Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The last week of my trip - in Morocco

The flight with Royal Air Maroq to Casablanca was on time, was mercifully completely unspectacular and six hours later I arrived in Morocco. This is already the fourth journey to Morocco, indeed, I have never been in the region Tangier / Riff Mountains. I wanted to combine some sight seeing in the area with the visit of an old friend of this trip – Mohsine, whom I got to know in Chameleon Backpackers in Windhoek.

Tanger
In Casablanca, it was very easy to move further on – there is a sprinter train from the airport to the big railway station in town. I was very lucky, as there was a train to Tangier just 15 minutes later. Just enough time to get a new simcard, to top it up with some credit and to run to the train!
After six hours, I arrived in Tangier, the journey passed very fast, because I was traveling with two very nice young ladies from England.
Mohsine fetched me at the railway station and took me to a small hotel near the old part of town.
Online, there are not too many positive comments about Tangier. I myself liked it a lot, there is quite a lot to see and to do, there is the medina (old town), which has very winding small streets with white, yellow and red houses, small shops, restaurants and hotels. There is a Kasbah (castle) with a good museum, a few old town gates and quite some nice lookouts at the sea. On a clear day, and I had quite many of them, it is easy to spot Spain on the other side!
Tanger
On one day we drove a little bit out of town. There are some parts of town, where there are lots of gigantic villas, which mostly belong to foreigners, above all Saudis. There are also many view points as well as the Hercules Cave, which faces the sea. The peephole reminds strongly of the map of Africa, however, it is all natural, not helped by man…
From Tangier, it is not far to Chefchaouen. I have been four times to Morocco but I never made it up there, although I always wanted to.
From Tangier, it takes three hours by bus. Though it is only 110 kilometers, but it is deep in the mountains.
Chefchaouen is a relatively small city in the Riff Mountains. They have a wonderful medina there with many crooked lanes, lots of blue houses, many shops, hotels and restaurants. Of course it is very touristy, but this absolutely has its reason – it is simply beautiful here, very quiet and the people are very relaxed. The latter might have partly its origin in the local habit of smoking Kif (hashish)….
Besides the old town, there are also the cascades, waterfalls. Here, local women come for doing their laundry. At the cascades, the way begins to the mosque which is on top of a hill nearby. From there, one has an excellent view of the old town.

Chefchaouen
After two days in Chefchaouen, I returned to Tangier to spend one more night and a day there. I had no bigger plans for this first of May, just spending some time at the beach and do maybe some last minute shopping. Actually, I wanted to take the night train to Casablanca, which leaves at 9 pm at Tangier and arrives at 04.30 am at Casa Voyageur in Casablanca. The sprinter train to the airport is just 20 minutes from there. So, I thought, that all this fits very well with my plane at 08.30 am to Frankfurt. Well, also on my last day in Africa, things went different.
On Tangier beach, I got to know a really nice family. They warned me from taking the night train out of three reasons: 1. there are lots of thieves especially on this train. 2. Exactly that night they change the time for summertime, which means that arrival time is one hour later. 3. Night trains in Morocco are very often one or more hours late…
Well, within seconds the whole plan seemed not that good anymore!

Chefchaouen
But there was a possibility – there was also a train at 5 pm! Moroccans love to help tourists, so, the family packed their things, took their children and me in their big car, drove me to my hotel, got the luggage there and within 15 minutes we were on the way to the train station.
As I had very nice fellow-passengers in the train, these six hours to Casablanca passed really fast. After travelling four months in francophone countries, my French has improved, so talking with fellow passengers was no problem anymore, as long as they were not talking too fast.
Chefchaouen
At 11 pm, I arrived at Casa Voyageur, the big train station in Casablanca. My fellow-passengers insisted on accompanying me to an inexpensive hotel close to the railway station. They claimed, that railway station areas are not exactly known as the safest places on earth at night time, which is probably very true, so I was very happy not to be by myself.
Well, on Sunday, 02.05.10, my Africa trip ended completely unspectacular  with a short train journey to Casablanca airport and 3.5 hours later I arrived in Frankfurt.
I knew, it would be cold in Germany, but I failed to imagine how cold 13 degrees centigrade can feel – simply very cold!

Chefchaouen
After 333 days (what a number!), my journey through Africa is finished. I have been to 16 countries. I brought home an estimated number of 15 000 photos, 17 nice colored simcards, I have many new friends, new impressions and new ideas. I made experiences, no one ever can take away and which I will hopefully be able to use in Germany as well. Maybe, it is going to be a little bit difficult to get used to cold, old Germany, but my husband Werner and my friends, Germans, Americans and last but not least my new African friends will help me to find back into life here. Monica, my friend from Windhoek, has summarized all this a few days ago quite well in a SMS: she thinks, that I experienced a lot last year in her continent, a lot of good things, but I had to face also quite a few bad things as well. Now it is time to go home. I am and I will remain her European African sister, I became part of Africa and its people and feel in Germany as in Africa at home, as I had the chance to take my time in Africa, to get to know the people, their culture and their traditions. I will miss my new friends, just as I am glad to see my old friends now again. However, I also know that she is right with one thing: we will soon meet again, that’s for sure….
When I write these last sentences, I am the first day back home. Still, everything is quite new, sometimes even unusual, but I am used now to face new things and make the best out of it. Why should I change this attitude here now?
Now, this is (at least for the moment) the last post "News of Africa".
Greetings from cold old Germany!

Chefchaouen