Morocco (part 2 of my adventure)

Part 2 of my adventure takes place in Morocco

After a quick flight from Brussels (the flight took about 2 1/2 hours) we arrived in Tanger at about 5 local time (we lost 2 hours going from Brussels to Tanger).  We quickly realized that we were no longer in the Netherlands given that the temperature was about 30 degrees and there was SUN!!! (we have not seen sun for so long!).  We made our way out of the airport and found a dusty old cab to drive us into the city (the airport is about 20 km outside of town and there is really no public transportation to the airport) and got a quick lesson in how life goes in Morocco as we were defiantly taken advantage of (tourists are ripe for the cheating) and paid a premium for the cab ride but that being said it was still pretty cheap (about 15 euros) for a 30 minute cab ride.  We were in Morocco for 3 days and I must say that during that time I feel that we had a pretty good look at Morocco.

Day 1

This is a picture from our balcony in Tanger

A picture of our hotel room (it was interesting as it had a very Moroccan feel to it)

After arriving we set out to find a bit to eat as we had not really eaten all day.  Now I realized that we would be arriving during Ramadan however I didn't think that it would be that difficult to find something to eat but I was wrong.  We literally walked walked up and down the street looking for a place to eat and were unable to find some place to eat until the sun went down (at 7:30) and then the city became alive.  HAHAHA not only was finding food difficult but finding a cold beer was next to impossible because during Ramadan muslims don't drink, there were actually signs in restaurants which did serve alcohol saying that they would not sell alcohol to muslims.  After a bit of searching we found a local hotel were we could grab a beer in the hotel bar and after a little bit I decided that I was exhausted from all the excitement of the day and decided to call it a early night.

Day 2

The next day we were up early but not early enough for breakfast as during Ramadan everyone eats before sun up (at about 4 in the morning) so we ended up fasting for most of the day.  

A picture of the beach in Tanger, Morocco has many thousands of km of beautiful beaches.

While trying to figure out how to get to the cave of Hercules we found a cab driver who was willing to take us to all the best places in the city for 30 euros (so we rented the cab for 3 hours for 30 euros and were driven to all the best places and given information on tanger).  This is a picture of part of Tanger, the city contains about 1.2 million people and spreads across two hills, this is just one of those two hills.

Many of the royalty of the middle east have palaces here in Tanger because the weather is really beautiful (the temp gets down to about 15 in the winter and goes as high as 33 in summer and there is always a cool breeze).  This is the front door of the king of Morocco (the king has two palaces in Tanger and in most cities in Morocco).  The King of Morocco has 45 hectors which reaches back to the sea and 84 full time gardeners and a ton of guards.

Our taxi driver had a lot of connections and for a small tip we were allowed into some of the palaces to see certain things.  This is a picture of a 1964 Rolls Royce Phantom (there are only 3 of these cars in the world) and this one belonged to some saudi business man.

This is a picture of Eric and I in the palace of some Spanish wealthy merchant.

This is the point where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic (the straight of Gibraltar), you can see streaks where dark water and light water meet.  

This beach is one of the most famous beaches for surfing in Morocco.

As we were driving our cab driver spins around and asks if we would like to ride a camel for about 10 euros and we were delighted to say yes.  This is me on my camel, the camel ride was quite something and I must say I really enjoyed it.

After the camel ride we then went to the cave of Hercules this was our guide Mufassa (who did a terrible job at giving us our tour but did a great job of extorting a few euros from us) HAHAHA thus is Morocco.

The Hercules cave was created by cutting mill stones and this is one of the mill stones which were being cut.

After the cave our cab driver took us to some Moroccan stores so Eric could buy some souvenirs and I ended up seeing these great moroccan rugs.  This rug was hand made from silk and could have been had for about 220 euros but could have probably been had for less depending on your negotiation skills.

Other Moroccan rugs, notice the beautiful colours

At one of the places we found a ton of lamps, I tried rubbing them to find a genie but I only ended up with a dirty hand.

After our cab tour we headed to the bus station to make the trip to Casablanca and since we had a few hours to kill we ended up checking out a local market.  

This was a picture of one of the ladies begging at the market for food or money

The Moroccans love olives and this is a picture of one of the many stands in the market where you could buy Olives.

One of the more interesting stores we saw was this one, you had your option between very fresh eggs or very fresh chicken.

A picture of children selling things on the street.

We had a few options to get to Casablanca but we opted to go with the bus as we were assured that it would be air conditioned and the trip would only take about 5 hours.  The trip was pretty unexciting and I must say certain areas of the country side look like parts of the Canadian prairies.

This is a picture from our hotel room in Casablanca

Eric and I stumbled across a great little restaurant which provided us with some great Moroccan food

After our dinner we headed out for a little entertainment and ended up in a few Moroccan night clubs.  I wish I could give you a better idea of the environment as there was great Moroccan music, lots of dancing and hooka smoke but I guess these pictures will have to do.

Day 3

The next day after a night out we saw the largest mosque in the world.

Following checking out the mosque we decided to wander the streets in the old part of Casablance.  I must admit I was surprised with the city I was expecting it to be much more modern however it kind of felt like a shell of a city (the city has over 8 million people) which missed its hay day in the 40s.

After a bit of wandering we found Rick's Cafe from the movie Casablanca

And proceeded to have a few drinks

A pot of moroccan tea (mint tea) that I had at Rick's Cafe.  Seriously you have never had mint tea until you have moroccan mint tea it is sooo good!

This was a picture of one of the beautiful parks in Casablanca (note how dry the trees look)

This was picture of a synagogue that we saw (about 10% of the moroccan population is Jewish)

After a bit of wandering we came across a beach where we found tones of people playing football on the beach so we hung out there a bit and caught some sun.  We had decided earlier on that we would be returning to Tanger by night train (leaving at 12:45) so after a bit to eat we headed off to the hotel to  collect our things.  On our way to our Hotel we got pretty lost and ended up getting a helping hand from a Moroccan family who showed us to our hotel and invited us out for a cup of tea after.  During my time in Morocco I found that Moroccans are very friendly and easy to get along with.

Day 4

After we arrived back in Tanger we decided to go to the hamam (this is a bath house) as we had heard that this was something that needed to be experienced.  We were unable to find a hamam open on Firday (given that Fridays are a holy day and it was Ramadan)

Seeing as we were unable to go to the bath house and our flight was at 2 we ended up hanging out at the beach (I ended up getting a sunburn) and then left for the airport at about 12 or so.  Next stop Madrid!