Morocco 2010 trip report - Tangier

I woke up in the grass at around 4 am and started stuffing everything possible into my pockets once again. Queues at the airport were fairly long and I turned some heads in my two jackets, long trousers and hiking boots. At around 7 am local time I was on my way to even hotter Tangier and Morocco.

Searching for a hotel

As usual I didn't have any hotel reserved in Morocco and I kind of felt like taking a shower so finding one was the number one priority after arriving at the airport. The Finnish people don't need any visa to Morocco but I had to fill in an immigration card. Unlike in for example Ukraine, they didn't give me any part of the card and that puzzled me a bit. On my way out from Morocco I had to fill in the same card again, which felt a bit useless.

The only way to get from Tangier airport to the center is to take a taxi (or to walk, duh). There are no buses. The taxi ride costs between 100 and 150 dirhams (10 - 15 euros back then). I was lucky to meet a nice couple from Poland who wanted to share the taxi with me. The driver wanted 150 dh so it was 50 dh a head - a lot better than 150 dh anyway.

While we were getting out of the taxi the driver pointed directions to the railway station and bus station and drove off. The Polish couple headed for the bus station and we departed. I was left alone with my crappy self-printed black'n'white map of Tangier and had no idea where to find a hotel. I decided to try my luck by the coast and after that in the old town, also known as medina.

A man and his cart going against all the traffic

It took me maybe thirty minutes to walk to the coast. The first two hotels I found were too fancy and expensive for me so I headed towards medina. As soon as I got there some local fellow approached me and offered me his help. I had read about these guys beforehand and the first thing I did was enquiring about the price of his help. He was at least honest about it and said 10 dh. I was too tired to argue at that point so off we went.

The local guy showed me a hotel nearby and bargained the price down a bit. In the end I had to pay 80 dh for the night, which wasn't a total disaster I think. The hotel was pretty ugly and the staff didn't speak a word English but at least I had a bed to sleep in. At this point I already felt like sleeping but my local guide insisted on showing me the city so I agreed to go with him.

Moroccan whiskey

Soon after leaving the hotel I understood what Wikitravel had meant when they wrote 'get lost in medina'. Even after being to places like Venice the medinas in Morocco felt like labyrinths. Usually I was able to lose my sense of direction within ten minutes. The local guy was guiding me through the insane traffic and narrow streets and told that we should go to a cafe to drink 'Moroccan whiskey'. I told him that I don't drink alcohol, only to find out seconds later that 'Moroccan whiskey' is actually their nickname for mint tea.

I had read about the dangers in Morocco and one of them is to get drugged and robbed afterwards (special greetings to Pate). I was a bit hesitant to drink the mint tea at first but as I didn't taste any salt in it (one of the distinctive signs to look for when worried about being drugged by liquids) I decided to drink it all. Moroccan whiskey proved to be really tasty and the perhaps the best tea I know. It seems like the muslims know how to make tea since the best tea I knew of before this was the apple tea from Turkey.

The central square of the old town

While drinking the tea I learned the one and only Arabic word I would learn during the whole trip: shukran, meaning thank you. After the cafe we walked around the medina and through a Berber market there. Berbers are the original people of Morocco by the way - they aren't Arabs. Finally we were back at the hotel and I paid the guy 20 dh and took off. A quick shower and a lot needed rest.

I woke up some hours later. The sun had already gone considerably lower and it wasn't as burning hot as during the midday. A good time for walking! I headed towards the inner parts of medina and was disturbed by numerous locals offering this and that. Some of them were actually selling something or offering taxi rides, the others just begged for money or wanted money for 'talking' or 'guidance'. It felt like I couldn't stop for a second without being approached by someone and it was getting on my nerves.

Desperately I tried to get away from all the people and finally I found a nice and quiet street outside the very center of old town. For a while I was walking alone but then again someone was yelling after me. I thought 'not again' but this time it was another tourist, a guy named Joad. Originally from Iraq, nowadays living in the Netherlands he found Morocco very fascinating and was there already for the second time. We walked and talked for the whole evening and decided to travel together on the next day too. The highlight of the evening was the fish market with its strong, almost horrible, smell and all the weird sea creatures lying around.

A tower somewhere in the Tangier medina

Some products of the sea on the fish market