Tangiers! or Morocco Lite

From a distance, Tangiers is quite beautiful with white washed houses, and french architecture. Up close, the beast comes out, and it's a lot less exciting. I checked lonely planet for some suggestions. It listed a restaurant, but it turned out to be a cafe with only coffee, tea, and alcohol. I had walked maybe an hour to get there, and was pretty annoyed. I decided to try the next place on the list, Palace Maharab.

What a scam.

It was the worst couscous, our camping couscous from the white mountains blew this stuff out of the water. Very overpriced, poor service. some music players who just mumbled most of the words to songs. The only nice part was the setting. Unfortunately, my camera was safe in my hotel room.

The medina is small, and much easier to navigate. Not much more to say there.

At least the hotel has wifi.

I went to purchase a ticket for the ferry, I walked all the way down the hill to find out that you need the physical passport, numbers are not enough. So I walked back up the hill, got the passport, came back.

Oh, we can't sell you a ticket until the day of.

That sealed tangiers fate for me. I don't like to write things off, but I still have not encountered anything redeeming in this city. It is more helpful that people speak spanish, but that is about it. English fluency is also higher than the southern parts of Morocco that I visited. All in all, my best experiences in North Africa, Morocco specifically, were outside of the entry cities - casablanca and tangiers.

The cool part is that I while I was told my room has a sea view, which it does just barely, I have to open the window, lean all the way out, and inhale the smoke from a truck parking lot below me, I can see spain across the strait of gibralter. That is pretty exciting, it's almost like looking into the future. Of course it's rather hazy, so I can't read anything.

Money worked out perfectly.

I will leave with three Dirhams after paying for my hotel, and ferry ticket. No need to carry around a currency not widely excepted in Europe during my travels. Maybe 1 dirham for souvineer, but that is the maximum.

I was calling it funny money, but considering our new money in the U.S., and taking into consideration all the various currencies I have used around the world, there isn't much out there that isn't funny money any more - in fact, monopoly money may be the last traditional form of money remaining, just the number and a small graphic, like older stuff from the Mint.

Time for skype.

Goodnight friends, and goodbye Africa.