Our Long Sejour en France

 I know this is a barrage of posts, but we leave for Barcelona tomorrow and I want to get our experiences in Tangiers written up before then. I've lived in countries where traffic is chaotic. It's nothing new to me. I flirted with a driver in Mexico City while our cab driver was trying to cut him off. I panicked when my mother was stuck in the middle of a railroad crossing with the arms coming down in Bangkok.  Traffic in Tangiers is actually reasonable orderly. But there is a certain amount of jockeying for position, especially in the small traffic circles. I saw cars using other cars as shields as they made their way into the circle. There are also a ton of pedestrians, who are generally given the right of way. But there is a certain amount of playing chicken. Pedestrians tentatively step out into the street or they step out brazenly and put their hand out to halt the car coming toward them. I found myself looking out for a group of people who might be looking to cross the s...

 On Friday we flew from Madrid to Tangiers, in Morocco. After an uneventful flight, we had an uneventful arrival at our Airbnb. By uneventful, I mean that we waited an hour and half to two hours in the building for the host's Tangier representative to arrive. We eventually got in - and the apartment (and the building) smelled strongly of mildew. I should probably note that I seem to be able to detect mustiness and mildew beyond what most mortal humans can detect. And it bothers me. So it's been a trying few days. But today it's a bit warmer, we have the balcony door open, and it's not so bad. I should also say that the apartment is lovely and big. Below is the view from our balcony. So we're pretty comfortable and all is well. Our first night, we set out to look for food. As we made our way to a market, we encountered two young Palestinian men who had also just arrived and needed some food and a place to stay. Chris began to chat with them, and they walked along wit...