I went to the beach to catch the sunrise, but apparently this is a weird thing to do as lots of people were asking where I was going and I got weird looks when I sat down.
I returned to the hostel for breakfast, and there I met two lovely people who became my friends and travel companions that day. We wandered in the old town, then caught the tour bus to Cap Spartel. This time we went into the grounds and museum which had lots of interesting lighthouse and historical information (albeit all in French). There were lovely gardens, and extremely expensive juice.
We walked to the beach and the rock of Hercules, before hopping on the tour bus back.
Back in town, we went straight to Abou Tayssir and ordered everything vegan on the menu between us and had a fantastic time.
Socialised some more in the hostel with lots of Germans, before the three of us headed out again for tea in the old town, and watched the world go by.
Meeting these two made a huge difference to my trip, and helped me to find a new perspective on Tanger!
For a nice change of pace, it rained pretty heavily all day in Tanger. I visited the castle museum (mostly outside, so wet, and very small), wandered around Place 9 Avril between showers.
Stopped for bissara at a place called bissara which only serves bissara after walking round the block several times to work up to it. It was a tiny very local place, so I observed for a while to see what the sitting/ordered etiquette seemed to be, and had to wait for a table to free up as well. Despite initial anxiety, I managed to eat bissara (white bean breakfast soup) and bread and Moroccan tea and that all filled me up for the entire day afterwards. For about £1.
I enjoyed the American Legation Museum, and learnt a lot of history I didn't know. I was very inspired by the Ibn Battouta museum, which is well worth the visit.
I got on the tour bus when I spotted it with the ticket I already had, and rode it for most of the route despite wet seats. Jumped off at Cafe Hafa for coffee and managed not to get rained on too much. Wandered until I found the Roman ruins, which was mostly just a really good viewpoint where lots of people were taking selfies. Managed to catch the bus back into town.
Rain was tapering off by the evening, so I went for a wander in the old town, and decided to have dinner based on where I happened to pop out. This took me to a Syrian place called Abou Tayssir which was incredible, especially the kibbeh. And lovely vibes.
Arrived in Tanger at lunchtime. Got lost for an hour looking for my hostel in the old town. This got decreasingly fun as it was very hot and I was carrying my backpack, GPS wasn't working and I went around in many circles. Eventually I discovered the hostel was at the end of a street that was in the process of being dug up and I'd walked past it several times already.
Feeling a bit claustrophobic in the old town, I had lunch (tagine) on the promenade, then wandered along to the beach, and into the main part of the city. Tanger is a lot bigger than I expected.
I caught a tour bus outside the train station, and stayed on it for a ride out along the coast in the evening. I saw the sunset near Cap Spartel lighthouse, and stuck my head in Hercules' cave, which was packed full of tourists and junk.
Dinner was couscous at a nice local-feeling-but-actually-had-lots-of-tourists-in restaurant (Ahlan) near the Grande Mosque.
After an uneventful ferry crossing, I arrived at the port of Rostock. Here, the bus ticket machines only accepted cash. Having just spent two weeks in Denmark/Sweden/Finland, I had forgotten what cash looks like. So I couldn't buy a bus ticket. Nothing bad happened. I made it to Rostock Hbf via a bus and an S-Bahn train (which I did buy a ticket for). I bopped around for a couple of hours, having breakfast at a bakery in a nearby shopping center. The toilets in Rostock Hbf cost money, but the ones in the supermarket at the shopping center do not.
Then I caught a (late) Flixbus to Luebeck. It dropped off right outside a stand with vegan currywurst, so that was the first order of business. It was a vaguely grey and drizzly but not too cold day. I walked along the river to check into my hostel - run by an anarchist queer feminist collective - which was a fantastic place.
I had another day of wandering on the agenda. I had delicioius Arabic coffee and hummus at My Hummus, then zigzagged my way through the old town, through small alleyways and around a great many churches. I went into the Hanse Museum, which was interesting, though I missed an opportunity to learn specifically about the role of Boston (UK) in Hanseatic merchant trading via the customisable interactive exhibit, as I accidentally told it to stick to Edinburgh instead.
I walked and sat in some parks. I bought marzipan, as apparently that's a thing in Luebeck. And ate dinner at Erdapfel, which has fancy vegan baked potatoes.
I awoke several times in the night to find the train stationary in Linkoping. At 0630, the scheduled arrival time in Malmo, we were 'officially' awoken by an announcement, pointing out to us all that we were still in Linkoping because the train had broken down. I switched to the next fast train to Malmo, which was still 3 hours, though we were given the option to stay on board and await repairs and then stay on the slow (5 hour) route.
I had planned a day in Malmo before my next connection, and used my interrail pass for the journey, so promises of refunds and reimbursements for missed connections were not at all useful to me. In the end, Swedish Trains did say they'd pay up to &eur;20 towards my food in Malmo, which was nice.
The rest of the day, shortened as it was, was lovely. All trace of snow had gone, the sun was out and the sky was blue. I wandered. Took photos. Sat on benches. Wandered some more.
I had breakfast in Farm2Table, which was very lovely and I could have stayed there all day. I went to the Form Design Museum, which was free, and they kindly stored my backpack for me until mid-afternoon. Inside was an exhibit about the carbon cost of different materials, showing how much of each you can get for 1kg of C02. I was, naturally, most interested in the mycelium boards.
I walked around the gardens and grounds surrounding Malmo Castle, then visited the museum inside. It was wide ranging, from local to natural history, to modern art, and lots of climate change related stuff.
I had lunch in Vegegarden, a delicious Chinese buffet. Then walked to the Moderna Museum, which strictly no-photos, and contained a gallery of modern art about.. you guessed it.. climate change. Some fantastic stuff; a lot of video and audio, as well as dance! (Nothing live while I was there.)
I walked more around a park with a big lake, and then back into town for dinner at Rau. A fancy, expensive, and extremely delicious dinner. Definitely recommend.
Finally I headed back to the train station for a train to Trelleborg. The route from Trelleborg station to the ferry checkin is sort of signposted, but also not obvious at all when you get there. I confirmed I was in the right place with the hotel next door. They also let me use their loo. The waiting room for Stena Line doesn't have wifi or much useful. There were only a couple of other foot passengers. None of the automatic checkin machines were working, and signs said staff would arrive to check us in 40 minutes before departure, despite other signs saying checkin closes 60 minutes before departure.
Staff did eventually turn up, ticked us off, and put us on a bus to the ferry.
This was a &eur;20 ferry ticket, only deck passage. But I was one of two foot passengers in the seating area, and had my pick. There was one power socket, so I posted up on the closest seat to that so I could charge my laptop while I slept. Onwards to Rostock.
(After dinner I noticed I was missing K's borrowed scarf. I emailed all the museums and restaurants and they all replied - it turned up in Vegegarden. A friendly local is going to post it back for me. Hurrah!)
