Tangier and the Rif Mountains
Hi once again,
I’m once again back in Fes after a little 3 day trip that Megan and I took up to Tangier and the Rif Mountains.
We started out on Tuesday morning with a little trip to the medina for some train snacks. I’m addicted to the bread and the olives here, so good. Anyways, our train journey took a bit longer than anticipated. The ticket guy at the station told us that we had to transfer trains about 2 hours into the trip. At less than 2 hours though into the trip, Megan checked with some of the people that we were sitting with and they told us that Sidi Kacem (our transfer stop) was the previous station. Further proof that it’s always good to ask more than one person. We decided to get over at the next stop and make our way back to the needed stop. The conductor saw us and freaked out (“you were supposed to get out at the last stop!”). Anyways, he phoned someone else to find out what to do about us. It was all in Arabic, but I’m sure the words, “the dumb foreigners who missed their stop,” played a role in that conversation. It was decided that we were allowed to take the train back to Sidi Kacem for free, which saved us some Dirhams.
We eventually made it into Tangier a few hours later. Tangier is located right on the northern tip of Morocco and is a large port city. As in the case of most port cities (Alexandria and Naples come to mind), it definitely has that seedy port vibe. Despite this, Tangier is pretty in its own sort of way. The medina and kasbah are located right near the port, so in some ways it’s like a city of contrasts- an old medina and kasbah against the backdrop of a ferry terminal, camels trekking along the beach with modern buildings in the background.
After seeing some of the sights of Tangier and surviving our freezing cold guesthouse, we grabbed a bus to Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains. Now, if you’ve ever seen photos of Morocco, I’m sure that they were taken in Chefchaouen. It’s known to have one of the prettiest medinas in Morocco. The entire thing has been painted this really pretty shade of blue thanks to Andalucian influences. The medina is small and touristy, but, at least at this time of year, not ridiculously so. Our room that we rented for the night was gorgeous and definitely made up for our shabby-chic Tangier place. We were up on the 3rd floor and had amazing views of the medina, the kasbah, and the surrounding mountains.
The day we arrived the weather was fabulous, but unfortunately, the weather changed in the morning. After doing some quick souvenir shopping in the medina during the beginning of a rainstorm, we quickly made for the bus. The storm chased us most of the way back to Fes, but we managed to stay away from the downpours for the most part- always a good thing on mountain roads, especially with some of the crazy weather, and therefore crazy road conditions, that’s been hitting Morocco in the past couple of weeks. Speaking of weather and road conditions, our planned trip to the South has been cancelled so everything’s a little up in the air right now. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know where I end up 
Katie
