First Day in Morocco

I'm working on the epic europe post honestly but I thought I'd get something out about our first day in Morocco.

We caught the ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar along with several hundred moroccans, and added another oddity to our list of random ways to immigrate. Everyone on the boat got to file past a remarkably bored looking moroccan official who added another stamp to our growing collection. Our guide book had steeled us for a scrum of touts and taxi drivers when we got off but it turned out to be a quiet sunday afternoon instead. We took a short walk along the water front and then proceeded to get almost entirely lost in the unconfusing 'new' part of the city with the help of the brand new and entirely innacurate Lonely Planet maps. Wandering up and down stairway streets and narrow alleys between three or four storey buildings I eventually spotted our hotel and we proceeded to prove to the landlady that we speak neither arabic or french. However the hotel itself is for a change quite pleasant although a little odd. Our room has a big comfy bed, sea views, and a 2 foot square shower with the nearest toilet across the hall. Apparently some bloke called William S Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch there too, but it no longer appears to be frequented by the perpetually toasted.

We ventured out for dinner and only had to go two blocks before we found a fantastic little converted apartment restaurant with bead curtains, a 70's hippy soundtrack and our first tajines. The streets had gotten busy by the time we got out, and it was reinforced to us just how young morocco is, just about everyone was under 21, and the streets were genuinely bussling.

We slept well, waking only briefly to the first call to prayer at what Jacquie tells me was about 4 in the morning. We headed to the old walled part of the city (the bit that is supposed to be hard to navigate) and had a poke round. We visited the American legation museum and saw a letter written by George Washington as well as a hilarious letter from a previous diplomat on his failure to reject the gift of two prime moroccan lions. There was another museum too, with proof of Tangiers founding way back to pre-roman times. We didn't quite get properly lost but we did get accosted by that obnoxious ever so friendly, ever questioning breed of tout so common to some countries. We'd had a very unpleasent run in this morning with a self appointed guide who's negotiation technique had involved far too much insult to my parentage for me to be able pay him anything so we have not been particularly forthcoming since then.

I don't think I can take anymore of this ridiculous french keyboard so I'll leave it at that for tonight, and see whether this keyboard grows on me tomorrow.