Tangier, Morocco:
I decided that I would be severely disappointed with myself if I left Spain without taking a trip to Morocco. It is basically the easiest country to access from Cadiz, even though it’s on an entirely different continent. So we took a 1.5-hour bus ride to the port, boarded the ferry, and showed our passports; 35 minutes later (and feeling slightly seasick), I arrived in Tangier! As a group of three American girls, we had gone the safe route and gotten a tour guide to show us around the city. Soon we were off (in a random bus) to the old part of town.
Tangier was truly great and I was really impressed by the city. On the walk through the impossibly narrow streets, I saw homes with amazingly intricate rugs draped out the windows. I saw some gorgeous architecture, adorable kids playing and riding bikes, women in traditional garb selling food, and some seriously persistent vendors waiting for me to give in. I learned a lot from the tour guide, too. There are public “baths” where people can go to get water on a daily basis. There are also communal ovens; if you bring dough for bread, you can get some freshly baked bread in return. Also, education there is free from kindergarten all the way through college (hmm…wouldn’t that be nice?). Apparently Tangier had been disregarded as an uninteresting border city for years until its current prime minister decided to do something to improve it. Seems to me like it’s been working.
Three of my favorite stops on the tour were:
Tarifa, Spain:
Randomly, in our hostel on Saturday night, the Pacific Northwest was overwhelmingly represented: Seattle, Bellingham, Anacortes, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Olympia, etc. It was great.
Tarifa is a cute little town in southern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and holds the wind-surfing world championships every year. And that’s about it.
Gibraltar, UK:
What a random, bizarre place this is. Honestly. It’s a territory of the United Kingdom and it is tiny. The border crossing is a complete joke. They speak English with a British accent but also speak Spanish (with a British accent as well). John Lennon got married there. You can eat “traditional British fish and chips” everywhere. And you can climb the rock of Gibraltar and see monkeys. Yes, monkeys.
I got robbed by a monkey, in fact.
We were taking photos of a large monkey who was just sitting on a railing overlooking the strait. I started to take off my backpack in order to get a good photo, when the monkey suddenly started walking quickly towards me determinedly. It grabbed at my backpack until I had it all the way off, then opened it, found my lunch, and ran off with it. It was amazing. And a little bit scary.
All in all, it was a successful, exhausting weekend.
I decided that I would be severely disappointed with myself if I left Spain without taking a trip to Morocco. It is basically the easiest country to access from Cadiz, even though it’s on an entirely different continent. So we took a 1.5-hour bus ride to the port, boarded the ferry, and showed our passports; 35 minutes later (and feeling slightly seasick), I arrived in Tangier! As a group of three American girls, we had gone the safe route and gotten a tour guide to show us around the city. Soon we were off (in a random bus) to the old part of town.
Tangier was truly great and I was really impressed by the city. On the walk through the impossibly narrow streets, I saw homes with amazingly intricate rugs draped out the windows. I saw some gorgeous architecture, adorable kids playing and riding bikes, women in traditional garb selling food, and some seriously persistent vendors waiting for me to give in. I learned a lot from the tour guide, too. There are public “baths” where people can go to get water on a daily basis. There are also communal ovens; if you bring dough for bread, you can get some freshly baked bread in return. Also, education there is free from kindergarten all the way through college (hmm…wouldn’t that be nice?). Apparently Tangier had been disregarded as an uninteresting border city for years until its current prime minister decided to do something to improve it. Seems to me like it’s been working.
Three of my favorite stops on the tour were:
- A rug and tapestry shop: after listening to the owners talk about how everything was traditionally made and designed, I decided to buy one. The guy who was trying desperately to sell me a tapestry (make that several tapestries) had also decided to invite me to marry his son. He said, after obviously checking to make sure I had no wedding band, that I needed a strong man in my life. I burst out laughing. I finally bought a wall-hanging and walked away. Then I heard “Hey! Woman! I give you my business card and the email of my son!” It was a memorable experience, to say the least.
- A medicinal plant shop: a man was selling us all sorts of herbs to prevent against stress, insomnia, constipation, dry skin, etc. The best part was that he was very likely the most distressed and intense individual I’ve ever seen in my life.
- An adorable little Moroccan restaurant: we ate couscous and drank mint tea and Coca-Cola (in bottles with Arabic characters!) while listening to a lively Moroccan band.
- Oh, I forgot the camels!
Tarifa, Spain:
Randomly, in our hostel on Saturday night, the Pacific Northwest was overwhelmingly represented: Seattle, Bellingham, Anacortes, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Olympia, etc. It was great.
Tarifa is a cute little town in southern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and holds the wind-surfing world championships every year. And that’s about it.
Gibraltar, UK:
What a random, bizarre place this is. Honestly. It’s a territory of the United Kingdom and it is tiny. The border crossing is a complete joke. They speak English with a British accent but also speak Spanish (with a British accent as well). John Lennon got married there. You can eat “traditional British fish and chips” everywhere. And you can climb the rock of Gibraltar and see monkeys. Yes, monkeys.
I got robbed by a monkey, in fact.
We were taking photos of a large monkey who was just sitting on a railing overlooking the strait. I started to take off my backpack in order to get a good photo, when the monkey suddenly started walking quickly towards me determinedly. It grabbed at my backpack until I had it all the way off, then opened it, found my lunch, and ran off with it. It was amazing. And a little bit scary.
All in all, it was a successful, exhausting weekend.
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