinely hounding us and at one point basically chased our group into a building when we were trying to walk somewhere else. Chaotic does not even cover it, but we survived. Once we actually got into the tour our guide told us the mosque was built in only six years and I genuinely had to take a moment. Six years. For that. And on top of that it has around 300 speakers hidden throughout the whole structure so the sound carries perfectly everywhere without you ever seeing where it’s coming from. It’s the kind of detail that sounds like a fun fact until you’re actually standing inside and it just hits different. Day one and Morocco is already making me feel like I had no idea what I was getting into.