Part III: Seville-Algeciras-Tangier-Marrakech
The bus ride from Madrid to Seville was not all that great either... Halfway through the bus ride (at around 2-3am), the bus had to make a pit stop for gas, which meant a bathroom break, which meant running outside in the dark/cold to the convenience store.
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| this is what it looked like in paris when i left (taken on my ipod) - finally got my ipod back today from my friend after leaving it with her in morocco by accident. |
And sleeping on a bus in the aisle seat is not ideal at all. I'd booked a window seat, but of course, the Spanish guy next to me had boarded the bus first, took my spot, and didn't understand my broken Spanish and stayed in my window seat. Sigh.
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| landed in barcelona with this! :D |
So at 6am, the bus pulled into Seville. Originally, I had wanted to maybe see some of Seville before my next bus left at 930am from a different station, but it was freezing cold and dark. So, this next photo is what I looked at for the next 3 hours after taking at taxi to the next station.
Originally, I had wanted to go to Gibraltar (which you can see faintly in the picture above), but after thinking about it, it would have been way too much of rush to get there, explore for a couple hours, then take the 30min bus back to Algeciras for the ferry to Tangier. So, maybe next time, Gibraltar.
After getting to Algeciras, it was about a five minute walk down to the port. Instead of taking the 5pm ferry, which was still a couple hours away and there didn't seem to be all that much to do in Algeciras, I got on the next ferry to Tangier at 2pm.
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| the ferry to Tangier |
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| gibraltar in the background |
In the end, i guess it didn't matter that I had taken the earlier ferry, because with all the loading they did (animals and a ton of other stuff), we left an hour or more later than expected. But since I wasn't in a huge hurry (the train to Marrakech left at 9pm and the time in Morocco is an hour behind), it was nice to just enjoy the sun and the water - two of my favorite things :)
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| finally moving! |
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| i spy gibraltar! |
On the ferry, i met an old frenchman who was traveling to morocco with a group of his friends. he was really nice and ended up being very helpful. The Moroccan 'customs' desk was on the ferry, so to get in the country, you had to get your passport stamped on the boat, then get checked on land that you had gotten your stamp. Otherwise, you had to get back on the boat to get your passport stamped, then get off again (the couple in front of me had to do this).
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| first look at africa! :D |
After getting off the ferry, there was a bus waiting. It waited for about 20 minutes for everyone to get on, then took a 2 min journey to the top of the hill - yes, TWO minutes. There, we passed through metal detectors that were turned off and put our bags through a screening machine.
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| hello tangier! |
Then, there was a bus to the city, but on the ferry, I met an American couple from DC that was traveling to Tangier for about an hour (yeah, seriously..). And since the ferry had been late, they didn't have much time. The trip to the city was about 30 minutes away from the port. So, we got a taxi together to the city - much faster than the shuttle. We ended up meeting a 'guide' (the guy below) and got a quick tour of about 15 minutes before the couple headed back to the port to catch the last ferry of the day.
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| what seemed like a nice tour guide was a guy who took us around for 15 minutes then proceeded to beg us for money for another 5 minutes... after giving like 1€ (he asked for 10€!), i learned not to make 'friends' in morocco... |
From the view where I took the picture above, we could see the general area I guess where the Mediterranean Sea met the Atlantic Ocean, which was kinda cool I guess? (It was just a bunch of water) Tangier seemed nice, but every few seconds, someone would come up begging for money or trying to sell something. It was quite overwhelming, and I was definitely ready to leave. Honestly, I was a bit scared for the rest of the trip, kinda dreading it because of the time in Tangier. Good thing Marrakech was WAY better than Tangier.
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| don't you wish your local mcds looked like this? :P |
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| one of the good things about my trip to tangier - the sunset :) |
At the train station, there were two German guys that had also been on the ferry. We ended up traveling together down to Marrakech, where they were also headed. And it was actually a good thing, because one of them had already traveled to Morocco a couple of times before! So, it was great to have some insight on Morocco - I didn't really research much before going, so I didn't have much of an idea about the culture, food, etc.
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| the first of many mint teas - so good |
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| yummy chicken wrap - only after eating it did i realize that i shouldn't be eating raw things (salad, etc.) since i'm not used to the water... but i didn't get sick! phew. no more raw stuff after this though.. |
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| mcds from the other side :P - in arabic! (adding to mc collection of mcds in different countries..:P) |
So after a nice dinner and waiting by the beach, we boarded the train to Marrakech. It was the best night of sleep I'd had since Barcelona! For the first part of the 11 hour journey, we made some playing cards, then slept for the rest of the way. The trip went by in a flash, and next thing I knew, we were waking up about twenty minutes from Marrakech! :D I was pretty excited, because that meant I was going to be able to get a SHOWER soon! :P
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| travel buddies in the super tiny train compartment for 11 hours.. |
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| makeshift cards/poker table |
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| almost to marrakech! |
Next post: Marrakech and the Sahara! :D
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