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Published: March 4th 2008
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Doors
Blue doors in the medina of Tangier Ever since I heard the haunting lyrics and music of Donovan's song "Tangier", I have wanted to go there, and now, here I was! I had been thinking about going to Morocco for a while, as I had been already to Turkey, and Egypt, and I had enjoyed them both. I really enjoyed going to Muslim countries and talking with people of that faith, coming to a better understanding of them and hopefully helping them to come to a better understanding of Americans in general and of me in particular.
Then my best buddy and I both saw "The Bourne Ultimatum" and the scenes where Matt Damon was zipping around Tangier on a moped, and we discussed how cool that would be. So, we decided to go to Morocco and see for ourselves.
I found a great deal on Hotwire for round trip from San Francisco-we live in the Napa Valley-through Miami and Madrid to Tangier for $749, all taxes and fees included, so the deal was done. We bought our books and read up on the place. I read a couple of books by Paul Bowles, as well as one on the history of Marrakesh and a couple more journals,
Archway
In Tangier down a winding street. . . and then bought the Lonely Planet and Eyewitness guides, as I figured that between them, we would be able to see photographs of places to visit, and have listing for places to stay and eat, and how best to get there. (Dan also bought some moisture wicking underwear that guaranteed he wouldn't need to change them for 25 days, but I told him that was an experiment that could wait for when he traveled alone.)
The day for departure finally arrived, and the day after Dan's birthday, we were taking off from San Francisco. This would be Dan's first so-called third world country as well as his first visit to a predominately Muslim country, and I was interested to see what his reactions would be. After a mind-numbing succession of flights and layovers, we finally landed on the tarmac in Tangier in the late morning of a clear and windy Tuesday. We stayed at the Ibis Moussanir hotel close to the airport as I had no idea where to book us into but wanted a definite location to avoid the hassle with touts trying to take us to a hotel of their choice. In hindsight that may have better, as
Kasbah
The old fortress or kasbah walls the Ibis, while clean and all, was geared more to the businessman and not very friendly and rather sterile as a result.
We set out the next day to find the bus into town and after a bit of searching, found the red #9 and for less than 50 cents, rode into Tangier. We then got a petite taxi for 20 dirham-or less than $3-and were deposited at the Gran Socco, just outside the medina, or old city. We grabbed a bite of rotisserie chicken and pommes frites washed down with Coke, and headed into the winding streets and alleys, Donovan's lyrics running through my head;
"In Tangier, down a winding street
Where beggars meet.
With women dressed in soiled white sheets
With starving kids by their sides."
Well, it was written in the 60's after all, and while a bit on the racist side, the song's images had been rolling around in my brain for the better part of half a century. We saw no one dressed in soiled white sheets, only women and men in jellabas, the long caftan-like hooded robes, or western style clothing with the addition of head scarves for the women and skull caps for
Harbour
Ferry in the harbour the men. As to the starving kids, we saw instead kids of various ages in soccer shirts and trainers, either running about or trying to hustle a dollar or two out of us in exchange for a "tour" of somewhere we already knew about.
We wandered about on our own, pausing to look at a covered balcony here and iron nail studded, ancient wood door there until we came to the kasbah, or old fort of the city, at the highest point in the landscape. We passed through it and out onto the seaward side of the walls, for a panoramic view of the harbor and the ferries coming in from Marseilles and Algeciras or Sete. The sea was an azure blue with tiny whitecaps of foam creating a regular pattern on the surface of the water for as far as the eye could see.
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