Morocco

The trip to Morocco deserves a little more description since we didn't take many pictures, it didn't feel safe/appropriate to have our cameras out. The city is often described as having old world charm, being a place full of hustlers and hagglers and definitely revealing a different side of the region.

Our trip started with a ferry trip across the Mediterranean from Algeciras, which was over an hour late (but we did get a great view of the Rock of Gibraltar). When we finally docked, we realized that we had ended up 50km away from the city of Tangier. This was both confusing and slightly alarming to us as our hotel boasted being a couple hundred meters away from the port! It turns out that in late '07 (just after our guide book was published!) a new port called Tangier Med was built to handle all traffic from Algeciras!! Ooops. Once we eventually made it to Tangier, we were (or at least I was) surprised at just how different it was from where we had been. "Old world" was true, things were very old... and run down. "Hustlers and hagglers" were in no short supply! Everywhere you turned there was someone offering to help with your bags (for a price) or show you the town (for a price)... But, the shops, restaurants, markets etc. were full of North African flair with so many new sights and scents. We had a great time wandering the Medina and we definitely "rocked the Kasbah" ;) while keeping our belongings clear of pick-pocketers. Our hotel was great, right on the edge of the old Medina and it had a great bazar on the main floor that I could have spent days digging through!

The trip back to Algeciras was another story. There was a huge wind storm in the area and we were worried that the boats wouldn't sail, but they did... half an hour late. It turns out there's no such thing as a schedule in Tangier. Anyways, the wind. We're talking extreme gale force winds. BC Ferries would have cancelled everything in these conditions, but not the Med ferries. Nope, they just plowed right through it. We must have sailed through 30ft swells! People were getting sick all over the boat, dishes were breaking in the galley and any furniture not bolted down was flopped over. We'd look out the window and see ocean, then sky, then ocean, then sky. It took at least an hour to cross and if I hadn't put myself into a Gravol-induced coma I wouldn't have made it!

All in all, the most eventful/interesting part of our trip so far.

Here are some of the pics we got from Tangier:

Me at a high point in the Medina, very windy that day!




One of the 375 incredibly narrow "streets" in the Kasbah.




Part of the harbor/port, view from our room (this is one that the ferry used to go to!)




Bye for now,
Michaela