Tangier (1.9. - 5.9.2018)

Saturday, 01.09.2018

It rained in Essaouira during the night and according to the weather forecast, the city can expect a few cold, foggy days. However, the Atlantic wind is driving us further north, beyond Marrakech and Casablanca.

Part 1 of the route: Bus to Marrakech. Although it was cool on the bus, the three-hour journey went smoothly. The only issue was the five-year-old girl in front of us who was extremely bored. After staring at my hair for over 20 minutes, she slowly but surely started sticking her thin arms through the seats to touch my phone screen and my backpack. I was too tired for this game, so she turned her attention to my seat neighbor. She set the air conditioning to blow cold air on Leon from above, giving him goosebumps all over his body. And then he made a big mistake: he joined her game... and lost. Oops. But Leon was my hero that day because he effortlessly led us to the right train to Marrakech! Moroccans take their seat reservations very seriously, but even these initial difficulties were quickly resolved. We sat in a compartment with a lovely older lady from Canada who was traveling the same route as us. Together with her, we braved the chaos at the train station in Casablanca and she invited us for a coffee while waiting. By the way, the taxis in Casablanca are red, not yellow like in Fes or green like in Essaouira. Boarding the train to Tangier proved to be a small challenge because there was no direct path to the platform - we had to cross the tracks. But once we were on the train, we sank into the cushioned seats of our overcrowded compartment, where we were surrounded by flies for hours. Did we really stink that bad??? Overall, the journey north went smoother than expected. Only after sunset did it become unbearable on the train. The air conditioning failed, children cried, everyone sweated, and we all got hungry (we shared our chips). We ran out of water and, above all, we were dog tired. We finally arrived in Tangier around midnight, fought off the rip-off taxi drivers with our travel companion Pam, and luckily convinced a blue taxi on the side of the road to take us. The driver and Pam got along great: she entertained the entire taxi and the gray-bearded driver enjoyed her attention so much that he almost took out several pedestrians. We left the taxi at Pam's hotel for a bargain price of €3 and walked the last few meters. Our riad was supposed to be just around the corner, but we lost our way in the many corners and alleys of the Tangier Medina - even the GPS was confused. So we kept circling closer and closer to our destination until we finally reached it in a spiral. Mission completed! We both breathed a sigh of relief when the riad door closed behind us. At night, you can see some pretty shady characters out there in the haze of hashish smoke. The accommodation was really crappy in every way, but we didn't care. Sleep was definitely the top priority.

Sunday, 02.09.2018

The next morning, we woke up very early and couldn't wait to exchange this emergency accommodation for a nice one. That's why we set off right after breakfast. If we had known that the path would only go uphill - and with heavy backpacks in this heat - we would have definitely taken a taxi. Completely soaked and taught a lesson, we reached the Villa de France, a 5-star hotel. Oh boy, I don't even want to remember how we were scrutinized, all sweaty and with backpacks. We obviously didn't fit their usual clientele. But we're tired from traveling around and will spend a few peaceful days by the pool here. While waiting for our room to be ready, we visited the Ville Nouvelle, the new town, and in the evening the Medina and the harbor, where we had a small snack. We were prepared for there to be a lot of drug dealers here, but we didn't expect there to be SO many and the dealing to be SO obvious. They make themselves comfortable on the grass like during Oktoberfest in Munich and the party begins. We politely declined the friendly offer of marijuana several times because all we needed was a big dose of sleep.

Monday, 03.09.2018, Tuesday, 04.09.2018, Wednesday, 05.09.2018

The next two days went exactly the same way: After breakfast, we spent time by the pool until we had enough sun and swimming, then we took a little nap or watched a movie in our room, and in the evening we went to the Medina for sunset and dinner by the harbor. In between, we organized our onward journey to Seville and our stay there. All in all, two pretty unspectacular days that we really needed after all the traveling in this special country. Apart from the incredibly cheap prices, we were particularly impressed by the variety and polarity of Morocco: decaying old towns next to modern new buildings, the desert not far from the popular surfing coast, the conservative south vs the western-influenced north, many friendly people, and at the same time, the guests are ripped off wherever possible - truly fascinating and at the same time shocking. Sometimes we were really fed up with this mentality. That's why we're looking forward to Spain's "icing on the cake" - Seville, where we arrived on September 5, 2018, at night after another long journey (ferry, bus).