What a day – we woke up in the morning rush around to get a few things that Mark still needed – a lock, sunglasses, wrist watch. I brought too much stuff, but Mark should have been more proactive and get those things either from back home or from Montpellier where we were for 2 months and we had tons of time to go shopping; we both screwed up somehow in trying to prepare for the trip. It is hard to shop in a city that you don’t really know, stores that you don’t know and in a language that you don’t speak. Our little Spanish wasn’t good enough to figure out how to say lock in Spanish; finally we got everything except the wrist watch.
At 1 pm we took a taxi from the hotle to the bus stop; most of the time we would be ok for us to walk but with our language and the heat, no way! the taxi was 7 Euros and it was definitely worth it!
Bus ride from Seville to Tarifa via Cadiz was very pleseant; Spanish music in background, we were just sitting there admiring the beautiful scenery; villages and small cities all with white houses, many colorful flowers.
We arrived in Tarifa at 5:30 pm went and got tickets – 31 Euros each one way. Our ferry was supposed to depart at 7 pm it turned out that the ferry is one hour late.
We waited for the ferry at the terminal, it was interesting to watch people, only a few foreigners.
Finally the ferry arrived, we went to Spanish passport control, we got the exit stamp. My exit stamp is barely visible, the ink did not transfer on my passport!
Ferry departed at 8:10 pm, it takes 35 minutes to cross the Straight of Gibraltar. I was very excited to see the Rock of the Gibraltar and to be on the boat between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
Ferry is very nice and modern and Gibrltar crossing was very fast. As soon as we got on the ferry I noticed that a few people were lining up; I assumed that were lining up for the restaurant even though there was a cafeteria in front of us with lots of food and very few customers. When the ferry docked in Tangier, then we realized that people were lining up for passport control, and they were smart. We lined up when the ferry stopped. There was a huge line up and only one Moroccan customs officer. It took 2 hours for us to go through customs and get off the boat. In the mean time there are many arguments between people because some people were trying to get in front of the line. The arguments were in different languages, Spanish, French and Arabic, so it was quite interesting for us to watch.
We finally made it off the boat at 10:30 pm Spain time, and 8:30 pm Moroccan time. I am glad that I got a good customs stamp on my passport (la passport ete tamponee)
It was already dark and we have to walk to the city and find a hotel. I was walking behind Mark just looking in front of me. I was overwhelmed!!! no book could have prepare me for the shock of walking on the streets on Tangier. I was scared….
We had to find a hotel, but as it was dark and I wasn’t sure of the hotels, so I choose a hotel that I read about it on the internet. This hotel is very expensive for Morocco, it is about 50 Euros. Mark is not happy about it, yes I know that I did not make the best decision, but at the time I did not know any better, I was tired and scared, I just wanted to be in a better place. Tomorrow we will look for an other hotel.
This was my first day in Africa, absolute overwhelming! I was glad we had some water, none of us wants to go out in the medina!
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