I had my lunch and I got to explore a bit of the Tangier Old Medina. It is not one of the famous ones but it is still a good introduction for me. I would be visiting larger ones in the next few days so I don’t think I would be missing anything if it don’t explore too much of the this one. Besides, I don’t want to get lost in the medina and miss my ride. I got a petit taxi back to the train station. It seems like I’m beginning to understand a bit of their French. At least the important bits we can agree on. They know to keep their French simple so that I would be able to keep up.
The train to Tetouan turned out to be a bus. Annoyingly enough, I was told to go all the way around the train station to get to the bus when they could have just let me in through the gate where someone just passed through. Anyway, the trip was uneventful. The bus was quite full but everybody had seats. Our destination is the city of Tetouan which is not that far from here. The trip took around an hour an a half. The problem with this is you never know where they would drop you off. In our case, we were dropped somewhere along the highway, where the bus company’s office was. This left me with a problem of how to around.
I was hoping to get to go around Tetouan to see the old medina which is a UNESCO World heritage site. I did catch a glimpse of it but I didn’t have time to explore. I don’t have accommodation here in Tetouan since I booked the night in another town. Yes, this was a continuation of my messed up itinerary. I was hoping that this would be the last of these hassles. I needed to find a way to get to the next bus station. CTM Bus operates services to the next town I needed to go to. The trick is looking for it. I managed to locate what I think is the CTM Bus station. I hailed a petit taxi to take me there but it took all of the passengers in the taxi to figure out where I wanted to go. It seems that the driver wasn’t familiar with the place at least Google Maps knew where it was. I was very grateful for the other passengers in helping get me there.
One last uncertainty popped in my mind when I saw that they might be a courier company. But when I went in, I saw the passenger terminal and I was finally convinced that I found the right place. They really do operate courier services though. The staff at the ticket booth spoke very good English and it seems that they are experienced in dealing with tourists. This is after all a very popular route. Bags in the bus have to be checked in and tagged though. I wasn’t sure what that was about. Eventually, I got on the bus and we were on our way. I took me two days to get here and I was already very tired by then. The trip would take around two hours so I just have to relax and catch my breath. With this, I would have finally caught up to my intended schedule.
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