marrakesh, marrakesh-safi.

marrakesh came with a nice uniformed red earthy color contrasting the white and blue tangier. i have to say that we enjoyed tangier much more than marrakesh. tangier offers much more with the proximity to the sea. and getting lost in the medina (the old town with very narrow streets) of tangier was much more fun than in marrakesh. we went to marrakesh tanneries and was majorly disappointed because it wasn't as picturesque as i imagined it would be. (the more picturesque one supposed to be found in fez instead, i know).

it was in Jemma el-Fna, the most famous square in africa, where all the attractions happened. we spent our time from early evening to late at night just being in the square, moving from one eating place to another. the square is surrounded by lots of such places with terraces and balconies so it was very convenient to chill and enjoy what's there. the red tents in the middle of the square turned out to be eating places. they offered good food, but with rather aggressive salesmen, which was not surprising.

after spending almost a year being in many situations of multicultural environment, i couldn't help but notice the big gap of cultural differences. racism is of course wrong and having a stereotype isn't a nice thing either, but then the differences will always be there, at least the tendencies. being here in north africa encountering local people only strengthen that opinion of mine. i have to honestly say that i didn't have the nicest experience of hospitality and after such a hassle just to exit the country at the immigration, my conclusion is, yes it has it's own beauty, but it's not among the places i would miss or would want to visit again.

tangier, tanger-tetouan-al hoceima.

i knew the city of tangier from tom hiddleston's movie only lovers left alive. so when we were planning to visit morocco i instantly mentioned tangier. the city is located on the northern tip of morocco. we arrived here in quiet an adventurous journey from malaga to algeciras to finally taking a ferry crossing from tarifa, a city on the southern tip of spain. it was my first experience getting my passport stamped crossing the border by the sea. it's even more adventurous taking a taxi late at night from the port and arriving in the chaotic crowd of the medina (old city center). the streets are narrow i instantly felt lost in the middle of nowhere with the local kids who offered to take us to the hotel and to later of course asked for too much of a reward.

luckily the horrific feeling didn't continue once the sun rose. apparently the city is now quiet known to tourists so it wasn't as awkward as i thought it would be being foreigners. and in fact i did enjoy getting lost in the labyrinth of the medina. and it was an experience spending a quiet evening in a cafe, which brags itself for being featured on many international glam magazines, with the view overlooking spain, overlooking another continent (8th and 9th pictures), over the strait of gibraltar, which name i haven't heard of since long time ago in geography class.

i tried to re-watch the movie after the trip just to see whether we've been to the same place. and we did! it's more than a good feeling though, being able to be in a place that was once just some place out there you could only see on screen or read somewhere.