Wednesday, 20 December - Tangier

How We Came To Own A "Super Duper Magic Flying Carpet"

Many who know me, know that I am not a morning person. Neither is Mike really, so us waking up at 4:30am and being ready for the day by 5:20am is a big thing. Then we stopped at every Thomson owned resort in the next few cities, making a 2 hour journey into a 4 hour journey. We had hoped that we could sleep, but we were too excited. We left Spain from a little port city called Tarifa that is less than 25 miles to Tangier, Morocco in Africa. We took the fast ferry over and in less than a half hour we were in Africa. Since we went with a tour company, our passports were not stamped, just our tickets. We are also "fast tracked" through Moroccan customs (i.e. You walk right through it.) Well, Mike and I were at the end of the line and all of a sudden you walk out of customs and into Morocco. The traditional clothes of people from Tangier, or Berbers, were something similar to monk's robes. So, you step out into Morocco and are confronted with all these people in robes, and some in suits and regular dress. This combined with the fact that the National Languages are French and Arabic and its an Islamic nation and Mike and I are from the US. It was a tad overwhelming and we were really glad we were part of a tour group. Later we did learn that all Berbers are required to learn Arabic, French, and at least one other language by the time they graduate High School. Most know Arabic, French, Spanish, AND English. It was incredibly impressive. We were ushered on to a bus and driven through the "New Town." The French came to Tangier in the 1910's and started building this part of town and it is still growing today. This part of town wasn't really impressive because it was like any large city. It was interesting to learn of all the famous people throughout history that had lived there.
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This was our tour guide for the day. He was really crazy, and carried this stupid antennae with ribbons tied to the end of it so that we could easily follow him. Mike and I felt like we were in Elementary School again, and I am sure that people pointed and laughed at us as we went by. Now as I alluded to before, our Tangier tour guide was a bit more sketchy. (This might be the part where Mama might want to skip.) When we got back home we found a website talking about how Tangier is a difficult city to like, which it can be. You are bombarded from all sides for money of any kind. People are shoving items in your face begging you to buy them, and everyone wants a tip. There are of course underlying reasons why Tangier is a difficult city as well. In the past it has been a popular drug spot and the police have been corrupt. We knew this going to Tangier. Then we found a website that claimed there still are strong ties between the local police, authorities, and the mafia. I unfortunately have no pictures of the Tangier tour guide, but he was way too slick to be just a tour guide. He knew everyone and only took us to see his friends to buy wares from (not all that uncommon). But the odd thing was the amount of men with walking talkies circling our group and keeping people away. Anytime someone was being harassed to buy something, the harasser was immediately pulled off by one of these walkie talkie wielding Henchmen. The tour guide was definitely not rich enough to have body guards and Thomson would not hire them just for our group. It was all very suspicious until we read the site about the local mafia. We are now convinced that he was a part of it. So, those travelling to Morocco, do not book the trip through Thomson. The tour guides from the other companies looked less likely to be part of the Mafia.

After our tour of the New City, we went to the Medina (picture above.) Medina in Arabic - and Spanish - means "city" or in Tangier's case, the Old City. The houses are all built very close to each other with an outer wall surrounding them for protection. The streets are so narrow that no cars can get through, although they have built motorized vehicles small enough to maneuver down the lanes and corners to transport goods. The bottom floors are all shops and people live above them. There are thousands of people living and working inside these walls and interestingly enough the people living there come from immensely different economic backgrounds. It was amazing to walk through the streets and see men sewing robes, creating rugs, waving to people in windows above us, and just taking in all the sites of the city. This was the snake charmer we saw outside the Medina at the Casbah. I was so shocked to turn around and see a man with a cobra looking snake out and moving it around, this is the best picture I could get. He pulled out some less poisonous snake for people to take pictures with, but I declined.
Right before lunch we went to a traditional Moroccan Pharmacist. It was really interesting to hear about all the natural cures to common illnesses. We were able to try quite a few and they worked amazingly well. We didn't buy any of them because quite a few of them last a long time and we didn't know how well they would get through US customs being in an unmarked baggie. But we did get Mike some Moroccan spices for cooking while we are here. And we may be buying a book on natural remedies in the future.

Part of the tour included a five course Moroccan lunch. We were able to try soup, beef kebabs, couscous, honey cakes, and a sweet mint tea. It was all very delicious and I would love the recipes to them all. During lunch we were entertained by a traditional band and a belly dancer. Now, when we were told that there would be a belly dancer, all of us in the group expected a belly dancer, someone exotic and dressed like the girl from "I Dream of Jeannie". What we got was the girl below barely moving her hips from side to side and waving her hands about a bit. Needless to say, our table did not tip and we were all a bit let down. We all felt it was false advertising and wanted the real belly dancer to come out, but she never did. After lunch we were let out to shop for 30 minutes. Mike and I were a little bummed at first, not because we wanted to shop, but because we wanted to poke around the street. By then we had already bought a beautiful wooden camel. When we first came into the Medina, a man started following us and hastling us to buy bracelets. No part of me telling him, no I don't wear lots of bracelets would persuade him to stop getting us to buy the bracelets. When he finally caught on that we we're not going to buy the bracelets, he switched to camels. But we we're interested in the price. He kept going down, but we still weren't interested. Finally he just shoved the camel into my hands and turned to Mike and said, "8 euro." We were frantically trying to shove the camel back to him when we had our first encounter with one of the walkie talkie men. At this point we hadn't noticed them and I was sure that he thought we were trying to steal it and we would end up in a Moroccan prison. Thankfully he was on our side and just pushed the guy away from us. The seller reduced his price drastically and we bought the camel. I think we met the same seller 3 more times and each time he tried to get us to buy bracelets and another camel. For the rest of the day though, I keep my hands folded in front of me.

But, on to the shopping experience after lunch and how we now own a (small) Persian carpet. The guide had a "helper" to keep track of the 25 or so of us on the tour. He kindly guided us into a Moroccan Co-op, as he called it, and then up to where the carpets are made. He sat us down on this bench and told us to wait. Soon men came out with various Berber carpets to show us how wonderful they were and each one kept getting better. Then he brought out the 250,000 knot per foot silk carpet. Granted, it was smaller than the others, but they were super duper as he had claimed. He told us for 180 euro we could have it. So, we explained that we did not have that much money with us. So, he said he would give us 2 for 200 euro and they take credit cards. We explained that we had left them at home (and even if we hadn't I would not have used it in Africa!) So he reduced the price a little more, then I explained that we just got married and have no money. Wrong move, then he was convinced that we needed this carpet since we just got married. We told him all we had with us was 20 euro and he finally let up. We went downstairs and found a beautiful leather wallet for me (with the guy still following us around.) He tried to get us to buy more that just the wallet to no avail, so he took the wallet I was buying to bag it and I tried to give him the money. Guy, "How much for you to take the wallet and the carpet? 50 euro?" No, we don't have that much. Then Mike leaned over and whispered to me, "what about 30?" The man heard Mike and that is how we now have a carpet and wallet from Morocco. That was all 20 minutes into our shopping time. By the time we left the store, in a daze that we had just bought a carpet, we were ready to be done. We still cannot believe that we own an incredibly beautiful Persian rug, and have agreed that no one will ever step on it. We may not have paid that much for it, but its way too pretty! We have no idea what we will do with it yet, although we are thinking of making a glassed top table to put it in.
A couple from our group being hastled into buying a wallet.
A view from the bus ride home. Across the strait there is Africa and in the foreground is Spain.