I'm in Africa! Isn't that weird?
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2004
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47
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Trip End
Apr 15, 2005
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After doing nothing at the beach I hopped on the overnight ferry to Melilla, a little Spanish enclave within Morocco. Getting on the ferry I saw a sign that said "no knives" and so I told the guard checking my ticket that I had a pocket knife. "Big or small?" he asked (like it would matter if I wanted to attack with it!). "Small" I replied, "to eat" (I wasn't quite sure how to say "to prepare food" in Spanish but I think he worked out that I'm not the sword swallowing type). "Well", he said, "just put it down in your bag between all your clothes so that man over there can't see it", motioning to the guy with the bag x-ray machine. Great! But hardly reassuring re: the security situation! So I did as he said and got through ok although I was a bit nervous as the first guy had conveniently disappeared by the time it was my turn for the security check. Walking across the border (still love getting to do that!) from Spain to Morocco the next morning and what a transition: on the Moroccan side people were pushing up against the barricade to get through, men and women in long robes staring at me, dusty streets, rubbish everywhere and those familiar smells of Asia came flooding back! I get this rush of excitement that I haven't felt in a while, I'm somewhere new, strange, so different to home, alone in my thoughts and loving it! And then it hit me further: wow, I'm in Africa!!!
