While my stay down in Morocco was tremendous, I was getting a bit anxious to get back to Spain. Rather than spend more time at a beach resort down in Morocco, decided to head to Tangier on the 3rd and up into Spain on the next day. Of course, this means I didn´t get a chance to go diving in Morocco (and Spain is much too expensive for it) so I´ll put that off till later. But plenty of time for that.
At any rate, not much to really say about Tangier. It´s a zoo, really. Not many tourists, and almost felt unwelcome which was unlike the rest of Morocco. Also, noticed that cars seemed to clean their windshield while driving past me, happened on several occasions and got sprayed a bit each time. Coincidence? Maybe, seemed to happen much too often for that though. Stayed in a run down hotel in Tangier with no showers, used a handkerchief for a Mexican shower. Most of the people staying in the place were migrant workers, or at least guessing so as the front desk seemed to run an ID card scheme, matching workers with a photo ID that kind of resembled them. Most funny. They were thrilled to have a backpacker in there though, when I checked in they zoomed around the place showing me where everything was.
The ferry the next morning was rather uneventful. Quick shot right over to Algeciras. Upon getting into Spain, got the backpacker customs treatment I have become so used to. Customs agents take one look at me, see a grungy backpacker and immediately I´m off to the other room. Let them check my bags, which they didn´t do very thoroughly, but after some talk in Spanish, they realized I didn´t have anything on me. I very well could have, and they wouldn´t have noticed but I´d be a fool to risk that. We parted with some pleasant words and they wished me a happy stay in Spain. Hopped on a bus outside the port and was off to Malaga. I had wanted to go to Cadiz but they were booked solid for the night and didn´t feel like paying too much.
Malaga is.... hot. Well over a hundred degrees each day. Upon getting in (July 4th), found some other Americans and went off to the beach in the car they had rented. On the way back, stopped at the supermercado to get burgers, mac & cheese, corn, and Budweiser. Felt like celebrating Independence Day the right way. Food turned out wonderful, and fed the leftover beef to Chango, the hostel dog, a big furry dog with the most relaxed demeanor ever. Naturally, it being a holiday and my first day back in a ´wet´country like Spain rather than a ´dry´ country like Morocco, I had quite a few beers (as did everyone else) and sang songs and played drinking games late into the night. Quite a good mix of people in the hostel, some Canadians I stayed with in Brussels were also there, as are a bunch of Dutch, some Spanish, and some French, including a very cute French girl. Naturally, I did my best to improve France-American relations. Mission accomplished.
Next morning (yesterday) woke up quite hungover and went with the Americans off to the beach. Water was rather cold which was too bad, and we generally took the day rather easy. Last night we all took it easy, as many people had either cleared out or had early trains/planes/buses etc.
Today was a day to get stuff in order. Got my train tickets for tomorrow. Got a Spanish cell phone (633 367 254) after a long ordeal with that. Trying to get photos all sorted out but that´s proving to be near impossible.
Off to Pamplona for running of the bulls tomorrow. Hopefully won´t end up skewered....
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