Population: + 700,000
Tanger, Morocco. Where's that, you say? Well, its on the very northwesternmost tip of Africa, right below Spain, and its where Ryanair goes cheap from Marseille. It is also where me and two of my friends spent an amazing three days this past weekend. Here's a recap:
So we get on this plane, early, as usual, to go to Tanger, fifth largest city in Morocco, second largest industriel city after Casablanca. It's near Spain so we hear everyone speaks Spanish, some French, and Arabic of course, maybe english? Turns out everyone speaks Arabic, just arabic, and you have some people that know elementary french and even more elementary spanish, so communication was a little difficult, but I think we had the most native experience of any of our trips which made it soo good. We stayed at some guy's house that we found through couchsurfing, this 27year old sociology student who lives with his family a few kilometers out of the center city. But to backtrack- Ryanair is my hero,we get there twenty five minutes ahead of schedule (coming back we got home like thirtyfive minutes ahead of schedule and everyone starts clapping five times over and they're reeling off the names of the captain and crew and where they're from and it was very very funny, like the end of a play. So the airport's nice, clean, you have guards in the same uniforms as policemen you'd see in the street monitoring traffic, these really formal suits with pilot hats, black boots, etc, and you walk out of the airport and see palm trees and blue sky and plains that are really pretty greens and misty orange. Theres really no public transportation, one bus that goes a little ways out of the city, but from the airport we took a taxi that was a put put car, you jostled everytime we hit a bump and could hear the otor going put put, no door handles, reupholstered several times...you get the idea. So we give the guy the address and lo and behold he has no clue where it is...not such a good start. On top of which the host doesnt pick up his phone, so we drive around for a good hour and a half, picking up friends of the taxi drivers and asking them where they think it might be, finally arriving to the proximity of the house and finding his friends who agree to take us off the taxi driver's hands and show us around. We pay the driver double what the normal rate is in dirhams (he told us to) and get out, meet up with two of our host's friends who show us to one of their homes which is connected to his tailor shop-this little storefront with torn out pics from magazines of guys in suits, a little stereo to listen to music, a workbench, and lots of woodshavings on the floor that we have not clue from whence they came. We sit there, a little worried about the situation, but its all good and the guy comes back after a while with croissants and mint tea, the traditional drink of North Africa, and we have this deliciously sweet tea and croissants which was just what we needed, then we leave our stuff to take a tour of the city. Out of the main city where this guy lives its a town that he calls middle/poor economically, lots of windy streets with mud everywhere, paved roads but pavement is cracked and uneven, there are people with mats and storefronts selling all this bread and candy and other stuff and tons of little kids running around everywhere doing cartwheels in the middle of the street and of course looking at us the only tourists, a donkey cart rolled by once, you had banana cart men and orange cart men with the orange leaves strewn on the ground, generally a fairly high level of garbage, wrappers and such, some old cars weaving in and out of the larger streets that were really muddy and needed a good wash, a very active scene in general. We passed the old corrida arena that's no longer in use but its really big and pretty (where they had bullfights) then kept walking down a main road for 3 kilometers to get to the center of town which is beachfront. Beachfront there is the boardwalk street La Corniche with on the side nearest the water all the nightclubs below ground, far our on the water you see cranes of some sort industrial, not many people on the beach but the weather is pretty nice, sunny and seventy, maybe sixties, a man selling cigarettes, and on the other side of the street lots of cafes with people just sitting and sipping tea. So in terms of dress, maybe half the people are wearing jeans and a shirt, not really "matching" as youd say, and the other half of men are either wearing this long monk type cloak with this pointy hood up or a sort of smock covering, the women would be wearing a monk cloak female version dress thing, slippers or pajama pants underneath, or these pointy leather shoes that everyone has (the men traditionally wear yellow-very clash color) and all the women except a very very few wore the burka headcovering. Our host told us now a days this is more of a cultural thing than religious, fashionable if you will, and you won't get kicked out of anywhere for not wearing one but of course there are some very religious families that disdain uncovered heads in their private homes.
Continuing, we walk the Corniche, then walk into the medina, the old town with windy streets, houses with big wrought iron gates in loopy designs and mosaic tiles outside the door with a bulb shape at the top (I loved their front doors) houses really close with ivy or plants in teh windowsils and on top the hosue is open to the sky so you can peek down from your terrace where there's usually laundry drying, the walls around the medina are painted bright colors and theres little souk markets all over people in storefronts with all different types of those pointy shoes, a lot of mineral rich designed things or animals carved into stone, tea sets, gold and silver jewelry, tailors with beautiful traditional dresses for women, flower shops with designs for marriages, then guys selling this round flat bread called "hobs/hops" that we ate at every meal in big stacks (see the pics) and baguettes and fresh fish, we saw one guy selling sting rays whole, chickens with their headscut off, plucked too, fruits and veggies but mainly just bananas , dragonfruits, and oranges, leathergoods, purses and stool coverings in cool designs. Oh yeah, at the water at the very end of the street is the port, with these big cruisers docked therea nd there's one that goes to Taflika (I think that's the name) spain every hour, its a realy short ride only 14 kilometers to Spain past the straits of gibraltar. According to legend its the point where Hercules, in battle with the giant Antee (I don't know the english name) with a pound of his body on the ground split Africa from Europe. We climbed the hill of the medina to the casbah, old town square with this really old fortress, and we walked through the white town walls and had the beautiful stretch of landscape of the rocky coast and the butt of Africa and the tip of Spain, we could see two continents at once!! It was very cool, and there were some people just standing really meditatively looking out and the ocean.
Then we walk up to this famous Cafe, Cafe Hava, sit and have tea and bread with this green bean soup and olives and these sandwiches with cornmeal bread, and we literally are staring out at the sea form up on a cliff. Then we walk back and go back to the friends house where he gives us more tea, couscous with vegetables and chicken and we all share from the same plate (thats the way we do it here, we also eat with our hands) and we watched Friends with arabic subtitles-yes. They get two hundred channels free, CNN and MSNBC but also all the channels from every arab world state, Iran and Iraq and Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, it was really interesting even though we couldnt understand most of it. The spoken arabic from country to coutnry differs too, but they can at least understand it all. PS I forgot two things 1. on the airport drive we passed a ton of half constructed buildings that looked like they were rundown but really were never completed to begin with, not sure why, and 2. we passed on the median this policeman in that army type uniform with a tripod camera and a sign saying Radar control-there were those policemen on a lot of corners and most times they had someone pulled over-very revenue generating. So finally we meet our host and he takes us to his house which is three stories, the top story has that terrace with a wall you can peek over, the wrought iron entry gate with mosaic decorations, his stairs are all painted with pretty paisley designs and the walls are covered in mosaic tiles, floors covered in persian rugs and theres couches lining all the walls so theres lots of rooms to sit/sleep, with these huge thick comfy furry blankets all around because it got a little chilly inside at night. To keep the story short, his family was the most welcoming family ever, they cooked for us and were really friendly and he and his friends payed for a lot of our meals and drove us around everywhere and he was like our personal tour guide which was definitely necessary and he did everything with us that we wanted to do and it was amazing. His hosue was really homey he had a seveteen year old sister and twenty two year old brother and he has three other siblings out of the house, and his mom and dad were there and they're older so the dad doesnt work but he was really funny and passably spoke a few words of french enough to make us laugh, and it reminded me a lot of thanksgiving time/going to grandmas-sitting around eating a lot, making jokes, catching up on family stuff and watching funny movies on tv. That was the gist of it. So that night we took a walking tour of the little town he lives in and climbed up this big hill where we got some more tea and looked out over all of Tanger and saw the big lighthouse blinking and shooting stars, and then we went back and sat on the couches and talked and at 10 PM we ate this really good traditional meal of the circle bread that used to dip into this plate with sauce and meat and vegetables, and we had Fanta with it /Hawaii, this other sugary pineapple drink which I've never heard of but was super good, then we cocooned up in those massive blankets and slept forever.
Day 2 Morocco- wake up, go upstairs to the kitchen where our house mom puts out baguette, honey, olive oil, butter, and bananas (I think they're really easy to come by) and coffee. The first good coffee I've had since I've been across the atlantic, its like french coffee but then they fill the rest of the cup with milk (novel idea, no? )so it's like a latte, and you put a big sugar piece in it and its good. Then off for a day of exploring-walk back down to the ocean and we have this really long and extremely intersting talk about life in Morocco, how it is to live with a king, his family and what they do, how marriage works and womens issues, the perception of the US, the perception of Israel, Iran, etc etc I was fascinated because some of our differences are so much deeper than cultural things, they're literally facts that are considered false or true- we have a different conception of historical truth which is so fundamental to ....to everything. But then again I guess people in America do to, thinking of evolution/creationism as the best example (I had another great converstaion about religion and basic truths with one of my friends when we were sitting in the cafe later that night) but its just good to hear the other "factsets" and realize how hard it is to have a peaceful world where people are willing to listen with so many different views floating around. So we go shopping a little, I buy these amazing shoes that I was told later in the day were, "hideous," dont worry I'm wearing them first thing tomorrow to class, and then we meet up with this Canadian girl and Australian who will be staying with us tonight and we hang out with them for the rest of the day, both girls are super sweet and have interesting travel stories. We go to the Hercules Caves, where legend has it Hercules slept and did some other stuff that I cant remember and also some legends say its where the cyclops in the story of Ulysses lived and theres some other myths associated with it, you go down into the caves (not very deep) and theres water dripping from the ceiling and theres little caverns and mud puddles everywhere and at the end theres a cliff that goes down into a crevice or pool of water thats coming in fromt eh sea and breaking in foamy waves, and the opening out looks like an inversed continent of Africa and you can directly see the sun as its setting it was very very pretty. And there was a pack of camels in the parking lot, there were also camels down by the beach. So we walk around there for a while, all the while our host and his friend are teaching us basic arabic phrases and the australian lived in saudi arabia for a while so she knows lots of saudi arabic, and then we go outside the cave and theres these cliffs with fishermen and little cafes and tidal pools and the water's coming and breaking and squirting up like a geiser and we just look out, then we go down to another cavern which has souvenirs and this famous statued of hercules with chains and theres real live monkeys chained up to the statue, one of my friends Medora got a baby monkey to climb up her and rest in the crook of her arms...cute yes, but lets consider that its a monkey, weve already been around tons of stray cats and a random herd of sheep and dogs and the bathroom at our host house is an "arabia bathroom" aka squat toilet, no paper, no soap to wash hands, and even in the cafes weve yet to find either of those two things though at least they have european style toilets, and we have no shower at home, so our general level of cleanliness is at an all time low. But thats all the fun of travelling. So now its getting dark, we drive back downtown and go to Miami In, this cafe where all these guys are huddled around a big screen tv watching a soccer match and drinking tea (no one drinks alcohol here, "religiously") and here come five girls and two guys and we sit and watch and talk and drink tea, no one really gave us looks or anything because our host knew lots of people there, but it was definitely "guy night" activity, then we left and went to the port to eat outside with the freshest jsut caught fish and shrimp and fried squid, for everyone who liked seafood (everyone but me) they said it was the best fish they'd ever eaten. Again a fun atmosphere, and they kept bringing us good break and we had tea at the end and there were lots of families and people there. By now its eleven ish and where as yesterday we ended our outings at 8ish, when lots of people were still walking around women and men, by 11 the streets are a lot more dead, though near our house a few little kids were still running around the streets and playing playstation in this random room off to the side of the house. Now the question is, sleep or nightclub? My three objectives for the day were: buy pointy shoes (check, i even bought a second pair of yellow ones-go female empowerment no more sexist colors here), go to the caves, and go to a nightclub. Serendiptiously I encountered a Moroccan guy the night before we left who recommended to me to go to this club called 555, it was supposed to be really good. So I wanted to go but was tired, and no one really wanted to go but finally, yes lets go, I've been missing my fill of dancing in Aix and my gosh, when are you going to have the opportunity to party in Morocco again? Also, with the culture being so very different, I was really curious to see what went down at the clubs. So, in my very dirty jeans and a tshirt I'd already worn friday, no makeup, hair greasy and not straightened, socks under my ballet flats, I'm ready to hit the town. not to worry, I got in. So 555 had a brand new DJ so it was full, but instead we went to Mondial down the street, and let me tell you, what an experience. Basically it was this really nice place, white leather couches and tables all around the dance floor which was big, surrounded by pillars that you could go up on and dance, a giant disco ball and flashing lights and loud house music for the most part, I really only recognized one song but some were in arabic and they were cool and some in spanish, very eclectic, some people were drinking alcohol we got red bulls for the group, and the party was going strong. Who was there you ask? Upper twenties men, maybe low thirties, definitely not my age, and guy to girl ratio was staggering, there were girls but they all looked again same age as the guys, amybe a few years younger, most dressed in way way tight dresses, miniskirt, high heels, very low cut top, makeuped extensively. And they were all generally promiscuous dancers, off to the side at tables they were giving private dances or massaging guys (not lap dances, also there was no making out on the dance floor or anything, and no guys were going up to random girls to dance, dancing was generally more distanced even with those girls than in America say) and we proceed to learn that they are all, yes all, prostitutes, paid to be there as escorts. Made sense. So we were dancing with our host and his guy friends on the dance floor having a blast with this crazy topsy turvy world going on around us, no one really bothered us, and I even got to dance on a pillar-baller. Oh yeah, there was also a lot of security watching the dance floor at all times and breaking up certain no=nos, though I was a little confused about that, and there were tv screens all around that showed us dancing sometimes and sometimes showed really promiscuous music videos although for one song it showed these animated cartoon characters dancing which was pretty random. So anyways, this club was very bizarre but made me really proud to be a self-sufficient woman of America in 2008, and glad to be from a culture that gives women the chance to dance with no strings attached. The cultural thing connected with what our host was telling us about how women are either engaged to be married before eighteen and the arrangements are taken care of, or they end up not married spinsters, or are shunned by the family for some reason and become prostitutes, those are pretty much the only options. I'll be interested to see what its like in twenty years at Mondial.
To conclude then, we got home super early, slept for super little, and made our way to the airport and out of africa, back to homebase Aix en Provence. Again in the airport we get "Obama!" shouts from the security guards-oh yeah. So all in all we had an amazingly fun time in Morocco, I would definitely go back, and we had the most welcoming, hospitable family and friends I've ever met.
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