I was glad when the sun was out, we went for coffee. Coffee is very good here (I always order café crème), as well as patisseries and food in general; everything is almost as good as in France for a third of the price.
We went along the sea to the rail station to buy tickets to Fez; I like this part of town, there is the sea, new white building, the side walk is nice and wide.
Rail station building is surprisingly modern, it has to be brand new. We got first class tickets to Fez – 14 Euros each. It is 5 hours train ride from Tangier to Fez.
Still I am not sure how I feel about being here and Tangier; sometimes I like it sometimes not. Tangier is a mixture of old and new – this is how I see Tangier.
But mix of old and new isn’t this pretty much everywhere? do we like the old? do we like the new? how can we manage to harmoniously mix them? how do we feel about it? maybe France has the answer….
Back to Tangier…I like the old part, the medina because is old, different, interesting, it has character and originality; I don’t like it because is dirty, smelly, sometimes scary. I like the new part because is clean, functional, practical; I don’t like it because is boring.
Now we are in a hotel in the medina (the worst hotel I ever stayed in) , for Fez I guess we are going to choose a hotel in the new city and just visit the medina.
In our way to the hotel we stopped at a random restaurant to have lunch. We were lucky to find this restaurant; it had a little veranda in the back, was nice and quite, away from the chaotic city; the waiter was like from the ancient times, old and extremely polite with a soft voice. We had traditional Moroccan food which is was very good; we paid 10 Euros including the tip.
In the afternoon we went to an Internet café, check email and update blogs. We walked around some more trying to find a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant recommended by our book was closed. We walked down to the port and just picked a restaurant that serves fish. We got big portions, I had fish and Mark shrimp, but the food wasn’t really that good; well, that is ok, as per Mark “you can not hit a home run at every at bat”.
We would have liked to have a nice glass of white wine with the fish and seafood, but most restaurants don’t serve alcohol.
In France and Spain we had something to drink almost every day; since in Morocco we had one beer; I guess Morocco is a good country if you want to slow down on booze.
Well, this was the second day in Tangier; how do I feel? I am still overwhelmed and a bit freighted. There are many people on the street and I am not used to that. In the medina everything is small, there are tons of shops and people hanging out in front of the stores. We don’t want to stop anywhere because as soon as we stopped someone is trying to became “our guide”. I would like to look at some of the stores, there are lots of beautiful Moroccan dresses and outfits, but I am afraid to stop and look because then there is lots of pressure to buy something. If I was going back home maybe I will consider buying something, but I still have a long travel to do.
Coffee shops and restaurants are full of men; I feel intimidated and scared by these men. I think that they are good people, but I am not used to see a full restaurant of men just sitting, drinking tea, watching sports.
It is 11 pm an we are heading home. It seems that Tangier really comes to life at night, the streets, restaurants, parks are packed with chatty and laughing men, women and kids, everyone is having a good time.
I am glad that I choose to travel to Tangier, it is an interesting place, however I will be happy when I leave……..
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