Tanjah Flandria Hotel Tangier

... left to catch a ferry to Spain, and then made<br>sure the staff provided us with copious amounts of the best tapas. Tapas are<br>free when you drink at bars here we found (something of an oasis in a<br>backpackers trek through the desert of restaurants and bars!) but he got us<br>whole fish and lots of repeat serves that night...we are sure he was mafia,<br>needless to say. We found people in Tangier generally speak four languages,<br>most of Morocco knows three, and we felt quite stoopid ...

... work. A mix of Africans, Muslims and Spanish it seems.<br>Then through the arches into the casbah marketplace which was, bloody amazing. Imagine the movie "Casablanca" I'm in it."Indiana Jones: I'm in it. "Monty Pythons Life of Brian" (half a din ah for my bloody life story:-))<br>Lunch was upstairs at a typically Moroccan restaurant. Food was great, some kind of Kebabs and the Mediterranean Chicken. Sat with a bunch of other Brits so a laugh was had by all.<br>Then ...

... and truly serious about crossing. It's a game of bluff. We travelled out to Cape Spartel, 300m above the point where the Atlantic meets the Straits of Gibraltar. It has that same eerie sort of feel that Cape Reinga in the far North of New Zealand has. You sense forces, currents and hidden power. We also had mint tea and little cakes in the cafeteria there. No special powers but the mint tea tasted very good. You'd be amazed at how many ...

... common scam around the world is for taxi drivers to tell you the hostel you are looking for is closed and they have a better hotel to show you. We said, ok well we have a reservation so take us there. The driver insisted and so did we...off we went to find out...the hostel was actually closed. We even stopped 3 different people on the street to make sure we were at the correct address. We had another address and asked to go ...

... through these narrow old streets and alleys alone, being taken to who knew where buy an 18 year old "tour guide". Every person we passed stopped and stared at me, and I was constantly harrassed by people trying to sell me stuff. I've been to places like Peru, Cambodia, India, but even these countries weren't as bad as Tangiers. I was brought into a shop and my guide said he'd be back in a minute, then disappeared for 20 ...

... take a while for us to settle into. There is nowhere else like it. We walk out onto the street outside the port area to try and get a cheaper taxi deal. A faux guide tails us straight away and trys to lure us into a deal on a hotel. I ignore his questions of where you from? and Francoise? and keep walking. Everybody thinks we are French, perhaps because recently we ate 200 snails. We definitely have snail karma. Some people are legitimately friendly ...

... all this unexpected luxury living by climbing Jebel Toubkal, Morocco's highest mountain at 4,167 metres. I set off next day, driving up into the High Atlas to a mountain village called Imlil (1740 metres), and set off for the 4-5 hour hike up to the Toubkal Refuge at around 3200 metres. Next morning all my room mates in the dormitory leave about 5am to see the sunrise but I sleep in until about 9am and take off alone up the track. I don't have a map with me (you've heard this ...

... l'entrée, en arabe. Lire l'arabe, lettre par lettre. Zhal, Alef, Dhal... Zaa'had ou Zahad ou Zaaaaaaaaaaaad ? Cours d'arabe par Youssef, écouté par ses domestiques, derrière. Gentil, Youssef: Il va égorger un lapin pour nous. Penser à Laurence. "Tu es chrétien ? -Non. -Muslim ? -Non. Je crois pas en Dieu." Les yeux en point d'interrogation de Youssef. "Dieu te pardonne, tu es une bonne personne, intelligent. Reprend du thé". Je pense ...

... dessert similar to sopapillas. I had some of the bread, couscous and dessert. I was reluctant to try the other dishes since the guidebooks all warned that intestinal illnesses among travelers to Moroccan were quite common (we ran into one guy from our group on our bus ride to Ronda that had become very ill). Lee sampled everything and found them good although I don´t think they were as spicy as we expected. We did get to have Cokes with lunch with ¨Coke ...

... attract mosquitoes, have dermatitis, get stressed out or be sea/air sick... Then, of course, we had the opportunity to purchase these herbs at startlingly cheap prices. I bought the snoring one... LOL! The street sellers were shocking. They just wouldn't stop. Shoving bags, jewellery, clothes, plates, silver teapots, anything and everything in front of your face and saying 'how much lady? how much?' 'very cheap for you lady' 'good souvenir lady'. I tried everything, from ...