Casablanca

CHAPTER 15

I knew of Casablanca from the Humphrey Bogart movie of course, and I also knew of an entertaining, but ultimately debunked, rumor that in WWII Roosevelt and Churchill held a secret conference there, which is true, and that the Nazi’s found out about it, but misunderstood the translated intercept and thought the world leaders were actually getting together at the White House in D.C., which foiled their plans to assassinate the duo in one swift move (apparently not true).

As such, I was happy to learn something about the city that was not based on fiction: that Casablanca is home to the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, with the tallest minaret in the world to boot. And whats more, it offered tours- we definitely weren’t going to miss a chance like this. The mosque truly is amazing, and on a monumental scale to say the least. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

If touring the mosque was the only thing I did in Casablanca, I would have left a happy man, but as it happened, that evening we ate out at a little pizza place below our hotel, and before we even paid the bill, I was struck with the absolute worst case of food poisoning I have ever had- fever, chills, my whole gi track turing into a uncontainable liquid mess, I think I was even hallucinating at one point. I spent the next 12 hours curled up in ball, wishing I would just die and be done with it all. Considering this, I wasn’t too sad to leave Casablanca in the rearview mirror the next morning.