Dar Nilam Tangier

... here, Sebastien, and his wife Clementine. We packed up our bags so they could have the guest house and made the move into a beautiful appartment on the highest hill in the Kasbah overlooking the entire city. The next day we wanted to visit a hamam, a traditional bathouse. There were only two in our guidebook, and we picked the nicer of the two feeling we needed a bit more pampering. When we arrived however, it was in a hotel where you needed a swimsuit and a reservation so ...

... and stopped at every town and for everybody on the side of the road who even looked like they were going to scratch their nose. Once in Casablanca we walked across the bus park onto a connecting bus and thankfully that was all we saw of Casablanca. Men were in punch ups and the whole vibe was very aggressive. Once in Asilah, a tout took us to a room in the unmarked Hotel Fatima that had good views to the ocean and was in the medina. We ...

... how tired we all were, and how amazing this experience was. It was also full of much more self-disclosure than had been the case earlier in the trip, at least with me. I learned from a couple of participants that having traveled with my husband had opened their eyes to gay couples, and two other participants talked to me about their gay relatives. We had a great dinner at the hotel, one last closing circle, and then a 3:30am wake up call to catch a bus back to ...

... dumped us off in the "center" (actually right at the edge of the town) and pretended he didn't have the appropriate change for our money in a not-so-subtle effort to get the rate he originally wanted.  We finally paid him in euros and said good riddance.  Next we needed to find somewhere to stay.  The hotels for tourists are few and far in between, so good rates are very difficult to find.  Again armed with knowledge from Diana's experience in Tunisia ...

... Sea was not rough at all, so it was a very smooth ride!! The sun glistened off of the water, until it went down behind the mountains and became dark. Shortly after, only 40 minutes on the ferry, we arrived in Ceuta, Spain, the port in Africa. Yes, Spain, because there are 2 points in northern Africa that are Spanish territory. After getting off the boat, the group gathered and we got on a bus to Tetouan, Morocco, about an hour and a half drive from ...

... lunch; we checked into our hotel ready to explore. Now the city itself seems to be built into a hill, a very big hill. Tiny cobble-paved alleyways, leading to uneven stairs, at 45 degree angles, meant that there were never a lack dull moments for me, but we picked our way down the stairs towards the medina . Since I've come to Morocco I haven't done much shopping, I find bartering to be more stressful then fun, although I enjoy any chance I have to improve ...

... banker.) He took out a large Cobra first that moved around a little. I expected him to play the flute but there was no music. The snake charmer barely moved but I guess that was enough to charm the snake. The second snake was a large garden snake that wiggled around some. The high point of the visit was allowing people to have their photo taken with a snake around their neck (albeit a garden snake). Lee did it resulting in a cool photo. We walked through ...

... to take another overnight train into the centre of Marrakesh and emerge bleary eyed into another unfamiliar city (plan A).  Instead we had a leisurely morning at the hostel, and caught a bus to Assilah (one hour further south along the coast) where we are now (plan B). Assilah is much more laid back.  We have even had a whole (very pleasant) conversation with one of the locals that did not involve any attempt to sell us accomodation, food, goods, a ...