Tarifa Hotel & Complex Tangier

... rank. We gave up any hope of getting to Fez that day, and
decided to stop for the night at the town of Meknes, a laidback imperial town
an hour and a bit from Fes. A girl who shared our train carriage for the
previous few hours was from that area, so we thought we would give it a go. We told the taxi
driver that was where we wanted to go and we were off. But only for about 2
kilometres until he chucked us out on a dirt road, surrounded by old Mercedes
Benz’s and ...

Well I'm sure most of you can guess that we got into some sort of crazy situation on the first night of our world tour. Even Elise was feeling tired and I was happy to hear her say we'd spend the night just relaxing and recuperating to face the world the next day. But Ramdane would have none of this; he informed us we, and Ramdane's assistant, Pauline, were being taken to a birthday party by his friend Mohamed. Around 10 o'clock Mohamed came to pick us up and after a delicious ...

... I had just woken up, was still a bit groggy, and wasn't really prepared for the whole Spanish-speaking thing, it proved to be a little difficult. Nonetheless, it got accomplished ... then I was on my way to Malaga to meet up with Erin, Sarah, and Melinda (Sarah's friend from StL). When I got there, the girls were still on their day trip. However, I was ...

... it was a good warning to us about how the rest of the weekend would proceed. We arrived in Tetuán just in time for a tour of the school of arts there and then we took a trip through the Medina (town center). Talk about a shock! There were cats everywhere, fly covered pastries, eels being chopped up, chickens being thrown into black plastic bags still alive, beggers....it was quite a shocking site. I just tryed to act normal...even though deep ...

... muslim. We are so very ignorant. But, now we know, all respect to the Muslim culture. Properly observing the fast is meant to induce a comfortable feeling of peace and calm but in fact everyone is angry with a temper with their voices yelling competitively at increasingly high decibel levels. They are all hungry, tired, horny, thirsty and in the midst of the effects of serious nicotene withdrawls. The hookahs are empty. The internet woman has just ...

... a man virtually impossible to speak to women) means that I can only have the vaguest idea of what life is really like here. Nevertheless it's been a colourful and fascinating experience and has made me curious to know more - hopefully I will visit another time. A couple of random thoughts and comments: Food - I was a bit disappointed with the relative lack of variety of food (I can only comment on restaurants and eating houses) - generally it was a choice of tagine, tagine ...

... 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 my ...

... and we had to wade through the puddles. Animal carcasses were hanging everywhere and the meat was being prepared out in the streets as laden donkeys brushed past. On one stall where they were selling goats brains, I watched a man run his knife along the forehead of a goats head, peeling back the skin. Flies were everywhere and cakes were covered in honeybees. In amongst all the food stalls there were barber shops and smoky ...

... seem to be worth approximately 1 Euros, (and one Euro these days is worth,, er,, not much. somewhere around 75 cents.) we had had some work done on the bike in Spain, and as usual, we find screws loose, pieces broken an/or not put back together properly. We stopped at a garage to borrow a wrench to tighten the bolts, then discover the mount for one of our pannier bags is damaged, but luckily the bag stays on until we get to our destination.

... and tourists, donkeys serve as the main method of transportation (motorized transport is not allowed within the walls). It is full of sights, smells, and colors. It is at the same time enticing and intimidating. Our tour gide was very brisk, explaining a building there, a mosque there, a gate here. As we found out the main point of the tour was yet to come. I wish that I could have been invisible and wander the medina taking pictures. But I feel uncomfortable snapping away ...