I guess people celebrate the passing of years in different ways, especially when it’s a momentous one. For me 25 isn’t that big or depressing despite the fact that it’s a quarter century. And what better way to celebrate it than in Spain? You know what I did? I had a beautiful restaurant dinner in a hotel by myself in a town I didn’t even know the name of. How cool is that! OK I looked on the map and the towns name is Loja. Look it up, I turned 25 there. Actually the day itself was pretty cool it’s just that at dinner time Clive really needed to lie down, the remnants of Moroccan stomach still lingering. So he shouted me dinner and went to bed. So there I was sitting by myself after a drive from Tangier to … Read More
Welcome to Africa
I´ve always wondered what it would be like to be amongst people in a state of panic. You know like on a sinking ship or burning building. Well, here I was relaxing on the car ferry when all of a sudden there was an almighty bang and the whole ship shuddered. My first thought? “What do the other people look like?“ Well most people were fairly alarmed; you could almost smell the fear. However one Moroccan looked like his eyes were going to pop out as he ran to the window. I found out later that most can´t swim. It didn’t help that the guy I was sitting with said rather loudly “it’s a bomb“ in French. Smooth, that´ll calm the masses. Speaking of the guy I was sitting with, he was French with 1.5 arms and only 3 yellow … Read More
Possums are pests, and probably not Kosher either
How is this for pretty much my first conversation in Spain, and in Spanish what’s more? “Pardon sir, in order for ´something´ street?” “Oh , umm, wait. I think…there“ “Here?“ “Yes“ “Thanks so much“ “That´s ok“ You know the funny part about that? I was the one being asked for directions. So a Spanish guy asked me, a kiwi who had been in the country for 2 hours, for directions in his own country. Priceless. There´s probably a middle aged man lost wandering the streets of Madrid right about now but hey it felt good to speak Spanish and give someone directions. Madrid itself was grand, especially the palace. And so much more since that particular day entry was free for EU citizens so I was Dutch that day again. I was staying in a hostel and met a guy … Read More