We Rocked The Kasbah

Here we are in Morocco after a 3 hour ferry ride across the Gibraltar Strait (between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean). Lots of Arabs, and most of them were sleeping!

In Tangier we were picked up by a "tour guide" who offered to take us on a walking tour of Tangier for 20 Euro we were lost and he seemed to be our only way to the city (and luggage storage-none at the train station for fear of unwanted explosions) so we went with him. The luggage place was a bit sketchy but we didn't have any choice - fingers crossed.

Our "tour" started in the new city where there was a McDonald's (we didn't go in) it was quite new looking. We walked to the entrance of the old city (the medina) and then hailed a taxi to go to the top - our guide was not very young so he didn't want to walk up. At the top we found ourselves in the Kasbah which is not very glamorous but an old castle wall and some residences - albeit pricey for Tangier. We started our descent down the hill and came upon a great lookout over the ocean/sea! Walked some more and came to the not so pleasant discovery that the people here just throw their trash on the street - of course Aamir found the one trash can in the city. We walked past a shop with some antique furniture - one piece caught our eye - it was a door - a really big door with ornate designs and stones and bone "jewels" it was beautiful and we wanted it for our wall - the price??? 2,000,000 dhm which = 200,000 Euro which = too much for the wall!

Our guide then took us to see his friend, a carpet merchant. Not knowing we were expected to buy something we accepted his invitation to tea and a carpet show. First of all let me say that mint tea is highly underrated! The American teabag type is crap, the authentic Moroccan brewed mint leaves are the real deal. So after serving us our tea, this man proceeded to unroll carpets for us to admire (and choose from) of course he started with the biggest ones and after about an hour got to some smaller ones. We did see some Kilims that we liked but with only our two small bags we had no way of carrying it back with us. It appears that our guide Abdul needed a nap which explained the long stop at the carpet store.

We then went to see more of Aamir's doors and some mirrors but hunger took over and we asked to stop for some food. Abdul took us to yet another one of his friends, the restaurant was in a good location overlooking the street bazaar, and had a nice ambiance, however as we later learned, 10 Euro is too much for a one person menu.

Finally we headed back for our bags - which were still there and over to the train station. We met some nice Moroccans at the station who spoke Spanish so we had a conversation about all sorts of stuff from racist Arabs to bloody noses from the fast ferry, to the generosity of Pakistanis during the birth of a child.

Our couchettes on the train were nice - small but nice - our berthmates were two Australian brothers - friendly guys - you'll hear more about them in Marrakech.