Posada Vagamundos Tarifa

... a beach town, but the closeness to africa, to it. We arrived around 2pm and most notably that up until now, i never really felt the effects of siesta. However, all four of us were STARVING and findig a place that was open was damn near impossible. We looked around for ages, asked the lady where the supermarket was and to no availibilty, the one place i thought would be open, wasnt and that was LIDL. LIDL is a supermarket chain that is normally open during siesta, but in this town ...

I arrive in Tarifa around 8pm. I check into the hostel which is nice but empty. The town is tiny but cute. Practically every shop is a kite surfing school or store. I walk around, see the old wall and castle and sit on the beach for a while and watch the sun set. Afterwards I go back to the hostel where I meet one of my 2 roommates, a guy from south Korea named Peter. He ...

... much a Brit enclave. English and Irish pubs and cafes advertising Full English Breakfast and Sunday Roast with Yorkshire Pudding abound. However it was useful to be able to buy English newspapers so easily, as a large pine tree in front of the caravan blocked our TV reception! It was also an opportunity for me to get a much-needed haircut from an English-speaking hairdresser, a very nice chap from Kent called Ken ...

... I mean. So the first 2 nights will be spent in Tangiers 'acclimitising' to our new surroundings. There is a campground but we have decided to stay in a hotel, and get used to the fact that we are going to have to negotiate for rooms, hot water etc. Also, the campground is 2kms out of town whereas most of the budget hotels are clustered around the Medina, a much more interesting way to acclimitise. The guide book (Lonely Planet) we are using is a 2007 edition and ...

... Nicco the Florentine actor have left us yesterday, and it was a bit sad since we had ended spending two weeks living closely with them...at the same time I'm really glad I got to know Nicco a bit better, he really is a remarkable human being. In case you find yourself in Florence one day and are looking for some theathre, check his company out, it's called Venti Lucenti and I ...

... you just try English. After all of that, the guy speaks English! Finally I heard through the crackling, "Vous etes juives? Atem yehudim? Are you Jews?" Three in one. Yes, yes, of course we are a group of Jews from America. Oh, then there's no problem. Enjoy yourself. That was the extent of his concern. But despite the community leader's blessing, the local administrator wanted us out, so we high tailed it back to the bus and headed for the old quarter, the medina ...

... bring us through a very ornate entryway into a stunning parlor room. We exchange greetings and are served cold Mango/Peach nectar. The girls & Lyn are pleased and immediately tour the home and are lead to our rooms. We dump our backpacks, I check on timing / menu plans and we head out to the minibus and our day w/ Abdul. Abdul confirms we'll head to the outskirt of Tangiers first to see the countryside. In the hills we pass the homes of ...

... OOOHHH, the mint tea was awesome!! Crystal clear with just a sprig of fresh mint, very refreshing. After our tea, we as graciously as possible thanked him and asked to be taken back to the bottom floor so we could see his jewelry since neither of us were interested in the carpets. We then worked our way out of the store slowly without too much guilt of not buying anything after the half-hour carpet showing and mint tea experience! We then decided it ...

... with a big sign advertising the Socialist Party of Morocco. Who I'm sure must being having a hard time swallowing the fact that their country is still being run by a King. Before arriving in Tangier I was told by a few other tourists that I had to be really careful here as there were a lot of tourists that got mugged. As a result a lot of tourists purposely miss it out of their tour of Morocco. But I did want to see Europe from Africa, so found a decent look out point and snapped up ...

... too much...I just didn´t pay them much attention so they moved on. It would be good to wear sunglasses and bring a blind man´s cane...then they´d probably leave you alone. The guide took us on quick bus ride around Tanger and we stopped at a place with camels so people could get pics. Back to the ferry for our ride to Tarifa. Karla and I decided to see the sunset again though she got ice cream instead of beer (loco!). We went to Tijuana for tex-mex food and met up with ...