Tangier

Today I visited Africa for the first time. We got up early this morning in Sevilla, bade Laura a fond farewell, and headed out. First, we dropped Taylor at the airport for the long journey to SoCal and his family for the holidays. As I write this about 14 hours later, he's changing planes in Chicago.

Ric, Kathy, Rachel and I continued in the rental car down to Tarifa, Spain where we would take a ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco. We got there pretty early for our 1 o'clock ferry, so we strolled around a nearby fort. This fort has been here in some form or other for about 1,000 years:

The view of the Strait of Gibraltar and the ferry terminal from the ramparts was beautiful in the cool, clear weather:

After checking out the fort, we got on our ferry:

We looked back at the fort (and Spain, and Europe) and headed to Tangier (and Morocco and Africa):

Upon arriving at the ferry terminal in Tangier, we were met (accosted is probably a better word) by a random Moroccan, named Josef, who aggressively wanted to give us a cab ride. We kept our eyes forward and kept walking, but Josef wore us down and we ended up taking a cab ride with him to the hotel. Along the way, he talked up Tangier and offered to arrange a tour of the Casbah (the fort area at the top of the hill) and the Medina (the market area on the lower slopes around the Casbah). He came into the lobby with us. Ric asked the maitre d' about the guy and we were assured that Josef was a legit tour guide. Also, he offered to show us around for $10/person. We figured what the heck? Once we reached an agreement, Josef brought in his subcontractor Hassan for the actual tour:

Hassan was a serious guy, but very nice. He walked us all around the Casbah and the Medina. Everybody knew him. We kind of figured out his game after a while. He would stop in different shops and let the proprietors pitch us. I'm guessing Hassan (and upstream Josef) got a cut of any sales that occurred). Hassan also brought us to a nice restaurant with a rooftop view that was amazing and good food to boot! Once we figure out what was going on, it was all cool.

Here's the view from the Casbah:

Some of the Moorish artwork is similar to what you'd see in Sevilla:

The walls of the Casbah from atop our restaurant:

Our restaurant, we ate on the balcony in the upper left of this picture:

But the inside was also lovely, though I think we were there at an off-peak time. Here, we interrupted a man praying (we had just heard the Muslim call to prayer all over the city):

The food was wonderful. Of course, there was no alcohol on the menu, but the tea was top-notch:

Along the rest of the tour, we were joined by a dog:

She was super friendly and Hassan said that this dog often followed his tour groups. Kathy and I had the song Rock the Casbah by The Clash running through our heads all day, so Rachel took this picture of us under the entrance gate to the Casbah:

Rachel and me posing at the entrance to one of the market areas:

A lovely rug at one of our many merchant stops with Hassan:

The moon visited Morocco near the end of the evening:

Overall, while there was a bit of a commercial aspect to Hassan's tour, he was friendly and knowledgeable, and we got to see a lot of the city that we probably wouldn't have found on our own. This might be a positive review, but I have no idea how to find Josef or Hassan again. But if you run into Josef at the ferry terminal in Tangier and have an afternoon to kill, it's not a bad deal. The lunch ran about $80, the tour about $40. That's 4 people for about 6 hours for about $120. I'd recommend it.

Plus Two

Kathy and Ric arrived from Portugal today. They are staying in an airbnb right next to our building. The airbnb host showed up kind of on time and showed them around the flat. Nice place.

Laura found a whole turkey and El Corte Ingles yesterday, so we had a delayed Thanksgiving (or an early Christmas) meal:

We even had stuffing in the bird. Just like back home. After dinner, we all walked to the Plaza de San Francisco and watched the three kings Christmas display on the half-hour. We walked down the street by the cathedral to give Kathy and Ric a first look at Sevilla and Taylor, who leaves early tomorrow morning, a last look. The river was glassy and the buildings looked lovely both real and reflected:

I'm keeping this short because we have to get up early tomorrow to drive to Tarifa and catch the ferry to Tangier, Morocco. Rachel and I are going there with Ric & Kathy for a couple of days. Laura's staying here in Sevilla to go to class and make sure Emily gets in ok on Saturday. Before heading to Tarifa, we're dropping Taylor off at the Sevilla airport. He heads home to California to be with his family for the holidays. We've enjoyed our visit with Taylor.

See you tomorrow in Morocco.

Proper jamón disposal.

Cured ham (jamon) is revered here in southern Spain. If you talk to a native for any length of time, the conversation will eventually circle around to jamon. You get lots of advice. Iberico vs. Serrano, acorn fed, black pigs, aged etc. You can buy slices of it at exorbitant prices. If you're really into it you can buy a whole leg of it. If you're not sure where, just walk out your front door and start walking into random stores. By the time you've hit your 3rd random store, you'll find a display similar to this:

 
We've become accustomed to such displays in our time here. What never occurred to me until today is what people do with these legs once they've been exhausted of their tasty ham bits. Today, I learned the answer to that question:

No, this is not a drunk, dumpster-diving pig, it's the remains of a leg of jamon. I guess that's one way to dispose of it.

***

This afternoon, Taylor, Rachel and I walked around a bit. We went to Plaza Nueva to see the Christmas craft market, but our visit coincided with the 2 hrs during the day when it's closed. Instead, we walked along the river. We crossed over the bridge and walked the grounds of old ceramic factory now modern art museum. I've been here several times, but never really walked the olive orchard area. It's really pretty this time of year (as compared to the summer) because everything is green. The trees didn't have olives, but they were lush. In this photo, the olive trees line the left side of the walk:

Olive trees are the major agricultural crop in southern Spain. Outside of Sevilla, nearly all of the open ground is covered by olive orchards.

***

This evening, Rachel and I got looped into listening to/criticizing random EDM songs on Spotify.

A bit of a cold.

My sore throat has turned into a bit of a cold. I mostly stayed in and worked. My one outing was to Spanish class at 4pm. I was pretty worthless there. When you have a cold, it's hard to run your brain at peak. Unfortunately, listening and speaking in class requires that. Even when I don't have a cold, there are some days where I really hear Spanish well and others when I don't.

On the other hand, sometimes you just don't know. Our teacher put the following clues on the board. Each clue described a different Christmas tradition:

All were traditions you find in Spain and some elsewhere. If you zoom in on the photo, the resolution is good enough to read the sentences. The answers:

1. The Christmas Lottery "el gordo".
2. The Cavalcade of the Three Kings.
3. Twelve Grapes.
4. Describes the use of pig fat in candy. I didn't get the name of the candy.
5. Describes the tradition of putting up a nativity. It comes from Italy. Nativities in homes are far more common than Christmas trees.
6. Describes the tradition of singing Christmas carols, los villancicos, 

***

Laura made hamburgers for dinner. After dinner we watched a "Christmas movie" on Netflix called Office Christmas Party, it was funny enough. Jason Bateman and several other notables were in it. I really like Jason Bateman.

After the movie, we hear a lot of successive bangs coming from outside. Turns out they were fireworks coming from one of the nearby Catholic brotherhood buildings. You could hear a marching band too. Yet another procession in the neighborhood. I took this from the roof of our building:

Budding Hooligans?

Laura and I (with Rachel and Taylor) went to our first professional soccer match. We saw the home team Sevilla vs. Girona in a regular La Liga match-up. La Liga is the Spanish national soccer league. At the moment, Sevilla is in 2nd place in that league of 20 teams. We saw the match in Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. It was overcast and cool, but we were comfortable for the most part. The crowd was large, but generally well-behaved. Not much beer in the stands, which surprised me. Some surreptitious cigarette smoking, which was a bit annoying, especially since I have a bit of a cold with a sore throat.

It was interesting how many songs, claps, and general coordinated activities the crowd engaged in. For example, they don't open with the Spanish national anthem, but rather a song about the Sevilla football club. For a large crowd, they carried the tune quite well:


The stadium announcer was also very dynamic. After a goal by Sevilla he was ready with the traditional "Gooooooaaaaaaallllllll!" call over the PA system:


Overall, I enjoyed it. I could see me going again.

***

After the match, Sevilla won 2-0, we walked back to the city center for lunch. We might have taken public transit, but it was pretty crowded (though they seemed to have things well in hand with not too much waiting).

There's one Taco Bell in Sevilla. Rachel is a fan (I like it too), so we went there for lunch. I'd been waiting for Rachel to come to Sevilla before I went. It was crowded, but we eventually got our food and found a table.

Overall, about the same as a US Taco Bell, but not quite on target. Rachel and I both agreed that we didn't need to come back. I'll hit a Taco Bell with her when I'm in Miami next month, haha.

***

We spent the afternoon inside. It was cold and drizzly outside. Rachel has been trying to beat me at Words With Friends. She's pretty good, so I think she'll get me soon.

***

Laura's Spanish teacher is also an artist and she did the set design for a performance art piece that ran this weekend. Laura and I went to see it. It was a dark and foggy night and we had to walk a fair bit from the metro stop to find this little theater tucked into an industrial park:

It was a small venue, perhaps 250 seats on 3 sides. The main set was an area of sand at floor level with some dolls tucked in front, hanging from above and a video projection screen at the rear:

The piece was about 90 mins and features a couple, seen here with the director dressed in black in the center:

There was some singing and dialog (in Spanish, of course) and some choreographed parts. There was even a part where the audience was invited to participate in actions that seemed to degrade the male character. In response to this degradation, several folks planted in the audience pretended to object and others objected to the objector. A bit of a fracas erupted (all staged). Things calmed and normal order was restored. It was interesting and thoughtful. Definitely not a traditional play or show.

We met Lucia (Laura's teacher) afterwards and congratulated her on the work and headed back home on the metro.

***

When we got home, Taylor and Rachel were watching a stream of the Seahawks v. 49'ers football game. I guess they needed to wash the taste of European football out of their mouths, haha.