Casablanca Day 2 Hassan II Mosque

On Sunday morning the sun came out, we were recharged and ready to tackle another day in Casablanca. MaryAnne busted out her new jacket and Linda decided to join us for a visit to the Hassan II Mosque. Here are some facts about the mosque.
- Its the largest in Africa and 7th largest in the world
- One of the few mosques non-Muslims can tour
- 105,000 people can worship at the mosque at one time. 25,000 inside and 80,000 on the grounds of the mosque.
- The mosque has a retractable roof!
We were mesmerized by the size and intrigued by the details of every aspect of the mosque. MaryAnne was taking pictures and was interrupted by a flock of birds that decided to crap on her and her new jacket she had worn for less than an hour. She was frozen in shock while I used my baby wipes (more about that later!) to get all the crap off her jacket and her hair. It's not an exaggeration when I say it was EVERYWHERE, even on the inside of her sunglasses. Linda assured her it was a sign of good luck. MaryAnne however couldn't find comfort in getting crapped on outside of a mosque. She's a trooper though, crap or no crap we were taking the 11 o'clock tour.
Once inside the mosque we removed our shoes and learned about the construction of the building which was completed in 1993. The inside of the building was also very impressive and even included a Hamman in the basement. Unfortunately for MaryAnne the Hamman was just for show so she wouldn't be getting a scrub down she would have paid anything for! So needless to say after our tour we hightailed it back to the hostel so she could shower all that "good luck" off of her.
In the afternoon we went to a great restaurant called Sqala enjoyed a nice lunch and some famous Moroccan mint tea. We wandered around the Medina, passed by Ricks Cafe and had coffee in the sunshine.
So if you are wondering why I had baby wipes in my bag, let me introduce you to the pit toilet. The name is actually quite deceiving, it's actually just a pit. Even if we are lucky enough to find a real toilet I've only seen toilet paper on a few occasion. So when in Morocco it's BYOW (Bring Your Own Wipes)!