Customs

Delicious Beer


I took a taxi from Chefchaouen to Tetouan and from Tetouan to Ceuta, which is a Spanish controlled city in Morocco. I had to go through customs to enter Ceuta to leave Morocco and enter Spain. This was the biggest pain in my butt ever! I had met a Moroccan guy in the taxi and he was also crossing the border and offered to help me. He asked someone for me in French-Arabic, which gate was for foreigners and was told I needed to go to gate #5. I waited in line for 20 minutes and when I got to the front I was told to go to gate #4 instead. I waited in the hot humid sun for over an hour and a half. People kept trying to cut in line and lots of verbal fights broke out. There were curse words flying in every language all over the place. Once I got to the window it took less than two minutes to get my passport stamped to leave Morocco and then I could head into Spain customs. Spain customs were pretty much non existent, a guard checked to make sure my passport had an exit stamp from Morocco and that was it. I had to exchange my Dirhams for Euros and then I hopped in to a cab to the ferry terminal, to catch a ferry to mainland Spain. I was imaging an old building with some booths to buy tickets that was very shady. Instead I was greeted with something representing a modern airport. I walked around to the different counters run by different ferry companies and found the one that had the ferry leaving soonest and bought my ticket. The ferry wasn’t leaving for an hour and a half so I took my time to walk around and look for some food. I didn’t find anything very intriguing and decided to head through security and see if they had any restaurants on the other side. Once I got through security I saw that I could board my boat and I did. Shortly after I got on the boat it left, there had been an hour time change and I was lucky I didn’t miss the ferry. I call it a ferry because that is the word they use but its more like a mini cruise ship, everything was really nice.

The ferry brought me to Algeciras Spain from where I needed to catch a bus to Seville. I was helped to the bus station by a beautiful Spanish girl with shiny new red luggage and a yellow belt, shirt and matching sandals. She didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish but she was able to figure out what I wanted and I was very grateful for her help because the bus station wasn’t well marked. My brain is still in French mode and I keep asking people questions and giving responses in my made up French that I learned over the past few weeks in Morocco. I have several Spanish language learning CD’s on my laptop that I could have listened to, to try and pick up something but I am to lazy, it’s easier to watch a movie then try and learn Spanish.

Within the first 20 minutes of arriving in Spain I saw two different couples openly tongue kissing each other. I use the phrase tongue kissing instead of french kissing because they were going at it with such vigor and openness I could see their tongues massaging each other. That is definitely something I have not seen in a while and I puked a little in my mouth both times.

I am already being quickly reminded what an advanced (probably not the politically correct word, but you know what I mean) society is like in comparison to the recent countries that I have been in. Shops carry more then 10 items and they carry familiar brands. I am no longer the least stinky person everywhere I go, in fact I am probably the most stinky. Girls have breasts, and they are beautiful. Things are more expensive but in lower denominations. Now a twenty in my pocket is a decent amount of money. If I lost a Rupee it would be $.02, if I lost a Dirham it would be $.13, if I lose a Euro I’m out $1.40.

On the bus I met a Canadian guy named Matt from Quebec so he speaks French and English regularly. He is spending three weeks in Spain on vacation from work and we hit it off really well. I didn’t know if I would make it to Seville in the same day so I didn’t make a reservation anywhere. Matt had made reservations at a hostel and we decided to see if they had space for me. We walked all over town, this way, that way and this way again but we couldn’t find the hostel. At first Matt didn’t know the street name and then he found that but we couldn’t find the street and no one in the area knew the street either. We finally found the hostel and there was a long line, I let Matt wait and I headed to the air conditioned bar. Yes, the hostel has its own air conditioned bar, it’s like the Ritz of hostels. I hadn’t had a beer since I arrived in Morocco and I forgot how delicious they are. Beers here are 1 EUR, a pretty good deal. The hostel didn’t have space for me and since I had walked around with Matt forever trying to find the hostel, he also decided to leave and to share a room with me at a nearby hotel. The hotel was very cheap, but had 1 large bed, a small bed, A/C, a private bathroom with toilet paper and a private shower, so nice.

We had both traveled far that day, Matt had left the night before from Marrakesh and taken the train. He was on an overnight train and had intended to use it to sleep. Unfortunately two conservative women came into the chamber where he was sleeping and insisted on talking on their phones and chatting with each other, both very loudly. Matt gave them evil looks to try to shut them up but they kept at it. He asked them politely to be quieter and they ignored him. Finally at 2am when they were still going he sat up in his bed and said to them, “If you continue to be so loud, I am going to have to get up, turn the light on, get naked and read”. He was met with silence that persisted throughout the night, it had worked.

We both stank and were joking of our stinks fighting each other in a death match of stink. I took off my tennis shoes and socks and I could smell the stink from my feet, it was awful. Matt removed his shoes and said “my feet really stink”, I looked at him and smiled, “that’s not your feet you smell, those are mine” I replied. He took a step closer to me and gagged, it was my feet not his that stank. I’m like the people in the Indian planes, I stink so much I convinced other people that they stank when it was really me. We both took showers and then headed out to town. We found a bar and had a couple of beers and then started to walk the streets. A half an hour after midnight we came upon Salsa lessons in the park, on a Thursday night. Not something you would see in many other places. Tomorrow we are going to try and head to the hostel I have reservations at and explore the city.

Click on the picture below to see all my pictures from today.

08_13_2009 Seville Small