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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
............ 
Oct 26, 2019 08:00 PM Tangier to Gdansk in one day
It is time to fly back home... How to get to the Tangier airport early in the morning? No public bus. Taxi could be expensive for the backpacker.
It was still dark when I was marching Tangier to Rabat road. Many local people were waiting for the lift out of the city center. They are friendly. Using my poor French we came to the conclusion that I should go with them by the city bus no. 2 to the roundabout on that road near the second Shell station. Then it will be only 2 kms walk to the airport.
Bus ride cost me only7 dirhams. At 7 am I was already in the airport.
I checked in in advance for Ryanair flight I had my boardingpass printed. But the guys from security sent me back to the counter. IN TANGIER AIRPORT THERE IS ONLY MANUAL CHECK-IN! Stay in the line...
They have only 3 gates here. Flight was 30 min delayed, but I catch the connection inBergamo anyway. In the evening I was at home. One more interesting trip is successfully completed!
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Oct 25, 2019 08:00 PM Tangier - around Medina and Kasba
This city was always on the crossroads of the travellers, adventurers and all black characters... In the morning I was walking around Medina - the old, walled part of the city, with nice gates, great bazaar, narrow streets full of the people in traditional jalabas. It is still alive, not like a tourist ghetto. The top part of Medina it is Kasba - the castle. It has outside the northern wall great viewpoint so you can see all Gibraltar Strait including the rock of Gibraltar - on a clear day like today... Below the southern wall of Kasba in ghe maze of the steep and narrow streets I found the modest tomb of Ibn Batuta - great medieval Arab traveller who visited 44 countries - at this period it was real challenge.. So I think that for the big oustanding travellers such a visit is a must when in Tangier. Unfortunately the interior of the little tomb was locked... See me on the picture in front of the tomb.
Tangier still has cosmopolitan atmosphere, is very picturesque and I was happy to see it today - before it was always out of my routes...
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Oct 24, 2019 08:00 PM Tetouan - the royal city...
Tetouan, with some 300 000 inhabitants is one of the royal cities, it means there is a official royal palace... In the morning I spend more than an hour crawling the labyrinth of the narrow lanes of medina. Finally one of the old city gates took me to the big square with picturesque palms - Place Hassan II. The gate of the palace, guarded by n
many soldiers and policemen was on the right. Is the king there?
From this place to the west elegant pedestrian street named after king Mohammed V leaded me to the next place with big Spanish church. This quarter is a Spanish quarter. Few people remember that northern part of Morocco till 1956 was Spanish protectorate...
OK, along the city walls I went to the little Lovers Park - but no lovers there in the morning and later -to the imposing bus station. Ticket to Tangier cost me only 15 dirhams and this was 1,5 h ride between the rolling hills. So I am in cosmopolitan Tangier, staying in the old Pension Safari from 1908... I was always dreaming of beeing here...
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Oct 22, 2019 08:00 PM 6 hours on the public bus...
... but what a views! I was travelling today from Al Hoceima to Tetouan and I must say that it was one of the most picturesque bus journeys in my life. The ticket for this route costs 90 dirhams. I was lucky to grab the front seat... Well paved road goes initially through the color mountains.
After 1.5 hours we reached first mountain pass. Then descent to the long bridge on the oued and climb to the second pass. Just after this pass -135 kms before Tetouan you will see the lovely blue sea. The rest of this journey will be along the coast: climbing coastal mountains and descendig to the little, picturesque villages on the coast like Jebkha.
We reached Tetouan around 6 pm. Rain. Not easy to find my Arabic hostel in the labirynth of the old, atmospheric Medina. Finally I did. What a day!
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Oct 21, 2019 08:00 PM Al Hoceima - what a picturesque place!
There are many bus companies in Morocco, but the main one and most reliable - I believe - is CTM. Ticket for 3-hours ride from Nador to Al Hoceima cost me 55 dirhams plus 5 for the registration of the backpack (it was too large to be accommodated on the little shelf above the seat)
We departed at 9.45 am. Can you imagine thet after 10 minutes the bus was stopped, documents controlled by the police, some data of the passengers transmitted by radio and luggages were searched. Later I saw many pilice posts but luckily the did not stop us...
The second part of the voyage was more interesting - we were crossing high mountains. Then there was a ride down into the valley in the heavy rain and sunshine on approach to the coast.
Al Hoceima has a great location on the cliff. I was climbing the steep street up from the bus station to be in the center, where I booked cozy Villa Florido hotel (27 euro for the single with private bath).
The view from the cliff is amazing. They built little mosque on the top of the cliff - 116 m above the level of the ocean. There are stairs and few nice view points along the cliff with the nice panorama of the beach, the rocks and little port. From the other side of the peninsula you can see 3 little irocky slands - imagine that the belong to Spain and on one of them there is still a little Spanish garrison!
Strange and beautiful place!
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Oct 20, 2019 08:00 PM Black Sunday evening... 20 October...
The ferry from Motril, Spain to Nador, Morocco was sailing 5 hours. There is one hour time zone change. It was already late evening when I saw the sharp contours of African coast. An hour later we approached very strange port: little bay is divided by two. On one side there is dock of Melilla, on the other - Port of Nador. First black event arrived soon: ferry was not able to open the door to disembark passengers and cars. We were waiting 30 min doing nothing... Finally they decided let us go by the side door. Ashore Moroccan immigration took us away - nobody told us that we should fill on the ferry white immigration form and have ithe passport stamped. Remember that! It took us another 40 min. Then in front of the terminal there was no taxis to the town. When taxis arrived they requested 10 euro for the ride (locals pay 5). Once in town the driver did nof know where is the street I am going to.... We were sneaking the streets, stopping, asking people 7 or 8 times. Street names are unknown even in the centre! Africa... Finally I went out of the car, I found the address of the apartment. But nobody was there, no lights, no sign, no message. Is this the proper place? Local guys advice me to go to the nearest police station. I did! It took a time to explain to many officers one by one what is going on. In the meantime I saw drunkers, thieves and controlled drivers.... But after 2 hours they found the owner and she arrived to take me there. One more adventure!....
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Oct 20, 2019 08:00 PM Melilla - one more strange place...
I stay in Nador because it has better ferry connection and cheaper accommodation... It is some 10 kms from thd Nador center to the border of Melilla - little Spanish enclave on the African Coast. You have to take a shared taxi (6 dirhams only, they pay 10,3040 per euro) to get to the border crossing squeezed with 5 other people. Then you will be waiting in the line on Morocco side - a lot of formalities... Then you go some 300 m to Spanish zone. There EU citizens have a special canal to go through, avoiding crowd of Moroccans in the long line.
Bus no 2 for 0,90 euro will took you to Plaza Espana. Wow! How nice! After dirty Nador you have fountais, great Modenizm architecture and renovated castle to see. Tourist office distribute good maps. The only dark side is that there is no wi-fi. Shame on you Spain!
Melilla is nice place - more nice and more exciting than Ceuta... But it has stron Arab flavour... Many ladies in Arab chadors on the street.
One more strange place visited!
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Oct 19, 2019 08:00 PM Disembarking ship in Malaga...
Sunrise in Malaga port. They wanted us to leave cabins at 7.30 am. Uuuu... They need to clean cabins for the next passengers. After the quick breakfast I disembarked the ship at 9 am. Sunday, empty streets. First it was about one km walk to the city. Wow! They build a new covered promenade along the coast! Then I walked about 3 kms to the integrated bus/ trail station. The bus ticket to Motril - the ferry port for Africa costs 9,91 euro - the bus is departing at 11.30. There are many nice coastal views on this route. The bus is comfortable but very slow - it is calling all the resorts on the way, returning to the highway. :) I hope I will catch there the ferry to Nador/ Morocco, just on thd border of Spanish enclave Melilla....
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Oct 18, 2019 08:00 PM Cartagena de Espania
At the sunrise we docked in the port of Cartagena. It is new port to me - I visited twice the port of Cartagena in Colombia - also historic and beautiful, but here I am for the first time... The city has nice location at the bottom of fortified hills.
The main attraction here is the Roman Theatre - they charge for entry, but the best view is for free from the garden overlooking the theatre - takr the narrow street r ight side of the entrance.
The same is on the castillo hill - there is a big terrace below he castillo with a great, free view of the area.
My tablet does not work - sorry, no more pictures... Aha, my tablet has very bad morning and now it works again (but unreliable!) So enjoy the pictures! :)
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Oct 17, 2019 08:00 PM Lazy day at sea
We are sailing west... It is warm and sunny - ideal time for the sunbath. I have new friends from Bangkok - Thailand - very nice young couple... In the evening great sunset and then - lovely show in the theatre. Uuuu. it seems that my old tablet is down...
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