Tangier

Finally, the last of the series - 6 months after our trip.

From Fes, it was a 7 hour train ride to Tangier. We originally planned to take the train at night, but since our Fes trip was cut short, we took the one in the afternoon.

From my previous blog entry, I advised to get a seat on first class. But for the trip, we only got second-class tickets since it was unplanned. It was hot and sticky thought it was not as bad as I expected. Yes, it was a grueling 7 hours, but with the comforts of coke, plus a little bit of crazy antics like running on the side of the train made the trip more pleasant.

Tangier is in the coast of Morocco and situated near the Strait of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea. It doesn’t have the “old city” feel of Morocco and Fes because of the towering buildings, coastal roads decorated with palm trees, fancy restaurants, bars & fast food chains.Tangier was “European Morocco” to put it more blatantly.  Yet,Tangier still charms, for me, through its white buildings that blends well with the blue coastal waters.

We were lucky to get a room at Hotel Tarik even though we didn’t book. The hotel is old but well-situated along the seacoast. And we had the comforts that we didn’t have in the past hostels, like our own airconditioned room, with television and clean showers. My only complaint though was that the beds have bedbugs, which made our sleep uncomfortable.

We dropped our bags and headed off to the city to eat (guess where? McDonalds). We didn’t wander the city, since we were tired still from Fez. So we headed off to the hotel, sat near the coast with beers and just relaxed.



The next day, we went to the Kasbah on top of the Tangier medina, the place had a nice view of the Gibraltar strait but the Kasbah itself was not that spectacular. After, we went to the market to get some last-minute souvenirs then head back to our hotel. We decided to swim at the coast, but the water was cold (even at June) and dirty, so not really the tropical beach we were expecting. After a quick dip, we packed our stuff and went to the airport.







To cap off, our Morocco trip was 7 days of action-filled traveling, from navigating the medinas of Marrakesh and Fes, trekking the Sahara desert and the Atlas Mountains, and swimming the coasts of Essaouira and Tangier. We met a lot of people, from our fellow travelers, taxi drivers, guides and those random strangers who are eager to give us a hand. My excellent perception of Morocco still stands, even 6 months after our trip, and perhaps will remain for years to come. That’s why I decided to keep these entries, no matter how naïve or shallow my entries can be, it will help keep these memories alive.



I also discovered a lot from myself, from how I act and I adjust to fit certain kinds of environment with little difficulty.

Fez

The train to Fez took almost 6 hours. If you plan to go, I suggest that if there’s a chance; get a sit on the first class as it will be more comfortable. With 35C outside, an extra 10 euros for first class was not that bad.

In Moroccan trains, you are expected to talk to your seatmates, not like in Belgium, where you just sit, keep quiet and wait. But when travelling for 6 hours, you can’t miss out talking to people. On our train to Fez, we met this man who worked for the Moroccan government and opted to talk to us to improve his English. He was nice to help us around and give us some tips, at the same time, we hoped that we helped him on his English.



Six hours came fast as we switched from talking, eating then sleeping. We got into Fez around 8 in the evening, we planned to go around the city, but as it was raining, we decided to head-off to our hostel.

We stayed in a hostel called Fes Youth Hostel, it was cheap – only 6 euros per person. But you get what you pay for, the beds are plain, the toilet is clean but looked like it was built in the 50s and the worst part was that the rooms smelled like paint. Since it was raining the entire night, we decided to get some rest to prepare for the next day.

We woke up early in the morning, and we got breakfast from our hostel which was hefty amount of freshly cooked bread. We decided to take a tour of the Fez medina and we considered getting a tour guide which our hostel manager suggested. We paid 15 euros each (we were two people)



The Fez medina, a UNESCO world heritage site, is the oldest and the most unspoiled medina in Marrakesh. Walking there felt like walking back in time, you can just feel that the place stand for ages. In Fez, we saw the famous tanneries, the first thing that comes to my mind when you speak about Morocco before. It was more exotic than Marrakesh, with everything looking authentic.





The tanneries for me were the highlight of Fes, so it was of course the place that I enjoyed seeing the most.

But even though we saw some good sites, we felt that we were tricked. Our guide, who brought us to some sites, but most of the time, he brought us to shopping places – to people selling carpets, porcelain, woodwork, metal and leather. As we didn’t have extra money – it never came to our mind that we will be buying 200 euros leather jacket. Our guide looked disappointed as we didn’t buy anything, cause I bet he will get a commission.



Our tour guide, after a few more stops, called it a day and brought us to his car to give our stuff. It was only 12 noon and as we haven’t explored Fes much, we would have opted to go around. But since we weren’t able to leave our luggage in our hostel, we have to carry it, so we decided to head on the station to catch the train to Tangier.



To summarise, Fes is an amazing city and I believe that our trip would have been eventful if we wouldn’t have chosen the wrong path to explore it.