I spent a good two months dillying over whether I wanted to go to Casablanca for a weekend, and another month dallying over whether I should spend a night there before I flew out. It took me deciding between finishing packing or taking a nap to finally decide that nah, I was just going to skip it. Because naps.

The general consensus from almost everyone I asked was that the only thing really worth seeing in Casablanca is the mosque. So I decided I’d leave early the day I flew out and if the airport had left luggage, I’d go see the mosque. Of course, the amount of bureaucracy it took to check out of the university and then an unfortunate arrival time to the train station lost me two hours left me with less time than I planned, so I thought I’d skip it–after all, I’d seen the Abu Dhabi Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, and even the biggest mosque in North Africa couldn’t beat that.

But of course, my impulses took over, and I found myself haggling a taxi driver into taking me there and back to the train station before I embarked to the airport.

The Abu Dhabi mosque is more stunning. My favourite mosque is still Mausoleum of Shah-e Cheragh in Iran. But this was well worth my time and money, absolutely gorgeous and grandiose.

Walking up was probably the most intimidating part of the mosque. It took me at least three minutes speed walking to make it from the edge of the courtyard to the actual mosque itself. It’s situated right next to the ocean, so I was able to stand on the edge and breathe in the ocean air before exploring more.

Though I didn’t take the tour due to time (and money) constraints, I poked my head in where there was construction going on and gaped at the huge hall I saw.

From what I’ve heard and from what I saw in the brief ride through the city, Casablanca is a better place to go if one’s visiting friends; however, the mosque was another example of gorgeous Islamic architecture.