We spent our final day in Morocco in Casablanca, as our flight to Dakar didn’t leave until 11pm that evening. Our expectations for “Casa,” as everyone calls it, were not that high. While the city is very crowded and European and does not have the character of Marrakech or Essaouira, we still enjoyed seeing another side to the country. We were also excited because we knew that in a few hours we would finally be in Senegal.

We had two bibles in Morocco: The Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide. Both are travel guides packed with useful insight and travel details. Nothing, however, can replace the advice and knowledge of a local, so when one friendly taxi driver told us this restaurant was good, we believed him. He was right. Not only was the food good, but the owner later brought out a huge fruit platter, on the house. He also took this picture of us.

By the time we reached Casa, we had accepted the fact that heat was going to be a fact of life for us on this trip. Today, however, we had an extra burden. We had already checked in our luggage at the city air terminal (no taxi drivers seemed to know where it was located — it took us three tries to finally find it). However, our backpacks, heavy with books and our laptops, were carry-on, and we had to lug them all over Casa. Here, we finally made it to the Hassan II mosque, one of the worl’d largest.

The Hassan II mosque is one of the few in Morocco to allow non-muslim inside, so naturally we were eager to go in. Plus, it was cool and we could temporarily relieve ourselves of our heavy bags (there was a safe storage area). Practical matters are often first priority to backpackers.