Tanger, Morocco
“Expresso”
A quick hit at the train station.
Gare Casa Voyageurs, Casablanca
Taking the train in Morocco is a gentle experience. And, in First Class, you enjoy a quiet cabin, while enjoying the blurred scenery out the window. We shared our cabin with four others - 2 Saudi Arabians and 2 Moroccans.
We discovered that the Saudi Arabians were college students, enrolled at Tennesse State University and on holiday visiting their friend in Tanger. They studied English in the Bay Area, so we had a surprising amount of conversation to fill the 5-hour trip. We seemed so provincial in comparison to these students.
We arrived in Tanger in the afternoon and took in a bit of sightseeing, seeking out the famous views of the ocean. Café Hafa, recommended both by NYT’s 36 Hours in Tanger and TripAdvisor, was absolutely perfect. The view, the company, the mint tea - we couldn’t ask for more. We left the café in search of the Librairie des Colonnes, the City Lights of Morocco. The bookstore was founded and owned by Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent’s boo . It is a cultural center for the city and had the most beautiful selection of books and front table. It was hard for us to leave without buying anything. 😭
We went to dinner at a highly-rated fish restaurant, Saveur de Poisson, where we enjoyed a meal of baby calamari, sole, and baby shark. Yep, you read that correctly: baby shark. This was a first for us both, and with mixed reception. Bryan found it okay; Yennie couldn’t handle the texture.
Tanger markets itself as the town where Matisse and the Beatniks hid in for reflection and vacation. The Tangerinn is where Kerouac and Ginsburg stayed and played. We thought we might check it out to see what they saw. Turns out: not much. The bar has been redone, with Kerouac and Burroughs quotes plastering the walls. And it was over some bad beers that we decided that the Beatniks were just broody dudes: “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion” (Kerouac).
Flag, Especial
Morocco’s Heineken, but with a strange aftertaste.
The Tangerinn, Magellan, Tangier 90000
