It's not that I waited the last 4 months ONLY to get to Casablanca and relive Boghart's lines "here's looking at you, kid" and singing "As time goes by" inside Rick's bar. But I did watch the film (we're talking black and white on an iPad) the night before we arrived here to make sure I remembered the scenery to relive the film. So I was gob-smacked when I realized what I thought happened making the film here and the actual production we're totally different.
This movie, winner of 3 Academy Awards, was filmed during the Second World War in 1942. It turns out the entire picture was shot in a California Hollywood studio (airport views which were also shot in L.A). The horrific news for me was that Rick's bar never existed in Casablanca- ever!
It was only in 2004, when some bright person decided to cash in on the Hollywood classic that Casablanca got Rick's bar. She built what looked like the bar, lounge and restaurant (it's not remotely authentic).
But this really wasn't the reason at all on why we came to Casablanca- it's really the start of our African tour. There's the Haddan II mosque, second largest mosque in the world and gorgeous:
There's the fish market which operates throughout the year:
With a population of about 4 million, Casablanca is considered the economic and business centre of Morocco. It's also the start of 'bartering' which is what we'll be doing probably till the end of this year while travelling Africa and Asia. As an example, we needed a cab today and the guy said 300 dirhams; then he quickly dropped it in half to 150; I balked and he said 100 which I thought was a good price. Later in the day, in talking to another driver, he said the ride should have cost us 60... This is going to be fun!!
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