We woke up and checked out leaving our luggage with the clerk at the Hotel Madrid. Then we went to the free city hall internet place as usual for my daily blog dump and to look into options for Tangier. The wikitravel site was pretty good listing a number of places and explaining how to get there.
Then we went to try to find a few last minute purchases I needed like a couple of combination locks and dark sunglasses. We got some sunglasses for €6 and then got the locks at a slightly out of the way El Corte Inglés. After that Elena wanted to eat. We couldn't find anything that had the type of food she wanted (she wasn't in the mood for bread) so we just got some stuff at the basement of El Corte Inglés and headed back to the Hotel Madrid. We ate our lunch in their dining room and had the clerk call us a cab. We weren't sure about the best way to get from the Madrid to the San Sebastian bus station. We sure weren't relishing a walk in the head with all our luggage. Nor we were relishing a walk half as long to the tram and then paying €4,20 for 2 tickets. The cab came and I watched the meter. It crept along slowly and finally stopped at just about €7. Not too bad. We got our heavy heavy luggage to the station for less than twice what the much less convenient bus or tram would have cost.
Once there, we found our bus and soon--2:00 on the dot--we were on our way. Woe to the guy who shows up 10 seconds late in Spain, I guess. We had nice seats--in front with a view out the window. We watched the Andalucian landscape--cows, sunflowers, rolling hills. I tried to see if the character in The Alchemist would be able to lead his flock of sheep over the landscape. I didn't really see how.
The bus made a few stops and picked up and dropped off people--then a longer stop at a place that barely counts as a rest stop. Then we finally made it to Tangier. We got dropped off on the edge of town. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I found a map that showed the terminal, but it didn't have a "you are here". Elena found a girl with a Lonely Planet Spain guide book and I think she wanted to ask, but it looked to me that all we had to do was go into town and then turn right to get to the port. So we headed off. We walked about 6 or so blocks parallel to the coast and then about 4 toward the coast.
Then the port came into view. We made our way down to the port. There were travel agents selling Fast Ferry tickets but we didn't really see an official ticket booth. Elena guarded the luggage in a shady bench area while I went to the last travel agent. I went in and tried to buy 2 tickets, but I needed both passports. So I came back, got Elena's passport and got the tickets. €31 each.
Then we decided to eat at a place by where she waited called Bamboo. We each had a panini €4,00 for mine and €3,70 for Elena's and I had a beer (€1,50) and she had a cappucino (€1,90). After we paid, we headed to the ferry terminal. Again I was reminded of The Alchemist because the Melchedesic character looks down on the streets of Tarifa from a Moorish ruin. I snapped pictures of 2 such possible ruins. It could be this:
Or maybe this:
Here is our ferry.
As we got our boarding passes, the woman told me that the 7pm ferry would sail at 8pm. Hmm.... I don't want delays because I didn't want to search for a hotel in the dark. Oh well. We waited in a waiting room with mostly Moroccans. Almost all the women wore gowns with headscarfs. We waited for the Passport Control officers to came and process us. Elena predicted they would be for Moroccan immigration--sort of the way flights to America work in Vancouver where you clear customs in Vancouver and then the flight is essentially a US domestic flight after that. I wasn't so sure. With not much time left to board, the officers finally came. It turned out that they were just there for the exit stamp. So I got my exit stamp indicating it left Europe by boat from Tarifa.
We boarded the boat and since there was a flight of stairs, fairly crowded (people 2 flights up were helping an elderly or handicapped person up the stairs), Elena decided to deposte her heavy luggage by some other heavy luggages on the car deck. We eventually settled on a place to sit and Elena went out to feel the wind and take some pictures.
On our way up, we noticed there was also a passport control on the ferry itself and there was a very long lineup. I figured they were people who came on board via the bus or cars because our passport control appeared to be just walk-on passengers.
The trip was uneventful. Lots of people were filling out their customs form. We already had because we thought we needed it at the first passport control. Then after about a half hour, the announcement that the ferry was about to dock. We went down and noticed everyone was lining up at the passport control window. Then an announcement came on and said that you clear Moroccan customs on board and you can't leave the ship until you get a stamp. Hmmm.... Elena went down to get her heavy bag. And we lined up. A drunk guy threw up and all the more pious looking Moroccans looked at him with disapproval, but he was too drunk to care. The line moved very very slowly. People were wondering what was happening. People were asking in French, Arabic, and Spanish. Small arguments were happening. We waited about 1.5 hours in line. Elena was not happy about waiting in line. I guess she didn't appreciate my attempt to show her first hand how efficient African bureaucracies are. I told her that we'll look back on this and laugh, but she wasn't in a laughing mood now. At one point two men came in and tried to butt in front of the line but the people near the front defended their positions with vigor. He eventually ran off in a huff after arguing with half the people in line. Another guy, not sure what nationality, was loudly denouncing the inefficiencies and got the hackles of a couple of young Moroccans for basically saying that their country was bad and inefficient. I kept one eye on all the anger and the other eye on the setting sun. We didn't want to search for our hotel in the dark, but the sun was very low in the sky.
Finally, we got to the window and watched as the officers handwrote a bunch of stuff and then made 4 stamps (bureaucrats just loooove stamps). By the way, the French word for stamp is tampon. Just a piece of trivia. So finally we were able to leave. We got on the gangway, got by a bunch of people loading up a cart on the gangway, and then three men standing there grabbed me. I tried to get through, but they asked for my passport. I thought they were touts, but they were police and just needed to check my passport. They didn't have official looking uniforms and were just standing thre in the gangway, so I didn't take them for police.
We got off the gangway and started walking toward the exit of the port. It is a fairly long walk to the exit of the port. We passed a bunch of ATMs but Elena refused to let me withdraw dirhams. That sort of pissed me off. We always disagree on that matter. I like to get the currency of the country I'm visiting as soon as we get to the country--especially if it is a place where credit cards don't work. Anyway we went on.
Our plan was to find something fast. Elena really wanted to stay at the Hotel Continental which was recommended on wikitravel and was supposed to be about €33. But I would rather get something cheap and convenient. But since we knew of the Hotel Continental, when I saw a sign immediately upon leaving the port pointing to the right, I went to the right. The streets were lively. We went up a couple of switchbacks. There were a few more signs pointing to the Continental, but the directions were ambiguous. Then we saw, somewhat painted over, the sign for La Gitana. According to wikitravel, many of the pensions and hotels are in the street leading from the top of the stairs by La Gitana. So we went up about 3 flights of stairs. Sure enough. Plenty of pensions. We popped into one. I asked in my French if they had a room for 2. Yes. How much? 30 dh per person. Wow! It's about 7 dh per US$. So that's like a little less than US$5. Or US$10 for both of us. The catch? Shared bathroom. That is Elena's one sticking point. It must have full bathroom facilities in the room. SO we went to another. Again they had rooms, but not with the bathroom. A third, same thing. So Elena asked the guy where the Continental is. Right, right by a patisserie, left, and a ways. We got the right and right part, but got lost. Then there seemed to be some sort of fight. An older man said something to me. I asked in French if this was the direction to the Continental. He said yes, but he started leading us. I hadn't really wanted a guide--just a point. He took us down some narrow streets that were on the verge of being deserted. We weren't sure what was going to happen. Was he leading us to some thieves lair? Finally, we appeared at the Continental. I thanked him and tipped him a 1€ coin. I'm glad we didn't have to try to find it oun our own.
Going in, I told Elena that since we were here, this was where we were going to have to stay. We went in. They had rooms. A double is 525 dh. So it is about US$80. About $70 more than the place we could have stayed. Oh well. They have WiFi. And breakfast.
We filled in a long form with all sorts of information similar to our Moroccan customs declaration form. Then the hotel guy filled in an identical form and recorded it all in a ledger. Ah, bureaucracy. We got our room key and came up. Our room does have full bathroom facilities. But no soap and neither of us remembered to bring soap.
No comments:
Post a Comment