Whilst still on reserve I was pulled out for a trip to Casablanca, Morocco. I’ve been in the past and visited the incredible Hassan II Mosque, the largest mosque in Morocco, as well as the corniche by the ocean, and Rick’s Café, famous from the movie “Casablanca”. This time I decided to take it easy and just head for a stroll through the souk.
From my hotel room I had an incredible view over the city, including the Hassan II Mosque which is unmissable.
If you’re heading to Casablanca for the first time, I’d definitely recommend a trip there. The architecture is stunning, with lots of detailed tiling and doorways.
Myself and one of the other girls met after a quick power nap (I’d be on home standby waiting for the phone to ring all night, and then had an almost 8 hour flight, so was feeling rather tired!) to stroll down to the nearby souk.
The weather was beautiful and sunny, but since it was Ramadan I wore a cardigan to cover up. In Morocco I also notice in general that as a woman you get a lot of stares from men which can feel a little uncomfortable if you’re not used to it.
We entered the market and took our time strolling past all of the stalls selling clothes, bags, leather goods and more. Stopping occasionally to have a look, I managed not to buy anything that I didn’t need, although some of the detailed painted crockery was very tempting!
Everywhere you turn in Morocco there are beautiful doorways and intricate details to see, even in some of the slightly more run down streets.
We stopped at a fruit and vegetable stall as we’d been advised by all of the Moroccan crew on the flight that we absolutely must buy peaches, cherries, apricots and whatever else looked good! So of course I followed their advice and picked up a selection of deliciously sweet and ripe fruits. The nectarines in particular were so juicy and sweet, and made me wish I’d bought more!
You can also find all sorts of herbs, spices and nuts, however by this time it was starting to get close to sunset and Iftar time and the market was getting very busy, so we gave those a miss.
At one point we were followed by a rather rude man, who insisted on showing us around (despite our telling him multiple times that we didn’t need his help) and following us down whichever alleyway we took. Once he realised that we weren’t interested in coming with us, he started insulting us and calling us immoral, unmarried women, and didn’t we realise that he’d already saved us from being followed by two creepy men?! We finally managed to get rid of him, but just a word of warning if you’re exploring alone to take care!
Eventually the souk got so busy that we made our way towards the exit, only stopping to pick up a some freshly baked bread to have for breakfast the next morning.
We headed back towards the hotel to meet up with some of the others for dinner, passing by this pretty doorway with a lovely courtyard garden hidden inside.
Despite having been followed by a nasty man for quite a while at the souk, we had a lovely afternoon in the sunshine in Casablanca!
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