Our First Time in CASABLANCA - This City Surprised Us! (Morocco)
We are in Casablanca! Come with us on a tour around this amazing city. First, we explore the spectacular Hassan II Mosque. You will not believe its jaw-dropping beauty. I'm absolutely blown away by this architecture. We then visit the famous Rick's Café where the movie Casablanca was filmed.
Definitely has some old-world charm. We then get lost in the markets of the old Medina. We're getting taken to a shop. and get up close and personal with the locals in the fish market.
And of course, sip some delicious mint tea. There are so many hidden gems to explore. Casablanca has really surprised us. Our first stop today is the Hassan II Mosque. Did you know that the minaret is 210 meters? It is also the second largest mosque here in Africa. I'm absolutely loving the gorgeous tiles and the beautiful green color.
Can't wait to go and check it out. I'm loving these archways in the courtyard. There's so much detail. Look at these columns.
So beautiful. Oh my God, look at the ceiling. It's all carved.
The mosque can cater for 105.000 worshipers. 25.000 inside and 80.000 here in this massive square. This mosque was built in 1993, so it's actually not that old. We're already obsessed with the Moroccan tiles.
The patterns, the colors are just so beautiful. The carvings around the archways are also so detailed. We just bought tickets to enter the mosque and it costs 140 dirhams per person.
Wow, it is absolutely beautiful in here. It is so breathtaking. The amount of detail is just, it's crazy. The ceiling is beautifully carved and painted with all different colors with red and gold, the columns are huge. The chandeliers, all the different archways and the carvings in the archways. There's so much to talk about.
Probably one of the most beautiful that we've ever seen. It is definitely a masterpiece. You can see this floating section in each sides of the mosque.
and these are woman's prayer section. They're also done very decorative. I'm absolutely blown away by this architecture. This must have taken a long time to construct.
I just want to say hats off to the architects that designed this. They did such an amazing job. You'd expect for such a big hall that it would be very echoey when people talk, but the acoustics are actually very good when people are talking. It's still really quiet in here. I bet this place would sound absolutely beautiful when the Imam is calling to prayer.
We've just come down to the front of the mosque and in the ceiling are these beautiful domes and they're all carved differently with different patterns and different colors, they're really spectacular. Look at the intricate carvings on these pillars, all the different designs and patterns, all the little geometric designs and it's really beautiful how the windows just let this flood of light coming into the mosque. Down the center of the mosque are some areas where they have a glass floor and you can see down to a room underneath which has a chandelier and beautiful tiles. Not really sure what that is down there. If you know, please drop it in the comments below and let us know. So, before when we were walking around in the main hall, We noticed that there were some glass panels on the floor, and we couldn't really see what was underneath, but we just come downstairs now, and it's an area where you can do Wudhu, so the cleansing ritual before you go and pray.
It's an absolutely stunning room here with beautiful tiles, columns, and it's so massive. I've never seen anything like this for doing wudhu. It's extraordinary. I assume when it's prayer time that they will have these fountains running, so you can do the cleansing ritual.
That was such an incredible experience. We definitely recommend coming here, buying a ticket and visiting this beautiful mosque. Okay, now we're off to the inner city of Casablanca. Now that it's low tide, there are loads of people swimming in the rock pools right next to the mosque.
They look like they're having a great time. People are sunbathing and walking around, splashing around. Looks like the place to be. We’re outside the famous Rick's café here in Casablanca. But fun fact, the movie Casablanca was actually never filmed here in Morocco. It was filmed in the studios in the US.
And this is not the real café from the movie. This is from 2004, whereas the movie was filmed in 1942. But they've recreated this famous spot here in Casablanca. so that people can enjoy and, I guess, get in the movie vibes, but yeah really cute place. Definitely has some old-world charm.
There were a bunch of tourists taking photos while i was doing my little spiel before. And I don't think they realized that this wasn't the real Rick's café because they looked very disappointed when they heard me say that. They let us take a quick tour of Rick's café and it is absolutely beautiful. It is decorated like a traditional Riad. It has beautiful windows and carvings and these gorgeous lamps surrounding the dining area. It's absolutely beautiful.
It's very stylish and of course, they're playing jazz music. Check out the view from the balcony. We've just arrived in the Medina. We're currently walking down this really cute street. It is full of wooden shutters, and we're really starting to get an appreciation for why the city is called Casablanca, which translates to White House in Spanish, because all the homes and buildings are white. We've just arrived in this undercover market area.
This area is full of fruit stalls, and all of the produce looks really fresh. Look how red these watermelons are. Oh my gosh, they look amazing. This market is so cool.
They have so many things here. Some really great souvenirs, clothes, bags, shoes. They also have lots of argan oil and prickly pear oil as well. So, if you need some new skin care could be the place to come. And I like that they have a little bit of shade cover.
So, it makes it a little bit cooler when we're walking around the markets here. This looks like one of the entrance gates into the old Medina here. Hello, how are you? - Hi, from America? - Australia. - You know the movie Crocodile Dundee? - Oh yes, Crocodile Dundee. - It's the first one. - Yes, yes.
Good movie that's held in Morocco. Thank you very much, yes. In Australia we say g'day mate. - Thanks. - Nice to meet you.
Looks like we've just found the local fish and chips shop. That actually looks really delicious. It looks so crispy. It really smells like fish and chips. Oh wow, he's just dishing it up with his hands, getting in there, pulling it all out.
This place is certainly popular because it is really busy. We have certainly found the market area. Apparently, there are more than 300 stalls just in this small area here. There are so many cute things at this market. I love the geometric coasters. So, a pack of six is around 150 dirhams, which around 22 Australian dollars, so not too bad, but might have to bargain a little bit later.
There are so many markets here and so many lane ways, you could seriously get lost walking through here. And the gps is not doing the best of jobs, I think it's struggling a little bit because of these narrow laneways and the tall buildings. We're getting taken to a shop. Okay, we've reached the shop. So, they've got oils and spices. Hello, how are you? What is your best product in here? - Moroccan argan oil. - Moroccan argan oil, okay.
And what are the benefits of argan oil? Good for hair falling down and to makes it become longer and shiny. *inaudible* Oh, okay. Good for wrinkles. Yes, my mum has been talking about ageing stuff, so, like, what is some Anti-aging thing. - It's for prickly pear. - Oh, the prickly pear. Yeah, it's around ten days, it will start to disappear.
Like, lasting the skin. Oh, really? It'll make me younger? And what is the price for something like this? - It's 1.200 dirhams. - What? 1,200? That's really expensive. It's the most expensive oil in all the world. Right, look, remember my face.
I'll tell you the reality. The prickly pear is the best oil around the world. So how old are you? You guess my age. So maybe you're 80, but you just look like you're 30.
No, I mean, seriously. That was such a nice shop and the staff was so friendly. If you're interested in buying some oils, they certainly have loads of different oils that you can buy. I'm gonna think about the prickly pear oil. I was reading that it is one of the most expensive oils in the world. because inside the cactus fruit, they have these really small seeds and that's where they extract the oil from.
So, they need hundreds of thousands of seeds just to be able to extract a small amount of oil. So that's why it's so expensive. We have just come to this open-air part of the market where they're selling fresh fruit and veg, cloves, fish, all sorts of different things here. But I've just spotted these delicious looking tomatoes. Come have a look at how red they are. Oh my gosh.
They look so good. There's a very cool vibe here. My gosh, the fruit and vegetables look absolutely amazing. Even those eggplant over there look so shiny and purple. It's all looking so delicious and very inviting. Definitely, yeah. They look really good.
Well, don't bother going to Carrefour or any other supermarket. This is the place to get your fresh fruit and vegetables. Absolutely amazing. I'm so impressed. I've seen so many people just walking past munching on fruit.
It's very busy, by the way. A little bit hard to kind of walk, because they have motorbikes going through and trucks coming through, but really cool place. Wow, I could see this and smell this a mile away.
They are cooking fresh fish on the grill, and it smells really good. Very crispy skin on the fish. PM 2.5 particles. Well, that was a very colorful and vibrant section of the market. We're not expecting that. There were so many smells and different types of food that I don't even know what it is.
It was really interesting actually. It was very local. We definitely felt a little out of place. So, my first impressions were that Casablanca was just a huge big metropolitan city.
Busy, skyscrapers, lacking a bit of soul. But the more that we've been walking around today and really getting amongst and walking down the small streets, we're starting to find the culture and we're starting to see the true essence and the true life here in Casablanca. I love it. It's so awesome.
These little hidden gems in the back streets. So, make sure if you come to Casablanca, that you do go and explore. It's interesting to see where the old Medina ends and the rest of the city starts. You can see these little art ways and all the markets along there, which belongs to the old Medina. And then on the opposite side, you have these high-rise white buildings.
Also love all the boulevards here in the city here. They're lined with beautiful palms throughout the city. It looks really, really nice. We've just arrived at the central market and we are immediately greeted with a lot of smells. I can smell fresh fish, fresh meat.
and we're going to go explore what some of the other smells are. - Hello. - What is this? - Lobster. - Lobster. Oh, okay. - From Morocco. - From Morocco.
- Okay, a Moroccan lobster right here. - Welcome to Morocco. - What's wrong? Where from? - Thank you, we're from Australia. - Australia? Kangaroo? - Yes, yes. - Welcome to Morocco. - Thank you. Tickle, hahahaha.
I tickled it. Okay, very nice. All right, let's go and explore. It's very full on in here.
Everyone wants to show us all their fresh produce. Whoa, that's a serious prawn. Okay, king shrimp.
It's very red. Oh wow, beautiful. Whoa, look at all the fish.
I can see sea urchin over here as well. I've just spotted the biggest piece of fish I have ever seen. I don't know what that is. Is it like a massive tuna? I'm slightly disturbed and disgusted because it's like right there, so it's guts and stuff, but I've never seen a piece of fish that thick. The diameter is like that big.
And this one here, oh my gosh, wow. I have never seen these crabs before. If you know what these crabs are, the variety, let us know in the comments.
They look very interesting. They look very rough and very spiky. Oh, I feel sorry for him, he's kinda cute. Probably very tasty though.
So apparently you can buy your fresh fish, your prawns and lobsters here and then have it cooked at one of the local fish shops just along the street behind us. That is so cool. So yeah, definitely fresh food right there.
Very personalized menu. So, you don't just buy your fish here, they also fillet it there for you. So, they fillet it and then you can take it to the restaurant and then they'll cook it for you. What a great service. Wow, the fish looks amazing at these restaurants. It looks so fresh and delicious, and they're really busy.
I think this is a very, very popular place to come and eat fresh fish. First time catching a taxi in Casablanca. Hopefully we don't get scammed like we did in Turkey. Quirky taxi driver. Wouldn't let my dad put on a seatbelt.
He's like, please, no, no, no, no. Wouldn't drive unless my dad didn't have a seatbelt on. You never know with taxis. Always a little bit shady. I’ve never wanted to get out of a taxi so fast.
Like, it was halfway through, I was like, yeah, I'm, like, not feeling safe, I want to get out. Yeah, he was a bit of an interesting character, I must say he was very persistent that I did not wear a seatbelt. And he didn't want to take directions from my GPS, even though we wanted to tell him where we were going.
So, interesting personality. - Bye, bye. - See you, never again. We have just arrived at Habus market and it looks really cute with these columns and arches. So, I'm looking forward to explore some of the shops. There are so many markets around Casablanca and here we are yet at another one. This looks really really cool with the white buildings and then the archways, the beautiful minaret.
This market's definitely a bit more quiet, it's not as hectic as the other market. So, we're looking forward just to walking around and taking it all in. So, this market seems to be a local market selling traditional Moroccan clothing. I'm not sure, is this called a thobe? So, we live in Saudi Arabia and in Saudi, the men wear thobes.
It looks very similar to a thobe but a little bit different with the details and this one has a hood. So, I don't know, do you call them a thobe? So, any of our Moroccan viewers, if you're watching, make sure you comment below and let us know what are these called. We are walking around this square right now, and I'm loving the vibes.
There is so much greenery. I love all the white buildings with the archways. There's also this minaret here and there’s an exact copy of it over here. Doesn’t necessarily give me Moroccan vibes right here. My dad was just saying it's giving him Mexican vibes.
Me, it's giving me a little bit Italian vibe. Very interesting, lots of vibes. Just bought some really cute shops over here.
Looks like they're selling lots of local handicrafts. Gonna go take a look. It looks like they're selling a lot of traditional ornaments as well. Beautiful stuff. We're at this really cute café called Café Imperial and I think this could be the most busy café here in Casablanca.
We could hardly get a seat. This place is absolutely packed, maybe it's well known? I don't know. Café Imperial. Do you know it? Drop down in the comments, let us know. Is this some type of famous place that all the Moroccans know about? - It has a very nice atmosphere. - Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's looking over the palace, we're sitting under the trees.
It's actually so beautiful sitting in the shade right now, just relaxing. We have ordered three Moroccan tea. It's not really called Moroccan tea here. It's just tea with mint. But inside, you can see the delicious fresh mint. It smells absolutely amazing. I love mint.
So, I'm looking forward to getting into it. It's very hot, which is good. It's good because I don't want typhoid. Kills all the bacteria.
Really looking forward to trying the tea. You want to try it, Ella? I like my tea sweet, so I'm just putting some sugar in it. Much better. We had such an amazing time walking around the Hubous area, the markets, the cafes, the buildings and the trees.
It's just been so beautiful and so relaxing. So really a nice little place to come and escape all the hustle and bustle of the city. We weren't quite ready to get in a taxi yet.
We're a little bit eye twitchy from the last experience. So, we thought we'd just take a little bit of a walk around the neighborhood and oh these boulevards are absolutely gorgeous. Look at all these palms lining the street here. We've also been walking past some really huge mansions as well, with some really beautiful hedges. It's a really nice area. We've just arrived at Muhammad V Square and behind me is the Court of Justice.
It is such a beautiful building. Of course, it has beautiful mosaic tiles. There's also another building with a large clock tower in this square. Overall, a really nice vibe and there's plenty of places you can sit.
Surrounding the square are a lot of modern buildings but also some colonial style buildings. It's a really nice water fountain in the center of the square and there are tres pigeons vibing in it. We just got to the Sacred Heart Cathedral and it was constructed in 1930 but after the Moroccan independence in 1956.
it was converted into a cultural center. It's located right next to a big park with lots of beautiful palms. This taxi passed the vibe check, so far 50:50 with the taxis, some good, some bad, yes. This one's good, very good.
We have just arrived at the Morocco Mall and it is the biggest mall here in Africa. It is about half a kilometer long, so we are definitely going to be getting our steps up in here. Okay, let's go explore. And of course, the best malls have to have an indoor aquarium. It looks really cool, check out all the fish.
Such a nice mall, but I have to say it is so hot in here. Inside the actual shops themselves, even hotter. Sweating up an absolute storm right now. They have a band playing in the middle of the shopping center. - It's creating such a great vibe in here, isn't it? - Yeah, it's really lively.
People are loving it, they're singing and dancing down there. Looks like they're having a great time. Okay, can't deal with this heat anymore. So, we're going to go and check out the Cornish.
All right, let's go. We've just arrived at the Cornish, and it looks like there's a long boardwalk overlooking a beautiful view of the beach and water. So, I'm excited to go on a nice long walk. It looks like there's one beach club after another along this beach.
It is such a vibe, what a great spot. The restaurants at the pool clubs here smell absolutely amazing. I'm smelling lobster and fish, lots of grilled seafood aromas in the air.
There are also loads of resorts along the beach, this would definitely be a nice place for a beach holiday. We just spotted a really crowded beach, Oh my gosh, I have never seen so many people on a beach before. I didn't realize that Moroccans were Huge beach goers. It looks absolutely crazy. It looks like a big bunch of ants behind me.
We've just come around the corner and we've spotted another really busy beach. There are so many people down there swimming and relaxing on the beach. It's so crazy.
I never expected Morocco to be such a beach going place, but they really seem to love their beaches here. And it's not hard to see why. This is an amazing spot. Casablanca has really surprised us.
It's almost like we're describing it as an onion. So, the city is the onion, and you need to peel back all the different layers to kind of get a full appreciation of the city. And each layer is a new part of this city. Obviously, there's this beautiful boardwalk that we discovered today. Then there was the cultural parts in the Medina, all those beautiful markets.
Actually, kind of a walkable city, which was very surprising to me too. So surprised and it is a very nice place to definitely recommend visiting Casablanca If you're here in Morocco. We are now going to head back to our apartment to catch the sunset from our balcony. We made it back just in time for sunset. And wow, this is going to be the most amazing sunset. Morocco, you're really turning it on for us.
The light on the mosque looks absolutely beautiful and the reflection on the water. and sitting here on our private terrace with this view, magical. All right, I think we're going to grab some snacks and some drinks and we're going to relax and enjoy this beautiful view. The Hassan II Mosque looks absolutely stunning here at night. When it's all lit up.
Just a fun fact, you'll notice the green laser up the top of the minaret. That's actually pointing directly towards Mecca in Saudi Arabia. We have had such an amazing time exploring Casablanca. Don't forget to like and subscribe to our channel.
So, that you don't miss out on any of our Moroccan adventures. See you next time on Living the Jo Life!
2025-03-01 23:35
