More on Spain, and surviving Morocco

Granada is a beautiful town set at the base of the Sierra Nevada, a large group of hills in the south of Spain. On the way in we saw all these houses built into the mountain walls, some of which were pretty elaborate and beautiful. The first thing we noticed about Granada was how genuine the town is. Although there is plenty for tourists, and plenty of tourists, the town doesn't feel like it is putting on a show just for us. It sounds simple but I think it is quite difficult to achieve.

The second thing we noticed was how good the Tapas was! It's really cool buying a drink (doesn't have to be alcoholic) and receiving a decent size portion of something you would probably be happy eating for dinner anyway. We later found out that Granada serves Tapas the way it was intended and how it used to be served everywhere.

We also visited the Alhambra, considered one of the greatest achievements of Islamic art and architecture. This is like a giant peaceful garden up one of the hills with a massive fortress around it, and contains a palace as well. The gardens were beautiful, water everywhere, used very well to create the lush gardens and peaceful atmosphere. This is the kind of place you could just spend all day relaxing in, looking out over Granada below. Inside the palace, the detail in the decorative work was outstanding, and the small gardens dotted everywhere made it very relaxing. If you're ever in Granada, the Alhambra is definitely worth seeing.

After Granada we headed south to the Costa De La Sol (coast of the sun), to the small town Nerja. The Costa De La Sol is very popular for tourists, however Nerja doesn't have the big skyscrapers that a lot of the other towns on the coast have. You can scuttle down the stairs to the small beaches at the bottom or stand up the top on the Balcon De Europa and look out over the ocean towards Africa (no you can't see it). We also visited the underground caves, which are massive inside (they hold exclusive concerts in some sections) and contain some amazing rock formations. In Nerja we tried for the first (and definitely not last) time some Iberico cured ham – this comes from the Pata Negra (black pigs) and has fat that is actually good for you (like avocados), as a result of the acorns that the pigs eat. Even if you are vegetarian, this is something you HAVE to try at least once – it's a culinary revelation! But with a starting price of 50 Euros a kilo, it's probably best not to get addicted.

We were quite excited about heading to Morocco, especially after seeing all the ad campaigns about how it was food for the soul. Throughout our travels Anita had also noticed a few different things, especially leather-work that had been made in Morocco, and we figured the markets over there would be fantastic and much cheaper than paying Pounds or Euros. There are also a lot of Australians that head there too, which was a little surprising.

We arrived by ferry into Tangier and immediately it dawned on me that this was not the place it was made out to be. To try and paint the picture, there is basically a steep cliff with an old Roman fortification on the top, surrounded by the Kazbah (yes from the song), and the Medina, which is in this case the nice way of saying slum. Tangier was once an International territory where all sorts of people lived and visited, notably Mick Jagger, where a very famous photo of him was taken in a coffee shop that we visited briefly. On account of it being an international territory, it was a pretty much anything goes kind of place, and I don't think much has changed!

From the moment we stepped off the ferry everything felt very wrong here. I didn't have a single good feeling. Minutes later an African guy was robbed by a pack of street-kids, and as we walked the wrong way along the new waterfront we could feel the eyes of the little packs starring at us from the top of the hill near the Roman wall. Knowing we didn't have long until the sun went down (not a good feeling) we headed back around the other side of the Medina and into the belly of the beast. I'd love to say that things were better from the inside, but it was crazy. Compounding things further was the fact that we were there during Ramadan, and with there only being about half an hour left of daylight, everyone was very irritable because they hadn't eaten or smoked since 4 am!

After resisting a couple of hostile would be guides (this is not as easy as you think) a 'friendly' local helped us to the pension we had chosen from the Lonely Planet guide. Yes accommodation is cheap in Tangier, but the reason is that it wouldn't qualify as accommodation anywhere else....it would be condemned! Our 'friendly' local showed us around that night, taking us to the sights and to a good traditional Moroccan restaurant. The condition of course was that we would come and see his market stall at the end....seemed reasonable enough. We didn't realise that would involve enduring a 2 hour sales pitch about carpets and other assorted shit. So after successfully making insulting offers (my first offer was about 8% of his first price!) for the cheapest stuff we could find we managed to get back to the pension, and bid goodbye to our 'friend' who was only happy to leave after being thanked (ie paid) for his 'services'.

At this point, having not relaxed the entire time and fearing for our safety more than once or twice, we reconsidered our position:

Firstly, yes Morocco is cheaper than most of Europe, but you constantly have to outlay for 'tips' and 'services' etc, making it not cheap; buying anything would involve great debate and bargaining prowess (yeah...they don't practice often!); and finally we are paying considerable money to stay in a slum fearing for our safety. We deliberated on it oh about 5 minutes and we decided to get the hell out of Morocco the following morning. We were a little disappointed at not seeing other parts of Morocco, and it is highly likely that Tangier is worse than other places, but given the snapshot we got, we decided there were lots of other places we'd rather see, starting with Portugal. Our recommendation for anyone thinking of visiting? The exotic Morocco you see in the ads is something you'll probably only find if you're Moroccan, speak fluent Arabic, or go on a package tour.