Tanja Town

 

Have you ever seen the movie The Bourne Ultimatum? If you haven’t, I would recommend it—insofar as you’ve seen the preceding two films, enjoy mindless violence, and don’t mind cinematography that looks like the cameraman strapped a camera to their head, drank a fifth of whisky, and rode a tilt-a-whirl right before the director called “action.” No, it’s actually a great movie! One of my favorite parts of the film takes place in Tangier (real quick, Moroccans call Tangier ‘Tanja,’ so I’ll refer to it that way), with awesome action scenes that see Jason Bourne sprinting across the rooftops of the old medina. I’ve always wanted to go ever since watching that film for the first time, and this week, I got to! Sadly, my trip did not involve exploding motorcycles, suppressed German pistols, or knife fights, but we had a good time all the same. Let me tell you about it!

My trip began in the wee hours (9am) of Saturday. My roommate, Wyatt, and I woke up and had a nice breakfast of tea, bread, and jam, which is actually just what we eat every morning. Just an aside, all the meals in this country contain bread in some form. You really can’t have a meal without it. Truthfully, I was not expecting to eat so much starch in the form of bread, potatoes, and pasta, and so little in the form of rice. I’m slightly worried I’m going to come home with a nutrient deficiency, but that’s a problem for later. Anyway, after our meal we packed up our bags for the day’s trip and headed to the train station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 10:00, and we made it with plenty of time to spare. Tanja is 153 miles from Rabat, but we bought tickets on the high-speed rail, so our journey took only around 1.5 hours. Being the veteran of Shanghai’s bullet train that I am, I was decidedly unimpressed by Morocco’s shoddy attempt to imitate Chinese supremacy. Just kidding! I actually found Morocco’s rail system to be very professional—even more so than the UTA in Utah. The train was punctual and cruised right along—reaching speeds of 160 mph at one point, and, around 11:20, we arrived in Tanja, excited to spend the day exploring a new city. 

The first order of business was to catch a taxi to the American Legation Museum, where we planned to meet up with our other roommate, Michael, and a fourth guy from our cohort, named Jake. We knew that the drivers waiting outside the station were ambush predators who would gladly run up the meter on us, so Wyatt and I walked about ten minutes before hailing a cab. All the major cities in Morocco have cabs of a different color. Rabat’s are royal blue, and the Tanja ones are a pleasant cyan hue. The museum is in a building that once served as the American consulate in Morocco. (Did you know Morocco was the first country to recognize the US when it declared its independence from Britain? I didn’t.) It also proved dangerous to access. This was mostly because I had neglected to tie my shoes after getting off of the train, and so I tripped not once, but twice, while going up the stairs. Maybe I’m out of line here, but would it kill them to add a sign warning that the stairs are hazardous to idiots? Also, if you’re wondering why I untied my shoes on the train, so am I. After rendezvousing with Jake and Michael, we toured the museum. I generally like museums, and this one was no exception. Some of the highlights included America’s invasion of Morocco during WWII (Did you know that American forces fought French forces on Moroccan soil? I didn’t.); a Moroccan pop art exhibit; a diorama of painted mini figures in a scene depicting a battle that looked like it was ripped straight from The Lord of the Rings; and a turtle eating a tomato in the courtyard. All in all, the museum ended up being my favorite part of the day, but there’s still a lot more to come. Since it was going on lunchtime, we decided to cut through the old medina and make our way up a large hill to eat at a restaurant with a view of the ocean. By the way, it was pretty weird to be able to see Europe from Africa—we could have chartered a boat and been in Spanish waters within a half hour. Alas, that’ll have to wait. After walking through the old medina for about 30 minutes, we came to our restaurant. The view was spectacular, and the food was tasty too. I ordered swordfish, which I’ve never had, but the waiter misunderstood me and brought me out a couple of whitefish instead. I was actually really upset by this because I hadn’t had my daily intake of mercury yet, but at least now I have the quest of trying swordfish to complete before I leave. 

After lunch we decided to hire a private taxi to see some sights that weren’t in Tanja’s city limits. We found a driver who was willing to drive us around for two hours for roughly $10 per person, so we piled in and headed out. Driving through the nicer areas of Tanja reminded me a lot of Southern California. One particular stretch was so similar to the Hollywood Hills that, for a brief moment, I genuinely felt like I wasn’t in Morocco. Then, inexplicably, a giant cow walked out onto the road in front of us, and I was brought crashing back down to earth. Our driving tour was pleasant, and we saw a few sights, such as a lighthouse (title photo), a sign delineating where the Atlantic becomes the Mediterranean, a down-on-his-luck Mickey Mouse impersonator, and an abandoned, crumbling bathhouse which we explored until we were kicked out by a concerned citizen. When our two hours were up, our driver returned us to the old medina, where we wandered around and explored—visiting the tomb of Ibn Battuta, drinking from the community well, and offending European tourists by asking if they were Americans, among other things. My impression of Tanja’s medina was that it was more charming than Rabat’s. The streets were full of character but also more beautiful, and there seemed to be less of an emphasis on consumerism and buying overpriced souvenirs—even though Tangier is more touristy. Finally, with our return train trip looming, we headed back towards the station, stopping just long enough to let Jake ride a camel on the beach and eat some McDonalds. Just after sunset, we caught our train and rode it back without incident. One parameter of our program is that we must always sleep in the same city as our professor, so extended weekend trips are out of the question. Even so, a day is plenty of time to enjoy some extracurricular travel. Less than two hours after sitting on the beach in Tanja, I was back in my own bed in Rabat. Not bad.

While my trip to Tanja might not have had the dynamism of Jason Bourne’s, it was definitely rewarding and one to remember. Unfortunately, I can’t do something like this every weekend, so my blog won’t always contain the details of an exciting day trip. However, we do have cultural enrichment activities every Thursday, which are organized and provided by Amideast. Next week, I hope to write about a few of these activities and shed some light on the history of Morocco and Rabat in particular. Also, there are two points in the semester where we’ll leave Rabat as a cohort and travel around Morocco for a few days. One of these trips will happen in the middle of October, and the other will take place nearer to the end of our program. Hopefully, these trips will give me a good glimpse into other facets of Morocco, which I can share with you all. As always, feel free to reach out by email or leave a comment on these posts. Thank you for reading, and have a great week!