It was the early morning flight out of Dubai over to Mohamed V Airport in Casablanca. It was 8 hours 20 minutes with a full load, and as I only managed a 90 minute sleep before the flight, I was seriously looking forward to getting to Morocco. On the way there we flew over Egypt and the captain called us to say if we looked out the window we would be able to see Pyramids which was amazing to see, even if they did just look like tiny triangles!

The drive over to the hotel took around 45 minutes and myself and two other economy crew had decided to power through without a sleep and go out and explore the city, whilst others went to have a Hamam which is a traditional moroccan massage before we all met up for dinner that evening.

 

We had decided on going to the Hassan II Mosque which is the third largest mosque in the world, situated on the coastline of Casablanca. The walk over took about 25 minutes and we walked through the beautiful yet worn and torn streets of Morocco. The city was really interesting, it was old directly next to new and it seemed tired yet full of character. The buildings were incredibly colourful with amazing doors and window shutters and seemed full of life with washing hanging from window to window and people wandering around the streets.

To say it was a warm 22 degrees, everyone seemed wrapped up in jackets and jeans and boots. I seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in my summers dress!!

 

The mosque was really impressive and beautifully adorned with a multitude of turquoise tiles that were sparkling in the sunshine. Around the mosque was decadent arches casting shadows over the big square in front of the mosque, it was a really stunning picturesque scene.

 

We asked a passer by to take a picture of the three of us with the mosque in the background, however, I don’t think he’ll be a top class photographer any time soon, do you..?

 

After a while, we made our way towards the market by the hotel to buy some souvenirs and gifts to take back to Dubai with us. Although, whilst there we were just getting called “Miss Americas” and “Mr India” even though none of us were from those destinations and we were getting quite hassled, so after a quick browse we left to go back to the hotel and meet the crew for dinner.

 

However, when we got to the hotel many of the crew were still at the moroccan baths and others had gone to sleep so the three of us decided to stay in the hotel for a traditional Tagine dish (a North African stew of spiced meat and vegetables prepared by slow cooking in a shallow earthenware cooking dish with a tall, conical lid) with a local beer before heading up to bed.

The next morning I woke up after a long sleep and got ready to head back to Dubai after a lovely layover in a new destination with an equally lovely crew. I’m back with  new phone so we’ve got some better quality pictures again – hallelujah!

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