Italy & Morocco Entry #4: I look local, I eat local, I go back to where I feel local

The ferry from Tangier to Algeciras was running on a Moroccan schedule and according to Moroccan advertising principles. The “1 hour” 5:00 ferry departed at 5:40 and arrived in Spain 2.5 hours later (having crossed a time zone, the clock showed the trip to have been just 1.5). Once across the border, however, everything was fully Spanish. I could finally (kind of) blend in! I could communicate with words! I also happened to have the nicest hostel room I’d ever stayed in—a private single with bathroom, though I’d only paid for a dorm. The next day I took a bus to Portugal and saw some great Spanish scenery—lots of green and lots of sun. And when I left my coat on one bus after transferring to a new one, I was able to convince the driver (though already running late) to let me run back and get it. In Spain, things were going well.

Luck in Portugal was mixed. CouchSurf host in Faro failed to contact me: bad. Ran into random friendly-seeming guy who showed me to the tourism office, recommended a nice but cheap place to stay, and toured me around town: generally good. Generally. In addition to the city’s sights, Carlos decided I needed to experience the local food, alcohol, and music. Generally I’m fine with that, but with a middle-aged playboy, it was pretty strange. I never felt unsafe, so I stayed out with him, had some surprisingly good wine, great food (some fish & egg dish, olives, shrimp, goat cheese...), and listened to a local band. I got back to the hostel around 4:00 in the morning and decided that, while everything turned out fine, that’s probably not something I should do again anytime soon. Just got too awkward. In any case, it was definitely a relief to land in Germany where you can be alone without getting accosted, where people are reserved and not only won’t follow you around, but probably won’t even strike up a conversation…especially not with a direct inquiry about your marital status. Much of the time, I have no problem with puritanical.