I loved many things about Tangier. What I loved the most was the diversity there. Catholics, Jews, and Muslims all living together and being friends and completely accepting each others' religions. Women are allowed to dress how they want and because of that you will see women in T-shirts and jeans, women in hijabs with everything covered (even their hands, with gloves) except for their eyes, and women wearing everything in between. What I saw most of while I was there were women in western clothing (pants and a blouse) with a head scarf covering their hair. No women are seen wearing shorts or short skirts or tiny tanktops though, which is nice. Men mostly dress in western clothing but some men still wear caftans. The traditional Moroccan caftan is called a djellaba and has a hood. Many men also wear a fez. As you can imagine, all these different types of clothing make the streets very interesting and you can sit and people watch for hours.
What I loved second most is the absence of smartphones. It was so nice to see everybody just living life and not walking around while staring at a phone! And children were actually playing in the streets instead of playing video games.
What I loved third most was the food. We had an enormous lunch consisting of soup, pastela, couscous with chicken and vegetables or a tagine (we had to choose for that course), and fresh melon. Everything we ate was delicious.
So, let me take you through our day. We started out in Tarifa, Spain, where we caught a one-hour ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier.
When we arrived at the Tangier ferry terminal, we had to wait for our guide Aziz to pick us up. He was late because he was delayed by heavy traffic due to extra security on the streets due to the king of Morocco visiting that day. But apparently this king is very well liked, very progressive, and is changing Morocco for the better. At least according to Aziz. Anyway, here is the ferry terminal cat waiting with Martin.
Then we went for a ride, with two other tourists (who live in Scarsdale, NY - small world), around the outskirts of Tangier. The government is putting a lot of money into developing Tangier. The port is being enlarged so people can dock their yachts there, hotels are going up on the beaches (which are still really empty!), and condos are being built all around the outskirts. So, the city is expanding in general and it is trying to lure more tourists there. As you can see below, the beaches are beautiful! Tangier is just starting to be discovered as a holiday destination.
First up below is the lighthouse at the most northwestern point of Africa. So on our trip we went to the most southwestern point of Europe and the most northwestern point of Africa. Interesting. After that are some pictures we took while driving along the coast for a bit. The cave picture is of Hercules' cave and it's apparently where he rested after separating Europe from Africa.
After the drive we continued on foot into the old town to wander all the narrow streets there and to see the open-air markets. I had expected this to be a noisy and chaotic ordeal but it wasn't. Things are relatively calm and quiet in the markets and they're nowhere near as large as I had thought they would be. Below is the fish market, an olive stand, pepper and onion stand, and a street picture.
One interesting thing in the old town are the communal ovens. Most people can't afford ovens so they make their bread dough or cookie dough at home and then bring it to the communal oven to be baked. Here are some pictures of that:
We also visited a synagogue that wasn't open to the public and it was gorgeous on the inside. You can't tell from the outside because you're in the old town and the narrow street outside of it is really dirty and filled with trash but on the inside it's wonderful. It's only used for weddings today.
And here are some pictures of the narrow but colorful streets:
Here is the main square of Tangier. It used to be total chaos with no organization but then they pedestrianized the middle of it and made traffic follow an actual pattern through it and now it looks great. I can just imagine how crazy it was before they added the oval to the middle!
This is part of the "Petit Socco", or the little square in Tangier. It's more of a normal-sized street with a few cafes in it but our guide said it was a big square when he directed us towards it! You can see Martin in this picture walking in front of me, and a guy selling fezes. It's not that chaotic now but Martin and I sat here at Cafe Tingis and had some tea (practically the national drink - tea with mint leaves in it) and a tour bus group came in and then all the hecklers descended on all the tourists. Martin and I were thankfully left alone. I wish I'd gotten a picture of all the heckling going on but by then I was more interested in people watching than picture taking. Plus if any of them saw me take their picture they probably would have made me pay for it.
A random mosque in the skyline:
Did I mention that there were tons of cats in Tangier? Here's one sitting on a pretty tiled grave outside of an English Catholic church:
Pictures from the ferry ride home, starting with views of the city of Tangier and ending with the treats we bought for ourselves in Tangier. They just hit the spot after a day of sightseeing.
I have also found this excerpt from Rick Steves' website to capture Tangier perfectly:
http://www.ricksteves.com/tms/article.cfm?id=245&extras=false
