Wednesday, March 27, 2002 07:35
Weather: Sunny and cool
Location: Salon de Thé Metropole, Tangier

Although there were apparently no places to be had in the couchette car (see previous post) my compartment (with 4 couchettes) only had two occupants: me and a Moroccan woman from Marrakesh who was going on holiday for a few days. It was stiflingly hot, with no air conditioning, but once we were underway with the window open it cooled to a comfortable temperature quite quickly.

The bedding for the night was a single sheet and a limp pillow. I took out the sheet sleeping bag that I had brought -- quite pleased that it had come in handy since I hadn´t needed it to this point -- and made myself comfortable.

I chetted with the Moroccan woman for about an hour. She had recently married a Canadian man (of Moroccan descent), but prior to their marriage had not been granted a visa to visit him in Montreal. The Canadian authorities took the application fee (Dr. 560, about $75) both times she applied, but in each case her passport came back with a new stamp: ¨Visa Denied¨. This sounded very harsh to me. She said she was able to travel for short periods to Europe, and had studied in Spain, which helped.

About an hour after departure, I decided it was time to get some sleep. I´d kept the blindfold and earplugs from my Lufthansa flight over, and I bid goodnight to the woman, pulled them on, and was soon asleep. I woke up a couple of times during the night, but generally slept very well.

We pulled into Tangier at 6 this morning. There were many petits taxi outside the station, their drivers pushing aggressively to take us, dazed, on roundabout routes to the port. I refused to be rushed, pulled out my guidebook, and planned my next steps. I then caught a taxi and negotiated a reasonable rate to go downtown, where I found a café near the offices of the Transmediterranea ferries and near an Internet café. I would like to be able to show up at the port ready to pass through the gauntlet of touts with ticket in hand.
posted by Tom at 7:55 AM | link |