But can we buy them HERE????

We got up early on our first day in Africa, but it took a while for them to clear the ship because they decided to stamp all of our passports. I was really excited to get a stamp though. They are super cool and prove that I’ve been to Africa! We ate breakfast and headed out to the Hassan II Mosque which is the 3rd largest mosque in the world next to two that are in Saudi Arabia. It was built in 6 years which means that they pretty much worked on it 24 hours a day for all 6 years. Crazy! It was finished in 1993, so it is actually a really new mosque. It is built right over the ocean too because there is a verse from the Qur’an that says something about Allah being near the ocean. It is absolutely GIGANTIC. It was so big that we couldn’t really figure out where the entrance was, but we asked and eventually found it.

We walked down underneath the main entrances of the mosque which are only opened during Ramadan before sunrise and after sunset. We had to pay 120 durhams to get in, but that is only like $15. We had a tour guide take us around too which was nice. We took our shoes off before we went in, and it was the most magnificent place I have ever seen. The ceilings were so high, and it was actually made out of cedar wood. The ceiling weighed about 50,000 pounds, and it can open automatically which is pretty cool. They open it during Ramadan to help keep the place cool because it can hold 25,000 people. Yah. It is THAT big. The ceiling is beautiful though and has gold in it. The floor is also made of marble, but they had carpets all over it to make it more comfortable for Ramadan. All the materials used to make it came from Morocco except for some Venetian marble and Venetian chandeliers. I really can’t explain how beautiful it was. You could see the ocean from the windows on the left, and a lot of the materials used like the cedar ceiling and the titanium doors are to prevent erosion from the ocean.

The tour guide also took us underneath the mosque which is where everyone must wash before praying in the mosque. We then walked to another part of the mosque which was separated into sections for women and men. Apparently each side is exactly the same, and they have a pool underneath which is supposed to be for socializing. The cool thing about it is that people who aren’t Muslim can use it.

We walked to the mosque, and we walked back which was a really far walk. It was probably about 45 minutes each way, but it was a good way to see the city. It was actually only about 80 degrees which wasn’t bad with the breeze. We walked past Rick’s Café which is the place they built to replicate the café from Casablanca. I think we are going to eat there on our last night in Morocco. We went back to the ship to grab lunch because a lot of the places to eat were closed in Casablanca. So, we ate and relaxed for a little before heading back out to the Medina which is where they sell a bunch of stuff. They had a bunch of cool stuff to buy, but we just decided to look around. They had a TON of bootlegged movies, and some super cute shoes but my feet are too big for all of them. We did walk to Rick’s Café to try to make a reservation, but it was closed. On our way there, we were walking through some serious back streets though. We saw two guys having a verbal fight that attracted a bit of a crowd, but it wasn’t too intense. People kept saying “welcome to Morocco” to us which was really nice. They seemed genuine at least. Rick’s Café looked really cool from the outside though, so I am excited.

We walked back to the ship after that, and Katie, Candice, and I went to the train station to try and buy tickets for the next day. Crossing the street was quite the event though. People here drive crazier than anywhere else we have been which is saying a lot. They have lanes drawn on the road, but they are only a suggestion. So, we raced across the street to get to the train station. It was a live version of Frogger for sure. We got there though, and the guy selling tickets only spoke Arabic and Spanish. Katie took Spanish for a few years though, so we found out that we couldn’t buy train tickets from this station. The tickets we needed were at a station across town. It was really hard communicating with him though, and I pretty much pulled a Candice by repeating over and over if “we could buy the tickets HERE”. Clearly, we couldn’t, so we just decided to wait until the next day.

We ate dinner on the ship and relaxed for a little bit. A lot of SASers were all dressed up and ready to go out, even though they don’t serve alcohol during Ramadan. I heard the next morning though that a bunch of girls and a couple of guys tried to go to a bar, and they wouldn’t let the girls in. I guess that is understandable since it is their holiest month.

After dinner, Candice and I went back out to try and buy phone cards. We were literally the only women out though. It was insane. People kept yelling stuff at us, and we were even dressed appropriately! We did end up buying phone cards, but they were only for about 8 minutes. While I was waiting for Candice to finish on the phone, this woman dressed in black from head to toe came running by. Actually running though, and her outfit was flying up behind her. She actually looked like a bat. It was crazy. We walked back to the ship though because we knew it would be an early morning trying to get to Marrakech the next day!