The culture shock of going from Fez to Tangier

After a nice morning cruising the Fez Medina, I caught a 1pm train to Tangier, and arrived around 6pm. Of course I spent at least 30 minutes walking around town because the hotel I had called did not have WiFi even though on the phone they said they did. Hey, I wouldn't want to miss blogging opportunities. Actually I had wanted to make a call with Skype but no longer need to do it -- though it's good nonetheless to keep up with email from y'all out there.

Tangier is radically different from Fez and Marrakech, and while it is more similar to Rabat it definitely has more edge to it. The new part of town is cool, very European in style, both in terms of the streets and of the people. It is hard to imagine the same people inhabiting the Fez Medina and Tangier. I have only criss-crossed parts of the Medina and the Kasbah, but here too the differences are noticeable. Luckily I was still able to find my favorite dish, the snails and snail broth.

People here look very different, not so much in terms of appearance, but in how they dress and how they carry themselves. Around the Nouvelle Ville (which is also much more tightly connected to the Medina than either Marrakceh or Fez) people wear normal clothes, very few women wear traditional Moroccan clothes, let alone Burqas. There are restaurants and bars of the type you would see in a typical European city, prices are higher (though still cheaper than Europe), alcohol seems to be readily available, and with the Spanish influence, the city seems to be lively into the night.

So far I have only seen it in the dark, but I look forward to some exploration (and picture-taking) tomorrow. By the way, I learned that Morocco was the first country to recognize the sovereignty of the United States, and in 1777 the first American Ambassadorial residence was established here.