I know this is kind of a belated posting, but back in April I took a short trip to Tangier, Morocco. I was somewhat reluctant to go to Morocco, considering all the political uprisings that were happening in Egypt and other places in the Middle East, but eventually decided the opportunity was too good to pass up. My trip went from BVA-TNG-MAD-CDG. I started off taking the RER to the Porte Maillot metro stop to hop a bus out to Paris Beauvais Airport (the airport Ryanair and other budget airlines fly out of). I had a direct flight to Tangier and it had only cost me €12 one way on Ryanair. The bus to Beauvais Airport actually cost €15 each way, so it was more than my plane ticket.
After a pleasant hour long bus ride, I arrived at Beauvais and proceeded to stand in an extremely long security line. When I finally got to the front, they told me I had to get out of line and go to the ticket counter so they could check my passport and stamp my boarding pass. I did this, and after waiting in line the second time, I was through in no time.
Beauvais Airport is pretty basic, as you might assume. It looks very similar to a bus station. My plane wasn't leaving for a while, and I hadn't eaten anything all day. There was a little coffee shop with sandwiches, but it was extremely overpriced. I then came across a vending machine. I put some money in, punched in the number for a candy bar, and nothing happened. I pushed the coin return button....still nothing. My blood started to boil. I then began shaking the machine violently in a fit of rage and hunger, but it was no use. Right at that time, I noticed people started lining up at my gate to board the flight to Tangier.
We then entered into a waiting area with a little booth where they check your passport. Now, if there's one thing the French are bad at, it's forming orderly lines. It was complete chaos. Everybody was trying to get through the passport control all at once. I finally made it through to another waiting area, and after an hour or so, we finally began boarding.
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| Very Minimal Legroom (As you may have guessed) |
The plane's interior was blue and bright yellow, as all Ryanair planes are. I have no clue why they have to make it those headache-inducing colors, but I guess Ryanair's big thing is making the experience as terrible as possible for the customer. Actually though, the flight was pretty good. The pilot was a friendly Irishman, the flight attendants were very courteous, and there were some great views out my window. What more could you want for €12?
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| Spanish Coast |
After a fairly short flight, we arrived in Tangier.
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| Tangier Airport |
Once in the terminal, I got some dirhams from the ATM. I noticed a sign saying that all taxi rides into town were 100 dirhams ($12.53).....kind of expensive for Morocco. I grabbed the first taxi I saw and was off to the Hotel El Oumnia Puerto. The taxi ride took about 15 minutes, and the hotel was very nice. I went up to my room to find my friend, who had arrived the night before, enjoying some Al Jazeera English.
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| Hotel Lobby |
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| Room |
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| Bathroom |
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| View from Window |
We then decided to walk around a bit and grab a bite to eat.
We went to this restaurant that seemed to be the nicest place to eat in Tangier. The food was extremely cheap. I got this giant Nicoise Salad and an ice cream sundae for the equivalent of about $4.
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| Odd Menu Translation |
After eating, we began walking some more. One thing about Morocco is that there are constantly people coming up to you trying to sell you drugs and prostitutes. One older man came up to try to sell us some drugs, and after we declined, he continued to follow us. He was very friendly, but didn't speak English very well. After about 30 minutes of him following us, we began to get sick of him. We walked into a store and he waited outside. When we came out about 10 minutes later, he was still there waiting for us. I tried to explain to him that we just wanted to explore on our own without him. He didn't really seem to understand. After a while, we said that we were just going to go back to our hotel. He asked us which hotel we were staying at, but we did not tell him. He said he would come to our hotel tomorrow morning to take us on a tour of the medina. We declined, but he persisted. We finally ended up giving him some money, and then he thankfully left.
After parting ways with our pal, we decided it was about time for dinner. We walked into a nearby restaurant and sat down. I ordered a three course meal that came with soup, fish, and a lemon tart.
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| Delicious Mint Tea |
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| Soup |
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| Fish |
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| Disgusting Rubbery Lemon Tart |
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning, we headed down to breakfast at the hotel. They had a pretty nice spread with pastries and fruit.
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| Breakfast |
After breakfast, we headed over to check out the medina. There really wasn't all that much to see. Just people selling used clothing and cell phones for the most part.
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| Medina |
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| Pet Store or Grocery Store? |
After that, the rest of the trip was pretty much spent just relaxing in the hotel. I headed to the airport the next morning for my flight back. I ordered some food at a little cafe and it was delicious. They had the best mint tea I've ever had.
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| Airport Food is the Best! |
One interesting thing about the Tangier Airport is that security has separate lines for men and women.
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| Really Bad Photo of Gender Separated Security Lines |
After waiting what seemed like forever, I boarded my Ryanair flight to Madrid. It was a very short flight, and I had a long layover in Madrid. After wandering aimlessly around the Madrid airport for a few hours and purchasing an extremely overpriced sandwich, I boarded my EasyJet flight back to Paris. This was quite possibly the worst flight of my life. My seatmate had the smell of a thousand skunks. Not to offend any French people out there, but you guys seriously need to shower more than once a month. I tried very hard to not to breathe through my nose during the flight, but when I breathed through my mouth, I could taste his stench. When I arrived at CDG, I took a huge breath of fresh air. Sadly, my flight had gotten in about two and a half hours late, so the RER was closed. I took the public bus into the city and then a taxi to my apartment, where I quickly passed out on my bed. Overall though, it was a great trip and I'd definitely like to visit some other cities in Morocco.
