Hotel Charf Tangier

... prices had jumped about 20% but we were so
tired we took it anyway - it was close the train station. After we checked in
we went in search for food, found a pizza place but as they weren’t serving
pizza until later, we had a beer instead. Moroccan beer is good, but as it is a
Islamic country you can’t get it in the Medina’s or anywhere near Mosque’s.
This is why Ville Nouvelle’s (new towns) are very handy. We walked around for a
while, had ...

Yesterday we spent the day in Tangier, Morocco.

You can see Africa from our campsite. Russell pointed out that we are closer to Africa (15km accross the Straight of Gibraltar) than St. Paul is to Elk Point.

We took the so-called Fast Ferry (which occasionally lives up to the name) from Tarifa to Tangier, Morocco. It took about an hour to get accross. 55 Euros per person return. Ouch.

So we disembarked ...

... 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 ...

... top. We had really high hopes as we approached Tangier. It looked really beautiful! We got on another bus that drove us around the newer areas of Tangier. They showed us the point where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean meet and even had a place where people could pay to ride camels. Then we went on a walking tour of the old city and the Kasba. We weren ...

... pants do a fire dance. We applauded as we gasped with excitement everytime he did a flip or threw fire into the air. The whole inside of the restaurant was made of pillows, silk and wood....if he dropped one of those candles the whole place would have gone up in flames! Thankfully he was skilled enough that we ended lunch and left the restaurant without any burns or injuries. We navigated our way through the market, back past the eels, jilab ...

... can smell all the food cooking and follow our noses down some alleyways in search of dinner. We realise that all the restaurants are filled with men scoffing food and find it a little intimidating to enter knowing that there are many male only venues in Morocco. We take our chances on a small place serving traditional Moroccan fare and order a meatball tajine that comes out as lamb and a bowl of the tasty Moroccan soup. You cant eat or touch communal ...

... point where the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans meet (or supposedly so). There's a nice lighthouse there. We stopped there to eat lunch. Afterwards, several people chose to go on touristy camel rides, but I thought it was a waste, plus the animals looked miserable.

Again, Kiwi Pat saves the day, and we take another look around our surroundings, but this time we headed across the strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco. Des, our Scottish pal went to England yesterday, so this time, we brought Oleg, a pal from Turkmenistan and drove about an hour to Tarifa to catch the ferry to Tangier. It was a pretty reasonable cost (58 Euro), which included the ferry ride and a guided bus tour ...

... Bureau because we thought it would be a good place to find a rental car - or a train ticket. Of course we didn't have a guidebook, a map, OR a clue that today was Sunday. Tourist Bureau was closed, and the cab was gone, but a helpful guide offered to show us the sights. I sighted a Budget rental car sign and we ran to it. It was closed. But the one next ...

... are politeness and guilt. They use politeness to get you talking. When the choice is between being "rude" and walking away or taking that outstretched hand, most people will take the hand. The second trick is the guilt we feel about taking someone's time. The idea is that, well, after all this time and energy he's spent on me I should buy something at least. They know this and they use it against you. Our friend was friendly, perky, and knowledgeable. He started off by showing us ...