Yeah so after leaving Granada I got to Afgreiras a city where I could catch a ferry to Morocco. But after a 3 hr bus ride from Granada thought shit may as well stay in Afgreiras for a night before catching the ferry to Morocco. But shit Afreiras was a bit of a shit hole as it’s a port city! So I thought hell why not head over to Gibraltor and stay the night there instead.
Earlier I met 4 Canadian tourists in the bus station at Granada. They were from my old home town of Edmonton so had a lot to talk about. They had some interesting things to tell me about Morocco and Gilbraltor cus they were heading in the opposite direction and had just come from those places. It was nice to hear every if they also were travelling in a little higher price range than me. They were like staying in 3 to 4 star hotels as they had a bit more money as one woman was a doctor, another had her own stamp company which was really a great business. The 2 guys travelling with them seemed like kept guys as the one guy said the woman with the company was paying his way but hey that would work for me! But they were really nice people cus of course they came from my old home town in Canada as me. ha
So this taxi wanted to charge me like 25 E or $37 to go to Gibraltor from Afgreiras. But hell if I waited for 1 hr I could take a bus there for 2 E. So shit guess what I did but wait a hr and took a bus as have all the time in the world.
When I got to the end of the bus line at La Lineas we were right by Giblaltor and could walk across the border (if u want to call it that) into Gibraltor. So met this Japanese guy who was also going to Gibraltor too so we hung out for the evening. He was a real polite nice guy would probably wouldn’t say “Shit” if his mouth was full of it. But hell had him swearing and carrying on by the time the evening was over! Probably didn’t give him too good an impression of the people of Japanese descent living in Canada but like who gives a shit. The Japanese think people with tattoos are members of Yakuza which is the Japanese Mafia. So he told me when he first saw me he was scared of me. Then when he got to know me he realized that it was well justified! Ha ha.
The border crossing was like so simple they asked to see our passports and didn’t even bother to look inside. There are a lot of Spanish people working in shops in Gibraltor so there’s a lot of foot traffic back and forth across the border so we just walked into town. The funny part of the thing was we had to cross a live air strip used by Gibraltor. There are cops stopping traffic onto the Rock whenever a plane takes off or lands. So in other words the main entrance to the country (if I can call Gibraltor that) has a jet run way running across it so all traffic into and out of the places stops if a plane comes in or leaves.
Gibraltor isn’t cheap as it costs us 20 E for a dorm room so feel Spain is cheaper. But shit its all relative as don’t think Spain is cheap compared to Morocco. But then further into Africa the countries are cheaper than Morocco where I’m heading. The people running the hostel weren’t very friendly so wasn’t impressed but seemed there was only one hostel on the island so shit we were stuck. But heck it was only for one night.
We went to check out the place and noticed it’s very British & reminded me so much of England. I think Gibraltor is like Duty Free cus there seemed to be a lot of Designer clothes shops. So of course I stocked up on my shopping and bought an entire new wardrobe of Designer Clothes. Yeah, Fuck NO cus dislike shopping, and buying clothes of any kind and wouldn’t buy Designer Clothes unless they were given to me. There also seemed to be a lot of alcohol and tobacco shops plus a few electronic stores. The Japanese guy kept pricing the whiskey and rum, etc as he wanted to buy some liquor to take home. While to me buying alcohol was the last thing I or wanted to buy.
We wanted to get a bite to eat but all I could see were English places selling shit like meat pies and other bland English stuff. So didn’t especially want to eat tasteless meat pies. So we finally found a cool English pub where we got an awesome curry meal. So with a cool English beer and the best food found in England which is Chicken Curry that had a bit of a kick. Thank fuck the Indians made it to Mother England or we would have been eating some boring meat pies or some potatoes, carrots that had the shit boiled out it with some piece of meat or other shit like that. Sorry to my English friends but guys you do have to add a bit of spice to your food as it’s so boring! But that’s cool cus the people aren’t boring which is what counts.
But when we went into the bar I thought shit I’m back in jolly old England. There were 2 couples of stodgy (my def is people who think or wish the Old British Empire still existed) old English people. Of course they were politely eating their meal using the supposedly good etiquette of mashing all their frigging food on the back side of a fork to eat. Why the fuck that’s good etiquette is beyond me cus does smashing all the food in a mess make the food taste better or make yourself look better? Anyway each to their own but I can still comment (or ridicule) can’t I? I like English people as have a lot of friends there but hey they’re mostly travelers so they are more worldly and realize that there are social classes!! I’ve had a bit of experience working and living with a bunch of stodgy English Expats in places like the Sultanate of Oman, Saudi Arabia, etc. It seems there are English Expats living in all the former countries of the Empire and they still the Empire still exists. Sorry but got a thing about English who like to pretend they are a higher class or some shit like that. Sorry I got carried away but it’s bugged me for years when I see that shit all over the world in India, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Burma, Malaysia and fuck even in cities like Victoria in Canada. Sipping afternoon tea while watching cricket or lawn bowling, etc, blah. So guess I’ve opened myself up for some shit thrown at Canadians but we can handle it cus we’re a bit boring too and get shit on by the US all the time so we’re use to it.
So there wasn’t much happening in Gibraltor at night and really didn’t need or want to party. But did have a few cold beers before calling it a night.
So would I go to Gibraltor again? Well a big positive Shit No as bin dare dun dat once and now I don’t need to see it again. But hell the people were nice which was cool,
Next day paid 25 E for the ferry from Afgreiras to Tangiers in Morocco. A relaxing 2 hr trip over choppy water where many Moroccan women were sick (saw th e same shit on a ferry in East Africa on a ferry from the mainland to Zanzibar as the people eat all kinds of shit while on a swaying boat listening to the loud Arabic music so no wonder they’re sick).
Yeah the crossing to Morocco was uneventful but the customs check was different at least for me. The immigration entry is done on board the ferry. While the customs is performed like the screening at an airport except they only had one woman working there. So I didn’t think I had to put my bag on the conveyor belt to be x rayaed. Then noticd a woman searching bags after the x ray. So since I just walk thru the x ray with my pack on my bag well I just kept walking right out the door. The only think I had to hide was a couple pipes and some grass from Spain. But shit there’s so much hash in Morocco that they don’t care about a small bit that I was carrying for medicinal purposes. Cus didn’t even get out of the building before a guy was trying to sell me some good Moroccan hashish (his words not mine). But I restrained and just kept walking as knew getting people selling the shit was rampid all over the country!
The Moroccans get to be a pain in the ass as they walk you wanting to be your guide , sell u something and make some cash. Now I can appreciate their need for cash but when u get bombarded all the time with them it tends to be a nuisance.
Shit thought Afgreciras in Spain was a shit hole but Tangiers was like inside the shit hole. It may have had it’s glory days but now was just a tired old city in need of some repair. Found a 50 Dirhum sp room in the California hostal owned by a Moroccan living in Edmonton, Canada. Kind of like living in one shit hole in Morocco to another shit hole in Canada but not quite as bad. (Dirnhum is the Moroccan currency which is 1\10 of a Euro or 1| 7 of a CAD sorry can’t find the correct special chars on my Spanish computer but hey Spanish keyboards are stills better than the French keyboards.
I paid only 50 DH cus my room was down in the danky smelly dark baseroom room. But hey it was OK for me for 2 nights as just wanted to chill before heating out to see the real Morocco. The odd thing was they had wireless internet so that kept me occupied fomar a while. I met this German guy who just graduated from Computer Science so we had something in common but he studied Artificial Intelligence. But I meet a lot of people who study and get degrees and then don’t want to work in the field but just travel!! This guy spent the last few years only studying so wanted to see the world and meet new people. He had no desire to see any sights so each to their own. He was actually volunteering at a school in Tangiers teaching some computer things.
So we hung out talking as not very many travelers or things to do in Tangiers. So after a day I caught a 2 DH bus to ChefChauoen which is a cool town/city in the mountains.
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