Rock the Kasbah

When a simple boat ride feels like living in the lap of luxury...

I think there’s a lesson to be learned in expectations vs reality. Sure, we all know what it’s like when reality falls far short of expectations…but what do you call it when you keep your expectations low (or at least realistic) and then reality comes through in a big way? 

Such was the case for the ferry from Barcelona to Tangier. I personally was a ball of nerves Friday morning. In retrospect, it always seems so silly to feel so nervous about this kind of travel. In reality, ferries like this operate with such regularity as to be boring, but in my mind, I’m always expecting abject chaos. What if we arrive at the port and it’s closed? What if the ferry doesn’t even exist and we got scammed out of the price of our tickets? What if it does exist, but we can’t find the right place to check in and board? What if we do find the right place to check in and board, but our tickets are invalid? What if we find the right place to check in and board AND our tickets are valid, but some other insane unforeseen circumstance prevents us from getting on this boat? 

What if we’re simply late and miss it, totally of our own accord? God, I don’t know if I could survive the embarrassment. 

In reality, we took a taxi from the hotel to the port, which was about 20 minutes of driving. The taxi dropped us off right in front of the check-in terminal, and the person behind the desk (mercifully wearing a shirt with the logo of the ferry company that matched my ticket) simply scanned our printed ticket, handed us our cabin passes and meal tickets, and told us to wait…for one hour. You see, in my panic to arrive on time, I’d done some research, and most sources seemed to indicate that boarding would open around 4 hours before departure and close 1 hour before departure. To avoid waiting forever while not missing the cut-off, we arrived just before 8am for our 10am departure. Well…apparently boarding STARTS at 9, because at around 9:10, a security officer finally signaled to us and brought us outside to a shuttle bus with about 10 other passengers. After collecting our passports, taking them to get stamped, and then returning them to us, he drove the shuttle to the backside of the boat, where the loading docks were taking on passengers who were boarding along with their own vehicles. 

We went up a couple escalators and were directed to the long hallway of cabins. A short walk later, and we found our perfectly comfortable cabin, complete with closet, two beds (three if you count the fold down bunk) and private bathroom with shower. 

The feeling of sheer relief that washed over me upon entering the cabin and collapsing on the bed was nearly indescribable. Again, I *knew* the anxiety I was feeling was irrational AS I WAS FEELING IT. I truly believed everything was going to be fine, but I wasn’t able to stop my brain from imagining ever more insane ways for things to go wrong.

As I write this, it’s almost 4pm. After watching the departure process and seeing Barcelona fade into the distance, both Della and I have gotten some solid napping in–something about these little cabin beds just make you feel cradled and safe, and the view of the water stretching to the horizon from our cabin window is stunningly serene. The sea is calm, with only the gentle rocking and hum of the engines to give a sense of motion. We once again brought some sandwiches from the hotel breakfast in zip-lock bags (pro traveler tip right there), and we’ve noshed on those and some chips in between naps. 

For the first time in a while, we have nothing to do and nowhere to go, and I am loving it. 

ADDENDUM: We made it to our hotel in Tangier today! The rest of the ferry ride was quite smooth. After a pretty nice dinner and some cocktails, we went to bed fairly early, with the gentle rocking of the ship lulling us quickly to sleep. In the morning, we had some coffee, orange juice, and croissants as the ship approached the Tangier Medina port…which is about an hour from the actual city of Tangier.

There was a *taste* of abject chaos getting off the boat, as a mass of people moved to exit all at once; also, once we got off, we found out our passports hadn’t been stamped into Morocco on the boat as they should have been (they were only stamped out of Barcelona), but that was quickly resolved. We were again a bit nervy on the taxi ride into central Tangier, as there were no seatbelts and our driver spoke no English, and at one point he handed me an old-school Nokia cell phone (with actual buttons!) to tell some unknown voice on the other end of the line the name of our hotel.

But the drive itself was lovely, with beautiful weather along the coast, and our hotel is clean and comfortable. We spent some time walking through the Tangier medina and kasbah, with some help from a kind local man named Abdullah. Tomorrow we take the train to Marrakech, and I’m sure we’ll have lots more to tell you all soon!