When I pictured Casablanca in my head, I saw a sea of white art deco buildings against blue waters along a long luscious beach.  I was not quite right.  Not that Meggan and I were disappointed, but Casablanca is very different that what we expected.  Rather than a quaint beach town, this is a sprawling city of 3.5 million people, the largest in Morocco.  The art deco is there if you look past the congestion of the traffic.  Along the water front, there are many hotels, but very few have access to the beach.  They have either sectioned off a man-made beach area or have a pool view of the beach.  The beach seems to be the training ground of local footballers.  Every morning and evening there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of guys and their teams running, practicing and scrimmaging up and down the beach.  This was fun to watch from the hotel, but I did feel a little disconected. Medinas are common for cities in Morocco.  Medinas are the original parts of a town fortified with walls and have narrow alleys wide enough for burros, but not cars.  Casablanca's medina is not one of the largest in Morocco, but it was a good taste of what madinas are like.  It was filled with little shops with wheeling dealing merchants.  The products ranged from silk bed covering and rugs to tin lamps.  There is also a food section of the medina.  We heard that each city is known for a particular item of food.  Casablanca is the only place you can find Camel burgers.  The grill stands were absolutely slammed with locals.  Unfortunealy, I never got to try one.  I fully intended to after some Facebook friends encouragemnet, but didn't realize that that would be the last time I'd see camel burgers for sale during our stay in Morocco.  Next time, really.