Well friends, i am writing this last blog post for you stateside, waiting for my last connection. I had to cut my trip a bit short due to some health issues (no worries, all limbs still intact) so alas, most of Morocco will have to wait for another trip. But i am looking on the bright side and instead of this being a trip in which i "missed Morocco" it is instead my wonderful trip to Spain and Portugal with a day in Tangiers.
And what a day that was! We left snowy Granada and took a train to Algeciras--a giant port city (that is, the port is giant, the city seemed pretty average). Algeciras was not very memorable except for all of the puns i noticed in the business names (e.g., mercalgeciras or algecolores--these are only moderately funny if you speak spanish, dont worry). Also, there are a LOT of Moroccan men hanging out around the port trying to sell you stuff. It was good practice for the real thing. We took a ferry across the straight of Gibralter. I was thrilled to receive a stamp in my passport with a boat on it indicating my arrival by sea--that was a first! When we hot to the Moroccan port (Tangier Med) we still had to take an hour long taxi ride to get to the city but I didnt mind because the view was BEAUTIFUL. There were rolling green hills and lots of goats (i like goats).
Unfortunately, our boat was late and cell reception was spotty so we never made contact with the lady we were supposed to be renting a room from. (I stood outside the gate to the medina hoping our host would come by for nearly 40 minutes at sunset while Lisa and Rewa tried to use the wifi at a nearby hotel. People kept asking if i needed help--i think i'd be equally skeptical about my sanity if i saw someone like me just standing there with all my luggage, alone, insisting i was fine. Lol) But it all worked out in the end, we followed some guy named yusuf to a nearby hotel (where i'm sure he was payed a commission) and it was really nice!
Our friendly guide yusuf also took us to a good restaurant for a traditional Moroccan meal (not all that traditional i think because i only saw tourists there, but it was tasty) and then he took us shopping in the medina. At this point i was on a mission to obtain a gift for my brother (who i doubt is reading this, so i'll tell the story). All around Tangiers i saw men wearing these traditional robes that i can best describe as a cross between a jedi robe and a snuggy. They had pointy hoods and looked really warm and according to yusuf are called jalabas. I decided i had to obtain one and so yusuf took us to a tailor. That was a truly moroccan shopping experience--as we walked into the shop the owner made us mint tea and then arranged a display of different colors and styles of Jalabas out for us to peruse. The bartering was actually pretty fun. I had read so many tips about how to feign disinterest and pretend to walk away and act like you didnt want it but i realized that this style just wasnt me. So i was honest about how much i liked it and also about how much i was actually willing to spend on my brother. In the end i got it for about half the opening bid and i think we were both content.
Just before the tailor we stopped by an herbalist (mainly because it smelled so good that we paused in the doorway just long enough for the owner to haul us inside and start his shpeal. And what a rehearsed shpeal it was! He would brook no interruptions--even to ask to buy something! And when we did get around to buying a few things we had to do it in order by category! I almost burst out laughing at several points, he was so intense and serious. (Side note for the few who may remember the white elephant exchange this year: rewa noticed as we were leaving that his shop was decorated with pictures of goats in trees!)
The next morning, i bid the girls goodbye and got ready to head back to the ferry to spain. But first i decided to try out a truly local tradition--i went to the hammam. The hammam is the traditional arab bathhouse where people gather to gossip and relax (segregated by gender of course). For a few extra dirham you can get a massage from the attendant. I arranged this with an old woman through miming (she spoke neither english nor spanish and i am skeptical of her french). It hit me like a bucket of water when i actually was doused with a bucket of hot water that a language barrier is not small thing when you are naked in a foreign country. It was one of the weirdest experiences i have ever had, lying on a tile floor while an old woman exfoliated me to within an inch of my life and kept asking me questions in arabic. I also discovered, quite unexpectedly, that stretching is a part of the bathhouse massage. I almost had my nose broken when these two old women shoved my shoulders forward while i sat in order to stretch my hamstrings--they were not prepared for how flexible i was and i had to react very quickly to stop my head's progress towards the tile. They indicated that they were impressed with my limberness (i think, again i had no idea what they were saying). I keep laughing now, but the whole time i was in the hammam i kept thinking "what the f*** is happening? What on earth did i sign up for?" I felt great afterwards, truly, but i would recommend taking a female interpreter if you ever want to give it a try.
And with that bizarre and memorable hour behind me, i raced back to my hotel, caught a taxi to the port, and slowly made my way back towards lisbon to catch a plane home. It is always impossible to sum up a trip with a few final sentences but i will say that i would like to return to andalucia in the spring or summer. I would like to spend more time in granada (eat more nun cookies!) and find more occasions to drink mint tea and barter poorly. But for now, i am relieved to be back in some more familiar territory.
