Weekend in Tangier!

amazing view from our hotel

 I spent this past weekend in Tangier, Morocco (pronounced "Tanjah" by the locals). Tangier is the northernmost city in Africa that lies on the Straight of Gibraltar and is the main port for Spanish cruise ships in Africa. It is about a 4 hour train ride from Rabat. 16 of us on my program went to Tangier for the weekend. We took the train from Rabat right after our Arabic class ended on Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. The train ride was a breeze. First of all, it was extremely nice (for Morocco) and I was shocked at how easy the whole ordeal was (speaking the little Arabic as I do). We bought first class tickets because we were told that you are not guaranteed a seat in second class and with all our luggage we did not want to be stuck standing for 4 hours. The seats were large and comfortable and the service was fantastic- I was very impressed. Once we arrived we dropped our stuff off at our hotel. The hotel was not the nicest place, but it was cheap and got the job done. We had a working/flushing toilet AND hot water in the shower! We also had an INCREDIBLE view from out window which overlooked the entire city. We could even see Spain in the distance. After we had dropped our stuff at the hotel we went to the Tangier American Legation Museum. The museum is where the American Embassy used to be before Rabat was the capital of Morocco. Morocco was the first country to recognize America as an independent country and this museum was dedicated to that. We saw pictures of famous American's who have been to Morocco, letters from George Washington and the Paul Boles room (an American writer who lived in Morocco). The people who worked at the museum actually spoke English and enjoyed talking to my friends and I. One thing I noticed about Tangier was that it is a lot more modern (I gather because it is so close to Europe). We found multiple people who spoke Spanish (due to its proximity to Spain) and even some who spoke pretty good English! The dress code is also a lot more liberal there. Many Europeans take the ferry over to Tangier for the day so there were a ton of European tourists. We walked by the port where the ships dock and got to walk along the beach and see the beautiful Straight of Gibraltar. After we went to a restaurant called "Restaurant Africa" where our waiter spoke a mixture of English and Spanish. I got a delicious beef and prune tagine. At night we walked around for a while and hung out at the hotel bar.

Gran Socco

The next morning we got up fairly early and headed to Cafe Paris (which apparently is some famous cafe because it is where a car got blown up in the movie Borne Ultimatum? I'm not a move buff - but other people thought it was cool). We got a typical French breakfast (pan au chocolat and cafe aulay). Across the street was the French Embassy, which we walked by on our way out. We then headed over to the Gran Socco which is a beautiful circle in town at the entrance to the Medina. It had a large fountain in the middle and tons of cafes around it. It was a beautiful day and there were people flooding the streets. We sat on some benches while we waited for some others in our group to meet us and I could have sat there forever. It was so beautiful. We spend the remainder of our morning shopping and sightseeing the Medina. I was able to communicate a little bit in Spanish too! Walking around Tangier felt very European. The Medina was a mix between the Medina's in Fez and Rabat. It was crowded like Fez but modern like Rabat. The streets were also much wider and spacious than any Moroccan city I have yet to visit. It felt very open and much cleaner too! We had pizza for lunch (not surprising, since we could only find pizza places!!! Everywhere we looked there was a sign that said "Pizza"... it was crazy). After our large, delicious pizza's we went back to take a nap; we were all exhausted from all that walking around. That night we saw TANJAZZ which is an annual jazz festival hosted in Tangier. After seeing some great music, we went to a not-so-great restaurant with horrible service - but I was still full from lunch so I didn't really care. After we went to some clubs in the city but I went home early with my friend because she has a cast on her ankle and was in pain.

Some friends and I - Tangier in the background

 We woke up fairly early this morning and took the train home. This train was a little different because we were assigned boxes. I felt like I was on a train to Hogwarts. There were compartments of 6 chairs and men would come by with carts of food to serve us. I was with one of my friends in compartment "four" and we happened to be sitting next to a couple from Australia who had been trekking through Europe and were fresh off the boat from Spain. We talked to them for almost the entire 4 hours about our experiences thus far in Morocco. Although is was a short weekend I feel that we definitely got the taste of Tangier. It was our first time traveling alone (without the program) and it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for our next adventure!
Tangier Pictures