Viajunto

This entry is not about how people celebrate their Christmases in different countries or what they celebrate instead. This is an entry about my first Christmas that I’m not spending at home. The first time, without going to the Christmas market in my hometown drinking Glühwein. Without my family. City center in Málaga During my travels I met a lot of people who are going back home for Christmas and initially my goal was to finish this journey till mid-December so I’d be home, too. But Murphy’s law meant it to happen in another way. The view from my balcony in Madrid The reasons for that are simple: first of all I stood longer in Valencia than expected. Not only Valencia, it happened several times that I extended my stay in some cities just because I liked them or I met some people with whom it was fun to hang around. After a while of traveling alone you appreciate guys that are on the same wavelength as you are. But Valencia was definitely the longest stay with almost th

When I started my journey I thought it would be funny to go there as it is quite near to Spain (at the closest point it’s only 14 km) and of course to be able to say “I’ve been to Africa”. Well I wouldn’t consider Morocco to be African as it’s quite different. Even compared to Europe. That’s crazy. Cameron, a coworker in Valencia, told me she had a huge culture shock when she arrived. I wanted the same experience. This and a couple of other reasons made me finally go there, so I booked a ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta, a Spanish exclave on the African continent. Ceuta is not a big deal and definitely skipable. I wished I went to Melilla as there is this huge border fence to keep out immigrants from the EU. However, those who crossed the border by foot once know this is a weird experience. You walk and walk and see the sign “Morocco” but as it’s not part of the Shengen area I was confused. No boarder patrol or anything like that. Then you come to a small fence, maybe 1 m hig