The Moroccan Adventure: Day 1

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I would be travelling to Morocco for the weekend. We left Gibraltar on Friday to get the lunch time ferry over to Tangiers from Tarifa - this is the shortest and fastest way to get there but also it is the most convenient. The rest of the ferries that cross the strait go to another port which is 140kms away from  Tangiers. As we approached the port and got the first sight of Morocco, Tangiers looks old and dated but the charm of the old world could be seen on its old buildings.

 Bye Spain

 Hello Tangiers

When we got off the ferry we were greeted by the taxi driver that was going to take us to our hotel. Normally, with most taxi drivers to Morocco you must agree on a price before you get in but in this case it was all arranged by the hotel beforehand anyways. It was a good decision to ask for a taxi to meet us at the port and take us the hotel because I would not have been able to find it on my own, to be honest. The hotel is on the upper part of the Kasbah and it was a refurbished old house. On the outside it looked like any other building on the street with a new lick of paint but as we walked in, we saw the beauty of the inside.

We were greeted by the owners and they invited us to the typical Moroccan mint tea whilst we checked in. Even though  we spoke little French and they spoke little English, we managed to communicate with each other and even spoke a little about each other.

The Hotel

Part of our Room

                                     

                                                                      The Huge Bed

We were shown the hotel which is very nice but what was even lovelier was our room - I was blown away as was my girlfriend. Huge bed, Arabian style windows, fresh flowers on the table and even rose petals around the sink in the bathroom were waiting for us. After settling in, we left the hotel and began walking down towards the markets and to look for a place to eat as it was getting late in the afternoon and we hadn’t eaten lunch. Like always, we were hassled the whole way down to the market, through the market and beyond but this is only normal there and it gets less and less as time goes by. After lunch we walked around for a bit and returned to the hotel for some rest before going for dinner. The area around the hotel at night does not look like the friendliest area to walk through as it not well lit and there are people harassing you at every street corner but we managed.

After dinner went back to the hotel for a good night sleep as the next day was going to be a long one.