Tangier, Morocco: The Do's and Don'ts

    For anybody out there who is about to embark on an adventure to Tangier, Morocco, here are my two cents from spending last weekend there. I can't speak for the whole country of course, but these might be helpful.

DO'S

• Do wear a money belt. Super cheesey and touristy, but pickpocketing is bad enough to warrant one.
• Do pack a crapload of sunscreen. The sun, she is very hot there, though the breeze off the Straight of Gilbraltar is wonderfully refreshing.
• Do stay at the Hotel Dar Jameel. Great value, delicious breakfast, and wonderful staff.
• Do try some of the traditional Moroccan cuisine: couscous, tagine, honey cakes, and especially the mint tea!
• Do bring hand sanitizer. Most bathrooms will not have soap.
• Do bring a small packet of tissues, as many bathrooms will not have TP.
• Do go to the souk (market) prepared to barter. We got a gorgeous silk bedspread for €35 instead of €280. Smile a lot and unleash your charm!
• Do ignore the beggars, crap vendors, spontaneous tour guides. It feels very rude, but the best thing to do is avoid eye contact and do not respond to anything they say.
• One guy kept trying to get us to go to his restaurant, and his tactics ended with him screaming at us down the street, "You are shit people!!!"
• Do prepare yourself for a totally different and unique experience. That's what travel is all about, right?
  

DON'TS

• Whatever you do, DON'T drink the water!!!!! Brush your teeth with bottled water, keep your mouth closed when you shower, and do not eat anything that hasn't been introduced to flame (raw meats, salad, raw fruits and vegetables, etc.) 
• Don't point at anything in the souk unless you're ready to get pounced on by the vendor, or interested in making a purchase.
• Don't arrange for your own "tour guide". A lot of men on the street will try to show you around, but in the end will most likely only take you to their friends' shops then charge you an exorbitant price. Stick to arranging something at your hotel, who should be able to recommend someone legit.
• Don't be out much after the sun goes down. While there are many more dangerous countries out there, it is still third world and in times of economic difficulty. Be safe.
• Don't bring your shorts or tank tops. That goes for menfolk and womenfolk (so boys, make sure you leave your tank tops at home...) Obviously you are not going to blend it, but you can be less obvious.
• TIP: My uniform the whole time I was there was a long skirt, an oversized men's dress shirt, sunglasses, and a sun hat (hid my short and partially pink hair and protected my face from the sun.)
• Don't get henna done from the women on the beach. They are old prostitues who moonlight as pickpockets and will probably rip you off.
• TIP: One whole hand (back of hand, fingers, and the palm) should cost about €2. A friend of mine was relieved of €40 for one hand, so be careful!
• TIP: The hotel I stayed at arranged for a professional come in to do henna for me. Better option.  

    Tangier is a fascinating city full of contrasts. It was described to me like a gaudy and fabulous old woman sitting at the end of the bar who you can't help but watch. She has seen a lot of life and is a bit jaded, but still likes to have a good time. It's the perfect description.

Happy adventuring!
*Olivia

 

Las bebidas de España (the drinks of Spain)

    I'm not sure why I have a blog dedicated to travel if I never update it. My new and dear friend Danica has encouraged me to be better about it, so here we go:

    I want to talk a little bit about my favorite beverages in Spain. Why? Because they are delicious. Like, really delicious. Let's start off with the morning tradition that most of the western world knows and loves: coffee. There are several kinds of ways to get coffee here. Café solo, which is just a couple shots of espresso in a wee mug, like you might find in Italy. You can also get café cortado, which is espresso with a little splash of hot milk. But my favorite is café con leche, which, as you might have guessed, is half espresso and half hot milk. It looks like this:
At a lot of places they add the espresso shots to a small glass (that's right, a GLASS), then place it on a saucer with a tiny little spoon and a ginormous packet of sugar. To give you an idea of the size, one sugar packet in España is the equivalent of about three or four packets of sugar in America. Super caffeinated sugar fiends. So then they steam the milk in a metal pitcher, bring it over to you, and fill the glass to the top. Sometimes they'll ask you if you want a bit of cold milk on top to cool it down. But that is for the weak.

The next tasty beverage is chocolate. I will not call it hot chocolate, because that doesn't come close to describing the luxious richness of this drink. I thought the hot chocolate at Burdick's in Harvard Square was the best in the world. In fact, I felt fairly confident of that. My friends, I was dead wrong. Spain's chocolate kicks Burdick's right in the buttocks. This is my favorite thing to order with churros, which are simply long and phallic pieces of fried dough. Unlike the churros you might find at Costco or BJs, these are the real deal. They are fresh, they are not covered with cinnamon and sugar, and there is a strong possibility that they contain traces of heroin, because I am addicted. Some people I know don't like it, saying it is too thick. At them I scoff. Clearly, you dunk your churros into the chocolate and it is delicious. But after the churros are gone, what do you do with the chocolate that remains? Leave it? Absolutely not! You drink that shit down and then look for other people's cups to finish too!

    Side note: there is a strong chance that during the course of my time in Europe I may go into a diabetic coma. If this happens, I would like to state for the record in advance that I have no regrets.

    The last beverage is one for adults only... barely. It is called tinto de verano (red wine of the summer), and is comprised mostly of lemon Fanta (mmmmmm) with a splash of red wine to give it a lovely pink color. It looks like this:
and I wanted to include a large picture because it is by far my favorite. Apparently it takes like sangría in the States, and the sangría in Spain so far has seemed to just taste like evil red wine with ice cubes. Blech. Tinto de verano is clearly the only way to go. Apparently Stephen gets funny looks when he orders one, which has led him to believe that tinto is a chick drink. But it still doesn't stop him from ordering them... :)

    There is still lots more to say, but today is the last day of classes (how quickly five weeks go by!) and I have my last exam coming up. Still to come: more about Granada and some pictures, helpful hints, and general impressions about MOROCCO! Yes! I have added the continent of Africa to my list of places I have been. Anyway, until then stay cool and happy adventuring!

*Olivia

I'm meeeeelting (literally.)

    Oh Granada in the afternoon... The only people on the street are tourists or people who have terrible luck. Why, you might ask?
    Because Granada, my friends, is fucking hot.
    When I talked to people who had been there before I came here, every one of them said something the lines of "The Alhambra is awesome and oh yeah, it's hot" Me, sitting pretty in nice, chilly Boston, thought, "Woo-hoo, I love hot weather!" I'm here to tell you that my love of hot weather has significantly diminished, and often fond thoughts of winter's bitter cold cross my mind and I long for its return. There is no escaping... hence the invention of the siesta. Everyone with a brain in their heads goes inside, shuts the windows, and just hangs out for a bit. Once the less-than-200-miles-from-African sun starts to descend a bit, then the people come out in droves. Especially from Thursday - Sunday, there are people on the streets until the small hours of the morning. Last weekend I had to go back to the house by midnight for a phone date with my beau, and the people I was with were disappointed it was so early.
     I don't know how they do it, these Spaniards! They go on no sleep and they have so much time between meals. Breakfast is usually strong coffee with toasted bread, scrubbed with a tomato, drizzled with incredible olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, possibly accompanied by a cigarette. That's right when they get up. Then they wait until 1, 2, sometimes 3 before they even have lunch! Lunch is usually a few courses: gazpacho or salad, followed by pork, chicken, or fish with some kind of side dish. Dinner is a late and casual affair, between 9 and 10. Tapas are a very popular dinner. Some serrano ham with machego cheese, olives, sausages with little pieces of bread... You get the idea. And it's all really delicious. But I have to confess, I am American through and through when it comes to my meal plans. I'd rather have five tapas throughout the day than go so long sans food. When being hungry combines with the heat and the thirst produced by said heat, it's enough to turn me into a cave troll for most of the afternoon. The only surefire cure is ice cream :) Which, luckily for me, is very popular and extremely delicious.
     With all the carbs and all the amazing sweets, I do not understand how Spanish women stay so slim. Seriously, most of the women here look like they just walked off the pages of a magazine. They don't generally wear too much makeup. Long hair, skinny skinny jeans, heels, long necklaces. Even during the summer the women in Madrid often wore a blazer or a short leather jacket. In Granada fashion is slightly more relaxed. You can't really wear heels, unless you want them to get caught in the cobblestones that make up most of the streets, and you can't wear a jacket because, well, you would probably get heat stroke and die. You can, however, wear super cute and comfy harem pants (which I happen to be wearing at this very moment), interesting leather sandals, and wonderfully breezey dresses. I have not seen a pair of sweatpants or little booty shorts that read "juicy" on the buttcheeks in like a week and a half, and that's pretty wunderbar.
     So... that's Spain, in a very small nutshell; like a sunflower seed shell. There is much more to say but, like my meals, I prefer to keep things short and sweet. There will be more entries on my adventures thus far in Madrid, Toledo, and Granada, but not today. Today's siesta is over and I'm happy to have spent it writing. Everybody stay cool out there.

Happy adventuring!
*Olivia

 "Dale limosna, mujere, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada."

"Give alms, woman, that there is nothing worse in life than being blind in Granada."

- Francisco de Icaza