1.8.07

Hitchhiking through Europe and reaching Morocco

in a cybercafe; Casablanca, Morocco.
I did it! It took me 4 days to get to Tanger.
There were moments of great luck as well as bad luck (mostly in Spain ;-)
The second hike I got was a French married couple; they spent a week in Prague and were returning home (near Lyon). With some more hikes, I was in Barcelona the second day (though it was difficult to get from Perpignan across the borders).
In Spain I got in a few desperate situations. I was really considering giving it up. People were taking little (I heard quite a few different versions why it was so - by the way, the hitchhiking showed me once again how "multi-faceted" the "truth" is; I often talked with different people about one topic and it was extremely interesting to see the different points of view, different knowledge of the topic, different stances...) and there were few convenient places.
Finally, I also started asking truck drivers - two has taken me; one Spanish and one British; they were very nice :-) The British took me from Granada to Algeciras (he went to Gibraltar; btw did you know that, in order for Gibraltar to remain truly British (though there are now Spaniards by now than native Britons), even the building material is transported from UK to Gibraltar?
One Barcelonian made a round trip in the city for me - beautiful! I have to visit it thouroughly one day (as well as other places I was passing).
Another topic, apart from hitchiking in Spain (there were a few false hitchhikers some years ago and since then, most drivers - mostly in the south of Spain - are afraid to take them) were immigrants. Briefly - people from developing countries are moving to Britain, France, Germany...so people from those countries move to Spain (but there a lot of developing-world immigrants to Spain, else the Spanish economy would reportedly collapse, as Spaniards are too lazy to do so-deemed "inferior" jobs). I met three non-native Spaniards - one Briton, one French and one Lithuanian.
I also saw Malaga and Costa Brava in general - tourist megalopolises! Hundred km of interrupted tourist structures!
The ferry from Algeciras was quite costly. Btw, there were migrant Moroccans returning to their country for vacations - I could have seen them all the way from France (their car is all full and on the roof there is a big blue package with yet another gifts for their families.
From Algeciras I moved to Tangers and from there I took the train to Casablanca. Casablanca is a busy city, but not very sight-seeing worth (well, I haven't seen the medina and the great mosque yet). Most buildings are just bland. I hate haggling. They mistake me for a French and they think I'm terribly rich (well, my clothes are already quite worn off, so I don't seem that rich, but still).
So far, I've slept mostly near service stations or elsewhere in wilderness, today I want to find a cheap hotel in the medina.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! It's unbelievable you did it! Real madman. I have to plan something as crazy as you did:-)

Anonymous said...

great job!
congratulations and im really looking forward to september to hear more about your trip ;-)
a42
p.s. was the trip difficult? see the casablanca movie to realize it was nothing comparing to the return trip :-D

eeris said...

I'll be happy to tell about everything once I return :-)
Still, I fear I won't have the possibility to see the movie anytime soon ;-)
Hitchiking is fun!