Tanger
Tanger
Finally! Arrived in Morocco! Africa!
The destination we had been heading for the last two weeks! We got off the ship happily and exhausted.
The immigration procedures took much longer than we had imagined (ages!). The official at the passport control was checking all our visas curiously. Apparently it did not happen every day that people with so many valid visas arrived.
When we finally got out of the port, there were multiple guys waiting for us already, to show us around the city. First we did not intend to be caught by them, but then we arranged a very reasonable price, and the tour started.
We left our stuff at a concierge across the road from the train station (it was safe after all our fears. Fears, because it did not appear to be a very formal institution!). Then we walked around with our guide. He showed us the old part of the city ("Medina") in a quick tour, and then asked for double the price he had first mentioned. We had to bargain quite a long time to pay something like the original. Next time, we’ll walk around alone!
The rest of the day passed by walking around in the more or less modern parts of the city, the fruit market opened in some of the streets (we were constantly buying/eating things like slices of coconuts, cactus figs, etc.). Suddenly we seemed to be rich! After two weeks of eating only bread and cheese, everything was affordable! Fortunately our stomachs are quite strong, as we ate about everything edible we saw.
Delicious and an absolute must!!!! is the local bread: Round, small, and very very very delicious. We were eating it dry!
In the evening, we went to the seaside. A vast sand area had to be crossed first. And the sunset was really fantastic. Our first thought was "We should have taken our bathing suits". However, then we saw the sea was not really clean (tang and oil), and anyway, it did not appear to be very appropriate for females. Only men were walking around.
There was also a promenade area between the city and the seaside, bordered with palm trees. Half of the city seemed to be walking there in the evening, so we did the same. We even sat down and had an ice cream. Communication was mainly through sign language. If you insist on expressing yourself, you get through.
Last, we took our bags from the concierge (always a good idea to ask beforehand when such places close!), and went to the train station. In the small restaurant at the train station, there seemed to be a large group of young people, appearing to be interrailers, so we also joined.
Our destination all the time had been Casablanca, but when all those
people said they were going to Marrakech, we decided, that that could be
a great idea as well. Anyway, we were never planning beforehand where to
go.
On the Train to Marrakech
On the train, we noticed that all others in the group headed for the first class compartments. Of course, we went, having the true interrail spirit, to our second class.
I would never ever do it again!!!
I don’t know how the first class was, but it must be better. The wagons were open with banks to sit on (felt like wood, and very narrow). Seemed to me like old French train from the beginning of the century. Anyway, we found a place in the still reasonably empty train, and were very enthusiastic to be going to Marrakech.
Then the fun started. At every station, more and more people got on. We were decently making place and squeezing together on our banks. However, this was not how it worked. We should have stretched out our legs, taking off our shoes, as that was what everybody did. Unfortunately the hot temperatures did not help very much to improve the resulting smell. It was really a pain. Squeezed on a bank with lots of people, stared at (because female), beside you the not very nice smelling feet of somebody else.
Anyway, throughout the trip, we stared outside, and decided to definitely
come back one day with a Jeep Grand Cherokee (when rich). The landscape
was really fantastic in many places.
Marrakech
We got off, no sleep, very tired.
All others came from their first class compartments, a bit more relaxed than us. They immediately opened their hotel guides, and headed towards a hotel in the city center. We immediately opened our European youth hostel guide (an absolute must for every interrailer), and after about an hour’s search, we found the hostel in the street across the train station (the map was not that accurate, and the road signs neither).
It was a clean hostel with a rectangular free space in the middle of the building. You could sit there and eat your own food / play cards / chat with other interrailers etc. There were two rooms, one big one for men, and another big one for women. The beds were clean.
I definitely suggest staying there, as it proved to be much safer than the hotels. We left our stuff unlocked in that big room, nothing happened. We met later the others staying in the hotel, they had been robbed the moment they went out of the room for a short while.
Leaving our stuff at the hostel, we left to find out what was going on in this city. We had fortunately bought a city map at the train station, and headed for the first big main road close to the hostel. There, a number of horse-carts were waiting for tourists, and the prices were so reasonable that we immediately got on one for a complete tour of the city (we felt like kings!).
We were taken to the old palace, the old part of the city, some place
which was called "Gardens", and marked on our map as green(it turned out
to be an olive-yard, indeed a green place compared to the desert like face
of the rest of the city. There was also a very very big basin of water
to walk by), the center of the city, where snakes were swinging out of
their baskets to musical tones (complete tourist attraction, of course).
