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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| Chefchaouen |
