Tangier is the main Northern port in Morocco on the Atlantic coast and is only a quick 35 min ferry ride to Spain and the British colony of Gibraltar. I sit at the esplanade facing the beach and its a very text book esplanade. I could be in Petone, Terrigal, Gold Coast, Manly, Mission Beach, St Kilda. The ferries blow in and out all the time with tha whale like cry and ensures Tangier a real internationl feel about it. Like most sea side cities, Tangiers is rather hilly. Many buildings are Mediterranean inspired and does remind me more of Casablanca the movie than Casablanca itself. Women at the medina scrub the pavements intensely first thing in the morning, except on a hill the dirty soap water just rolls down the hill onto the next neighbour and the next neightbours's turf. Lots of French ppl with boxer dogs. Got my first tummy bug of the trip and continuing to be mistaken as Japanese.
Tangier was an interantional zone until the 1950s and therefore pretty much inherit its dodgy rullessness past...MUM DONT READ THIS BIT someone got stabbed with a broken bottle outside our hostel last night the puch up lasted about half an hour but i was in a sleepy haze and thought it was all a figment of my imagination till I had to sidestep the bloodtains on the footpath. Its true that i dont feel particularly comfortable here, the locals (young males usually) are generally more pushy here and accost you quite rudely and openly swear if you ignore them.
To make matters worse the SouthAfricans took a day trip to Gibraltar via Algerciras (Spanish territory) on the ferry and was denied entry on the way in as the multiple entry visa they had turned out to be single entry...SHIT-o. They only took day packs so we have lug their stuff around till we can find a DHL to South Africa. Poor lads what a drama and its a shame not able to say bye properly. Once again, admin sucks.
The night life sucks here also. Despite what the guidebooks say, on a Saturday night you DO NOT walk into an empty bar at 12am and there,s a live band of 7 players playing to a crowd of four and call this "lively". I did however spot the first Bum Floss Surprise (tourquoise and yellow, to go with the petite taxis) of the trip which was liberating in one sense but dfisturbing in another. The beers cost me 50dh and the coke is 10 dirhams more at 60dh.. In any other country whne the beer costs less than the coke you;d say you got a good deal but not here eh. I would imagine its is the costly liquor liscence and genreal discouragement to drink which results in this kind of outrage. I think most ppl are sedated by the lack of alcohol here, which is good really. Could you imagine half the population here and the majority being under 35 completely off their faces on a night like this? Nope. I prefer to go to an empty night club than to stumble into a crowd of drunken under sexed young men.
OK enough bagging Tangiers out. I do recommend coming here for the interesting history. The American Legation museul which was the first ever US Consulate acquired overseas by the US was iits consulate till the 1920s and now a cute little museum housing a great collection of impressive fine art, dioramas, antiques, plus tributes to James McBey and Paul Bowels. The Kasbah Museum is a little gem also, one of the better curated places I've been to so far. It used to be the Sultan's palace which housed his 400 concubines and then various Portuguese and BRitish governments took over before being reclaimed by the locals. It has fab Moroccan art and some pretty interesting dig ups and ship wreck salvages from over the centuries, REALLY worth the look. AND Its next to Vidal Sassoon's house.
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