We arrived in Tangier at about 7pm, did the dance with a couple taxi drivers, and were refreshed to find the walk from our drop-off point to our hostel to be pleasant, quiet, and clean. We ended up staying at the northwest edge of the old city, which appears to be one of the nicer areas due to the views you can get off the cliff sides over the water. Tangier also has more of a European vibe and the architecture reflects that too. Since we had our large taco lunch in Chefchaouen, we decided to go to a smoothie cafe for a smaller, refreshing, and healthy dinner. On the way we stopped at a phone repair stall, which our hostel manager recommended, to see if Jen could get the camera lens on her phone fixed. We were told they could fix it but wanted to keep the phone overnight and we told them we’d think about it and come back tomorrow. Then they said they could fix it that night in 1 – 1.5 hours, so Jen opted to leave her phone with them while we went to dinner. After walking a bit to the smoothie shop, we were dismayed that it was closed (Google Map for the loss again). We couldn’t quickly find anything around that area that sounded good, so we walked back close to where Jen’s phone was being fixed to a Syrian restaurant we had flagged. This restaurant was a very memorable dining experience for us! It was a very small establishment, only 4-5 tables inside, and offered very affordable dishes. We ordered a red pepper dip with Syrian pita bread, falafel, and kibbeh (which reminded us of a corn dog outside stuffed with meat, onion, and spices). I also ordered a lemon, mint, and ginger drink which was fabulous and refreshing. Probably the best drink I had in all of Morocco! The restaurant appeared to be run by a family and the wife server was delightful. After dinner we went to retrieve Jen’s phone and it was “brand new”, according to the shop owner, and fixed. We were impressed by the low cost and quick turnaround of the fix.
We had only 1 full day in Tangier and began with a slow morning to get coffee and breakfast. Everywhere we have stayed since Casablanca has included breakfast, so it was a bit of a novelty to venture out for breakfast. We first tried a spot called Tsood which showed extravagant pastries and croissant sandwiches on Google, but sadly only offered coffee and pastries from a grocery store. The spot was really cool though, in this artsy alleyway and the vibe and aesthetic were very on point. We hung out for a bit with our coffee but were starving and headed down to another breakfast spot we had flagged. So the large breakfast we were getting at the hostel in Fes was not an anomaly, we found out that was the norm once we got to Coffee House. Their breakfast offerings: the French, Moroccan, Spanish, or American; all included orange juice, coffee, a bottle of water, and then a variety of yogurt, eggs, toast, pastry, cheese, & fruit. Incredible deal for $4 each! It was warm out and pleasant to be outside, so we opted to take breakfast on the terrace and keep our morning slow.
We decided that we did not need to see another medina, souk, market, etc. and decided to walk up the hillside and explore the views along the coast going west. The neighborhood we walked through was quiet, nice, and had a lot of green space and parks. We popped in and out of side streets to gain some nice views of the water and Spain across the channel. Our plan was to eventually end at a coffee truck down along the water once we passed a royal palace. As we were passing the palace, the midday call the prayer began. Since Friday is the holy day of the week for Muslims, more people than normal were out and heading to the neighborhood mosque. As we approached the street we needed to turn down to get to the water, we realized that the neighborhood mosque was on this street and worship was beginning. Not being sure of the customs and seeing only men in the street, also in the yard of the mosque for overflow, we decided against going to the water and circling back around the palace. This was the first time we were in a city on a Friday during our time in Morocco as we realized that every other Friday we had been in transit. On Friday’s there is a sermon during the day and it is read through the speakers outside the mosque. As we walked back through one of the parks, multiple men were praying on their mats (something we had not really noticed otherwise during our trip).
Jen had flagged a cafe on the hillside, so we decided to check that out. The view from the cafe was very nice, the mint tea was good, and the service was terrible. Even though we read that tipping in Morocco is part of the custom, it does not appear that many people try hard to receive these tips. I just can’t imagine what the service is like during high season when there are 5 times the people needing to be attended to. After the cafe we went for some ZaaZaa, a Moroccan smoothie parfait thing which we still are unsure what it means or what the different types are. Our waitress did not speak any English, so the older couple sitting next to us nicely helped us better understand the ZaaZaa varieties offered. I ordered an avocado based one that was topped with chocolate and a cookie, and Jen ordered a mixed fruit one with mango and orange also topped with a cookie. We chatted with the older couple while enjoying our drinks and learned they live in eastern Morocco basically on the border with Algeria and they were in Fes for a vacation, also visiting Chefchaouen the day before.
We arrived back at our hostel to rest and check out the terrace. Two other guests were on the terrace when we arrived and we visited with them for around an hour. They both had just arrived in Morocco, separately, and we gave them our opinions on where to go, what to see, and for how long. After the sun became too much we retreated to our room for a little while before heading out for out last dinner in Morocco. The night before we talked about ordering our favorite dish for our last night and also since Friday is “couscous day” (the dish Muslims eat after the holy day sermon) we thought it was appropriate to get some couscous as well. We went to Chez Hassan which Jen found mentioned in some blogs and our hostel manager separately recommended and ordered the beef tagine with prunes and and vegetarian couscous. We have really enjoyed the beef tagine that is accompanied with sweet fruits because the sauce it creates is very delicious. The vibe at Chez Hassan was good and we comfortably sat outside for our meal. Once we paid and got our change we counted how much money we had remaining for breakfast and a taxi to the airport the following morning. Our hostel manager confirmed that the taxi costs a flat rate of 150 MAD, so that left us with 58.5 MAD for breakfast. We went back to the ZaaZaa shop for breakfast and each got 2 eggs and a coffee for 54 MAD total, and made it out of Morocco with no money to spare!
Over 22 days in Morocco we spent the night in 7 different cities/ towns, covered 1,005 miles across the country on 1 train, 3 buses, and 2 shared taxis, and spent an average of $75.30 a day per person including our flight to Morocco from Seattle (the taxes we paid for the award fare we redeemed).