Casablanca

If we were to describe Cassablanca in one word it would be "gritty." The fame of the city really comes from little more than the reputation of the movie. Before french colonial times, Cassablanca was a small town of about 600 with none of the major buildings or history of the other cities we have seen. So it is much more modern. But unlike beautiful Rabat with it's well maintained streets and buildings, Cassablanca seems to slowly be crumbling, it's once white art deco buildings turned a dark grey in the smoggy air. The city is a pain to navigate, with triangular builings at each corner dividing each street in two - an intersection everywhere you look (which may or may not be marked with a street name). We are becoming used to walking in circles.

There is only one major attraction to see in the city - the worlds third largest mosque. Built by the last king, in 1993, it is a fairly impressive sight. Lots of traditional moroccan artisan work combined with the high tech - laser beams that point to Mecca in the night, a retractable roof etc.. Overlooking the ocean, its a lovely place to sit and meditate. Unfortunatly the mosque was built on a former slum whose residents were displaced without compensation. Not to mention the huge sums of money it cost to build in a country with poverty issues. But it is a beautiful work of art that will last for generations. You can ponder that one. Go see for yourself. It's easy enough to find. Just follow the trail of tourists (ie the ones with large cameras around their necks) - it is after all the only major attraction in the city.

We did find a decent budget hotel to stay in after some of the aforementioned walking in circles. And noticed A LOT of traffic on the little street outside (many large trucks and a small crane), which was a bit annoying the first night. That is until we took a closer look and realized that all this hubbub was actually a film crew setting up to shoot a movie on our street. That's right. Of all the budget hotels in Cassablanca we picked the one that was in the middle of some big screen filming. Our hotel was just across the street from slightly run down, large old Rialto Theatre (the set for the filming).



Here is a picture of the set during the day. It took literally ALL day to set up the area, pasting giant posters, setting up the red carpet, working on lighting etc. The scene they were shooting was the classic opening night shot with the crowds of rich and famous rolling up in their fancy cars and strutting up the red carpet, surrounded by adoring fans.

As our hotel was inside the taped off area for the shooting, we were able to score ourselves a little piece of sidewalk/curb and spend the remainder of the evening watching the process.



Here you can see some of the extras dressed in their tuxes, getting ready to shoot the scene. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the women with their fur coats and high heels. It was quite the scene. It took about 4 hours to shoot what would probably ammount to 15 seconds in the movie.

So ends our stay in Morocco. On to Paris and Cameroon...