Journey to Morocco- Day 8

Day 8 - 24/03/08

We left the backpackers' lodge at 9ish a.m. On the way, Sze Nee went to the bank and we finally had money again! (hehe)

Our aim was to hitch a ride from Tarifa to the ferry port in Algeciras. We gave up after 10 mins coz while we were trying to hitch a ride, a man who was cutting grass opposite the road came up to us and said something that sounded like.. 

"Una euro... Algeciras"

And we thought, "Huh? Is he trying to tell us that it only costs 1 euro to get to Algeciras by bus?" No wonder no one stopped to give us a lift.

Posing at the bus station in Algeciras

So in the end, we took a bus & managed to arrive Algeciras at 11.30 a.m. We were very excited when we got there. It was our final stop before Morocco! YES!

Texting Link to inform that we've reached Algeciras

After sorting out our tickets and storing our stuff at a locker (which costed us 1 euro each), we decided to explore the town. 

We spotted a restaurant named "Din Don" and thought it sounded cute. Just then, a guy wearing the Hitch t-shirt came up to us. We chit-chatted about our hitch experience. He was amazed that it only took us 4 rides to reach Algeciras from Coventry..while they took about 15. That's when we realised we were indeed very lucky.

We were so excited to see a chinese restaurant and decided to try out the food. It wasn't very 'wow!' but it provided the comfort we needed.

Fried rice

After lunch, we walked around and found a mini playground. Most of the shops were closed probably due to the Easter weekend. Sze Nee was craving for fillet-o-fish but to our astonishment, the McD there didn't have it on the menu. Oh well, the craving had to wait!

We succumbed to our 'internet-craving' and went in an internet cafe for one whole hour before making our way back to the port.

Wheee~~ playground!

Killed time by playing 'Shithead' (which I've forgotten how to play), 'Bluff' and 'Big Two'. We were planning to spend the night at the ferry port but I felt something was amiss when I see less and less people in the terminal. Went ahead and asked the person-in-charge for their closing time, hoping he would say the port will be opened for 24 hours. Unfortunately, he said 'evening'.

Uh oh! We seek confirmation and it was indeed true! OH NO! I was begging Jimmy for a night's stay at a hostel nearby but $ was running low and hostel was no longer a viable option. I persuaded Jimmy till my throat was dry but he wouldn't give in. :p He was saying that we should have a sense of adventure and camp somewhere. I argued saying it would be dangerous.. blah blah.. what if something happens to us.. but I lost the argument in the end and we decided to rough it out!

We went to the guard house just outside the port and asked the police if we could sit outside their office for the night. He said 'ok' but we weren't sure if he really understood what we were asking. After securing the place, we went to have our dinner at a fried chicken place.

Delicious fried chicken!

Can you imagine me still trying to talk Jimmy out of sleeping outside for the night? My pleas fell on deaf ears and that's when I knew he was really serious about it. 

After dinner, we went back to the guard house and were relieved to see the police smiling at us. Just to be sure, we showed him our Hitch letter from Link. He just kept saying 'Ok'.

We thought he was going to be on duty for the night but he left at around 10pm! I have to admit I began to worry for our safety.

If looks could kill... hehe

We took our sleeping bags out and tried to sleep. Poor Jimmy had no sleeping bag. It was a cold night, so he tried to keep warm by walking around. My fear went away after settling myself in my sleeping bag. 

Posing in our sleeping bags.. Not bad, still managed to smile!

There were still trucks moving and people walking in and out at that time.

At about 2.30 a.m, Jimmy came back and told us there was a 24 hour cafe just 2 minutes away from us. Without hesitation, we packed up and sat ourselves in the cafe. It was just too cold to sleep on the streets!

To pass time, we played more card games... It must have been our 15th round of German bridge..

5 a.m, Ferry Terminal.. Condition: EXHAUSTED! Extremely sleepy