Morocco Trip Report

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.  

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?

Spanish Coast

After a fairly short flight, we arrived in Tangier.  

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. 

Hotel Lobby

Room

Bathroom

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.  

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.

Delicious Mint Tea

Soup

Fish

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.  

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.

Medina

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.

Airport Food is the Best!

One interesting thing about the Tangier Airport is that security has separate lines for men and women.

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.

Awesome Article

USA Today posted an article today about Airbus's plane of the future.  It's got a really cool video.  Some of the features include adjustable seat configurations, a "vitalizing zone," and an overhead bin with a conveyor belt mechanism.  Obviously, it's just a concept, but still very cool nonetheless.  Check it out: http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/06/airbus-aircraft-of-the-future/174521/1

American Movies in France

I spent last semester studying abroad in Paris, and noticed quite a few interesting things while I was there.  One thing that amused me was the names the French gave to American movies.  Most of the time the movie title translation wouldn't even be in French.  It would just be a different title, yet still in English. My two favorites were:

The Hangover 2

No Strings Attached

Mileage Run to Raleigh

I just got back from a mileage run from DEN-PHX-IAH-RDU-IAH-PHX-DEN.  I awoke at around 4 am to leave for the airport for my 6 am flight to Phoenix on US Airways.  I arrived at the airport, grudgingly was herded through the security line, got my dose of radiation from the body-scanner, and eventually made it to my gate just in time.   As I made the long trek to my aisle seat all the way at the back of the plane, I noticed a very ill looking man sitting in a middle seat and prayed to god that my seat wasn't next to him.  Of course, it was, and I got to enjoy a 2 hour long flight with him constantly blowing his nose in my face.

I arrived in Phoenix around 7 am where I had a 6 hour layover.  Phoenix Airport is in need of some serious renovations.  It's so outdated and ugly.  However, they do have a cool parking garage.  It's pretty architecturally significant for a parking garage.  I considered hanging out in the cool looking parking garage rather than the dingy terminal.

Phoenix Sky Harbor Parking Garage

 As my layover continued, I grew to hate Phoenix Airport.  They have free wifi, but it's impossible to use because it's so slow.  Without internet, time passes by excruciatingly slow.  In addition, PHX has terrible food options.  They don't have much variety.  There's a Pizza Hut and a TCBY about every 10 feet, but not much else.  As much as I love me some Pizza Hut, I decided to try a burrito place.  The burrito wasn't very good, but decent enough.  Some TSA lady even came up to me to ask where I got the burrito proclaiming that it looked like the most delicious thing she'd ever seen.  It wasn't that good, but it did fill me up.

As my flight time approached, I boarded a bus to Terminal 2 and then waited in the longest security line ever.  With my Star Alliance Silver status, I was one of the first to board my Continental flight to Houston.  I don't even know why I boarded so early as I didn't have any bags and the thought of being trapped in that metal tube in coach class for longer than I have to isn't a pleasant one.  Fortunately, our 737 was pretty nice.  It had TVs with DirecTV, but you had to pay for it.

DirecTV

Two and a half hours later, our plane landed in Houston where I spent an hour searching for a decent place to eat.  I finally settled on Popeye's, which is damn good but I always feel a clenching pain in my arteries each time I eat there.  After eating, I headed to my gate where I heard the gate agent announcing that our flight was oversold and was asking for volunteers to be bumped in exchange for a $250 voucher.  I quickly sprinted over, almost falling flat on my face, but by the time I got there enough people had already volunteered.  :(

After an uneventful flight to Raleigh, we deplaned and I headed for the Hilton Garden Inn shuttle.  I road the shuttle with some businessman who told me how much he hated Raleigh and how unhappy he was to be there.  I checked into the hotel at about midnight, and was given a nice room on the top floor with a great view of the dumpster.  My room was much nicer than I was expecting and the bed was extremely comfortable.

After some quality time with the TV, I awoke 2 hours later to the sound of my alarm.  It was time to head back to the airport after only 3 hours in the hotel.  I left my room to find a USA Today sitting at my doorstep.  Now that's service (I'm very easily impressed)!

The hotel also had a pretty nice lobby.

HGI Lobby

I arrived at Raleigh Airport with plenty of time to spare.  The airport is really nice and new.  I think it was recently renovated. 

RDU

One thing that's crazy is how long the line at Starbucks was. It was basically just 50 people standing there twitching as they daydreamed about their next caffeine fix.

Starbucks

At 6 am, I boarded my flight to Houston where I got the entire row to myself.  After arriving in Houston, I wandered aimlessly around the airport for a bit.  One thing I realized after spending basically the last 24 hours in airports was how much I wanted a new wardrobe from Brooks Brothers.  One day I will do all my shopping at airport Brooks Brothers.  The most expensive shirt I currently own is a $10 polo from Ross, so I could use an upgrade.

Brooks Brothers - IAH

Brooks Brothers - RDU

George H.W. Bush statue - IAH (Ammmmurrrica!!)

I grabbed some food at the most disgusting taco restaurant on earth.  Seriously, I thought my food had been seasoned with ebola.  After trying unsuccessfully to digest my food, I boarded my flight to Phoenix.  I was saddened to see that I would be sitting next to quite possibly the fattest woman on earth.  Like she was Guinness World Record fat!  She had the armrest up so her fat could spill into my seat.  Not to mention, this flight must of had at least 10 crying babies.  I never understand why people bring babies on planes.  Is it federally mandated that there be a baby on every flight?  I don't think I've ever been on a flight where there wasn't a crying baby.  This flight was worsened by the fact that there was some giant family of hicks on the plane.  They were extremely noisy and rowdy.  Is it really necessary to yell to your daughter (who's probably also your sister) sitting three rows behind you that the baby needs to be burped?

One thing I hate about Continental is how their first class curtain is see-through.  Not only is there a pretentious curtain separating me from the luxury of first class, but I have to look in on the lucky people enjoying their food and plush seats while I sit there in the hellscape known as economy class.

Evil see-through curtain

Our plane finally landed in Phoenix and I was happy to be off.  Just one last flight and I was home free!  My last flight went by fairly quickly thanks to Tetris and the fact that my seatmate wasn't a gorilla.  When I arrived in Denver, I kissed the ground thankful to be done with flying.  Because of these flights, I am now on track to secure Star Alliance Gold status with Aegean which should come in handy for future mileage runs due to the lounge access.  Thanks for reading.

Old Seatback TVs

I was on a United flight from Paris to Washington earlier this month where I was happy to find the plane had seatback TVs, but unhappy to find that the TVs were probably older than me.  The picture quality was terrible as was the sound.  They basically had 4 movies playing on a constant loop that you could switch between as opposed to the TVs where you can pick what you want to see and watch at your own pace.  You think United would update their in-flight entertainment especially on a route like Paris to DC, but I suppose it's better to have crappy TVs than none at all.