One Way Ticket

This is a view along the side of the old city wall of Tangier looking back at the harbor, the connecting point between Africa and Europe. Tangier has somewhat of a European feel, more so than here in Fez. We did an on and off bus tour in Tangier and walked in the old city. We found a wonderful museum there. Walking the old city was somewhat confusing in Tangier, but here in Fez walking the old city is impossible without getting lost, so we got a guide.

Our guide in Fez, Kareem, told us that the outside wall around the old city is 17 km long and that there are a half million people living within these walls. The old city is mostly inhabited by locals. We saw many many children on their way to school in the morning. Vendors still do sell to tourists along main streets within these walls, but there are 15,000 streets, most of which are short, unlit, 5 feet wide dead-end streets to peoples homes. This is so different from what we experienced in Lisbon. There it seemed there were very few people living in the old city and that it was mostly rentals for tourists.

What we noticed during our 5 hour walk with Kareem was that we saw only one tree and they were very few open squares. In Portugal there were many open squares with green spaces. We also have been noticing differences in recycling because we see no recycling places here, nor do we see garbage collection points. However, it is very clean here in Fez and Tangiers. Their system of garbage collection is a mystery to us. Also in Morocco we have seen little graffiti. We really have not had much contact with locals. People seem more reserved than in Portugal but they are friendly and want to be helpful when asked. There’s not much loud talking as there was in Portugal. Streets get quiet and shut down at 10 PM. There is no alcohol. The inner city is cool and dark with no direct sunlight. In the inner city, there are traditional male only coffee shops.