Morocco Day 1: First taste of Morocco... Tangier

Here goes! The start of a series of posts about my Spring Break trip to Morocco. First up: the port city of Tangier. Truth be told, Tangier wasn't originally on our itinerary. We were originally planning to fly into Fes and out of Marrakesh (or vice versa), but my sister and I couldn't find flights that would arrive and leave on the same day. We decided to look into airports in nearby cities, and found Tangier.

First selfie in Morocco!

Isabel and I flew together from Madrid with Ryanair. We landed at about 1pm, and met Angela at the airport (she arrived just about an hour before us). We had no check-in, so as soon as we cleared immigration, we hopped on a taxi to the city center. In Morocco, the taxis don't have meters. You normally negotiate a price with the driver before getting in. Our hostel had informed us how much a taxi from the airport to the center would more or less cost, and we were able to get a taxi within that price range (150 dirham). [When we were in Morocco, the exchange range was roughly 10 dirham to 1 euro, which made it pretty easy to convert the prices].

Angela conversing with our taxi driver, with the help of our Arabic translator app

Our taxi driver was really nice and friendly. We "picked" him because he was the least aggressive looking among all the taxi drivers waiting outside the airport. He was actually quite reserved at first, but once we began asking him questions, he opened up and told us all about Tangier. As much as he could anyway, with the limited English he had. He didn't speak French (French is widely spoken in Morocco), and actually spoke better Spanish than English and French. I think it's because Tangier gets a lot of Spanish tourists since it's a port city, and you can take the ferry from Algeciras, a port city in the south of Spain. Additionally, Tangier was once occupied by the Spanish, and they have more Spanish than French influence in this city.

Going back, our taxi driver dropped us off at Grand Socco, which is the main square bordering the medina (the old city), since cars are not allowed inside the medina where our hostel was. It was quite chaotic when we got off the taxi with our backpacks and all and entered the medina. We tried our best not to ask for directions since Morocco is notorious for people "helping" or "guiding" you, but then demanding money from you after. We followed the general directions given to our hostel, and managed to find the hostel (Al-Andalusí Hostel) on our own. We checked in, settled down, and then headed out to get our first taste of Moroccan culture!

First up on our agenda was buying bus tickets for Chefchaouen since we would be leaving the next morning. But en route to the bus station we saw the Cinema Rif at the Grand Socco, and couldn't resist going in. The Cinema Rif (a.k.a. as the Cinémathèque de Tange) is a cinema house in a restored art deco building.

This was actually taken on later in the day which is why the sky is a bit darker already

The interior was so quirky and cute; it was like stepping into a Wes Anderson film. It's the only currently working cinema in Tangier, and aims to preserve and promote Moroccan cinema in the world, and promote world cinema in Morocco.  There's also a small café on one side of the cinema house.

Art deco interior

Art deco interior

Art deco interior

We spent some time inside checking out the decor, the posters, the signs, and the theatre, then went on our way to buy bus tickets. Our hostel receptionist was really helpful in giving us tips and tricks, and even recommended us to download this app so we could get around easily (it saves maps, locations, and routes offline). He pinned the office where we could buy bus tickets from, and  we followed the route via the app. We headed out of Grand Socco towards the new city, and passed by this other pretty theatre, the Gran Teatro Cervantes. It was built by the Spanish and is dedicated to none other than Miguel Cervantes. The theatre isn't functioning and is slowly deteriorating, but still quite beautiful.

It has a beautiful, though dilapidated, Art Deco façade

We finally reached the place pinned on the map, but there was no ticket office in sight! We tried our best to ask around for where the bus station was, but everyone was having a bit of a hard time communicating with us. We were also quite confused because when we'd say "bus station" they'd point us in one direction, but when we'd clarify and say "CTM" (which is the name of the bus company we were planning to take), they would tell us that it's far and in an opposite direction. We decided to head to the main bus station anyway, and kept walking towards the general direction everyone kept pointing us to. We would stop every now and then and ask people, just to make sure we were going the right way. Finally, we asked this young woman who was walking with her mother, and as luck would have it, she was on her way to the bus station too. So she told us to follow her. She was extremely nice, and when we got to the bus station, she even helped us inquire for and buy our bus tickets to Chefchaouen. :)

[So here's some clarification for those looking for the bus station In Tangier: The bus stations in Morocco are called "gare routière," and it's where all the local buses leave from. CTM is a private bus company, so they actually have their own bus station which is far, as all the locals were telling us. However, they do also leave from the main bus station, and the bus then stops at their private bus station which is about 15 minutes away. Also, you can buy tickets at the gare routière because they have an office there.]

So we finally bought our bus tickets and were ready to explore Tangier. The whole ordeal took us nearly an hour since we passed through the middle of the city, and got a bit lost, but looking at the map later on, we realized that the bus station was actually less than a 30 minute walk from the medina. So we decided to walk back passing the main avenue and along the beach, since it was a much simpler route.

On our way to the coast we stopped to exchange some money (you get a much better rate exchanging cash than withdrawing from ATMs), and buy a local sim card. The sim card cost us 50 dh, and the data package we were able to get was really cheap, 50 dh for 4gb of data. We decided to just buy one sim, and share the data using hotspot. After buying the sim, we walked along the coast, and headed back up the small streets leading to the medina.

The baywalk near the beach

It was mid afternoon, and we were getting quite hungry since we had small lunches. We saw a food stall by one the streets leading to the medina, and decided to try some street food. It was some sort of potato omelette, and it was pretty delicious. You could really smell and taste the different spices.

Shukraan! (Thank you!)

It was the very first thing we bought... and our very first ripoff. We paid 15 dh for it, which seemed a bit high to us at first, but we didn't think that much of it. (We were kind of hungry, and didn't know better). It was later on that we realized that it really was a high price, especially for something off the street.

Delicious (but expensive) potato omelette

Our stomachs not quite yet satisfied, we walked a bit more and saw these sort of flatbreads. We ended up getting a piece of the one on the left and some cheese. Random story: We were trying in vain to ask for the name of the flatbread, but the woman just couldn't understand us. Desperate, I decided to ask if it was something else, and the only Moroccan food I could think of was couscous. So I pointed to the bread and asked "Couscous?" The woman could not stop laughing, but we got our point across, because she then gave us the name of the bread: rghaif. She probably found us quite idiotic, but it paid off because we ended up getting a free sample of the flatbread in the middle. Haha.

Moroccan flatbread. The one in the middle was baked with cinnamon.

Then we started to really explore the city. Tangier (and most Moroccan cities) can be divided into three parts: the medina, the kasbah, and the ville nouvelle. The medina refers to the old walled city, were the souks (markets) are located. The kasbah is the fortified part usually located in the medina. Ville nouvelle is French for "new city," and refers to the new or more modern part of the city, outside the medina. In Tangier, the Grand Socco divides the medina and the ville nouvelle.

We made it to medina, and then decided to just wander around aimlessly. We found ourselves on this road and saw this mosque with the most beautiful door.

A mosque in the medina

The door of the mosque

From there we found the Petit Socco, the main square in the medina. It's a small square surrounded by restaurants and cafés (I surprisingly do not have a picture), and from there, you can go down the many narrow alleys and enjoy the souks. Although I had read about it, one thing that still really surprised me was the lack of women in the streets. In the medina, it's still heavily male dominated, women are usually at home out of sight. Another interesting I noticed was the people watching culture of Morocco. In all the cafés you will see all the chairs facing the street, and it's very normal for the men to have some tea and watch the passerbys.

Narrow alleys and souks in the medina

Signs and beautiful tiles

After walking around the medina, getting a glimpse of some beautiful Moroccan products (leather bags, wallets, shoes, carpets), we decided to explore the kasbah. Best way to get there is just keep walking uphill. The kasbah is located in the medina's northern section, and is where the sultan once lived.

Are we there yet?

Yep!

While we were in the area, we saw a sign posting about an historical route around the kasbah you could follow. So we decided to pass this way as we made our way out of the kasbah. We saw some simple but beautiful arches.

Arches in the kasbah

We passed by a mosque where a priest spoke to us about religion (non-Muslims actually cannot enter any mosques in Morocco. The only one tourists can enter is the Grand Mosque in Casablanca).

Chatting with a priest

We passed by more historical buildings and beautiful arches with tiles reminiscent of Granada. I kept musing out loud that Tangier was so similar to Granada (from the architecture to the souvenirs sold at the market), and my sister corrected me that it was Granada that was similar to Tangier.

Lovely sisters + beautiful tiles in the back

Bel and I trying to navigate our way around the kasbah

We continued following the route and ended up by the tomb of Ibn Battouta, a famous 14th century Muslim traveller who was born in Tangier.

Ibn Battouta's tomb

By now we were actually really close to our hostel. We just took some random staircases in the downwards general direction, and did end up at our hostel. Then we decided to head to the Grand Socco and try the café at the Cinema Rif. But first we stopped by the Mendoubia Park and took in a bit of the sunset.

At Mendoubia Park

Walking through one of the main babs (gate) from the medina to Grand Socco

Unfortunately the café at the Cinema Rif was full, so we decided to check out another café I had read about online, Grand Café de Paris (located at Place de France). One must try in Morocco is their mint tea. When we ordered it, the waiter asked us if we wanted it with sugar or not. Unsure, we decided to ask for it with sugar on the side. When the drinks arrived, we tasted the tea without the sugar, but I didn't like the taste, and put in two sugar cubes. Afterwards, it was okay but I wasn't in love with it. I prematurely decided that it would be the first and last mint tea I'd try. However, the next day in Chefchaouen we had more mint tea (it was free as it was offered to us by our receptionist), and I loved it! We later learned that the traditional mint tea really has a lot of sugar (when we were making small talk with a souk owner selling mint leaves we asked how much sugar the mint tea had, and he was all "don't even ask"). Normally though the mint tea already has sugar mixed in; that waiter was actually the only one who asked us if we wanted sugar or not. But nevertheless, if you ever order Moroccan mint tea and are asked if you want sugar, make sure you say yes!

Our first taste of mint tea

After our tea it was time for dinner,  and we had the craziest night finding a restaurant. We originally decided to check out Riad Tanja, a restaurant I had heard about online. We tried to maps it, but again, we reached the address and there was no restaurant in sight. At this point we remembered seeing some signs to Riad Tanja, so we backtracked a bit and tried to follow the signs. We got lost, so we stopped to ask for directions, and one stall owner told us that Riad Tanja was closed. We weren't sure if it was true since there was no mention of it online, so we decided to ask someone else. We kept asking around, and everyone kept pointing us in different directions. I think we passed the Petit Socco no less than 5 times in 20 minutes; people must've thought we were crazy. We eventually asked for directions at this one store, and the owner sent his son to bring us to the restaurant. He was a young kid, and honestly seemed really nice, so we agreed to led him guide us. He did bring us to Riad Tanja, and the first guy we asked was right, the restaurant was closed. Haha. Anyway, as the kid was leading us to Riad Tanja, we were making small talk, and he seemed genuinely nice. So when we went back to his dad's store and we asked for another restaurant recommendation, we agreed to let the kid bring us to another restaurant. As we were walking along the streets, many people were smiling at the kid, shouting at him encouragingly in Arabic, and we even passed this one group that tossed him up in the air. We think it had something to do with the fact that he was leading us - three foreign girls - around the medina (definitely not a common sight). At first he was kind of fun. He took us around the medina and was answering our questions and telling us a bit about himself and Tangier.

A scene in Spectre (the James Bond film) was shot here

But it soon got quite tiresome, and he seemed to be taking us all over, everywhere, except to a restaurant. He promised to take us to a restaurant, but almost half an hour had passed and we didn't seem to be anywhere a near a restaurant. We finally made him stop at the first decent restaurant we saw, and we informed him that we would be eating there. He didn't leave us, and stayed to sit with us. By now he was quite annoying. He really seemed quite nice at the start, but it may have been that the passerbys were heckling him, and he had a change of attitude. We were eventually able to get rid of him by giving him a 5 dh tip (he wanted more, but we refused to give more). Anyway, another lesson learned!

We still managed to enjoy the rest of the night. The food in the restaurant we ended up in was quite delicious, and upon looking it up later on, was actually highly recommended online. It was called Café L'Anglaise (on Rue de la Kasbah); a bit of an international mix, not cheap, but decently priced. We ordered a vegetable tajine, a beef tajine, and some chicken kebabs to share. The beef tajine was so good; the meat was incredibly tender. A tajine what you call dishes that are cooked in a tajine, an earthenware pot. As it's a slow cooker method, the meat comes out really tender.

Some delicious Moroccan food to end the night!

Visiting Morocco has always been on my travel bucket list, and I never really thought I'd make it there as it's not the easiest place to get to from the Philippines. My first day felt quite like a daze; it was a bit surreal and it took a while to sink in that I really was in Morocco. To end this post, here is a quote from Ibn Battotua (the Tangier-born traveler I mentioned earlier) that sums up how I was feeling:

Traveling -- it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."

How right he was. :)