Hi everyone. This is Tony, just giving a brief update of my recent travels.
During November-December I was in Sri Lanka – a lovely quiet country with charming people and beautiful nature. The picture of me with elephants proves this.
Then I went to Spain for the xmas and New year. I visited Madrid, lovely, Barcelona, spending xmas day on the beach in the sun and Sevila, my favour place in Spain. However, I got all my money stolen from my account in a credit card scam. I returned home to sorted and after my bank refunded me I returned to Spain and continued the journey.
I flew back to Sevila for a night, seeing friends then headed to Lisbua, capital of Portugal. A great small capital with many steep hills, thousands of street obstacles and many difficult old pavements to negotiate. I met many cool people and was helped about all over the city. I next headed down south to Lagos, a small beach town with lively pubs and hostels in the summer and a quiet ambiance of peacefulness in winter. I stayed at a hostel named the Rising cock! Pancakes every morning for breakfast accompanied by lemon tea – it is meant to cure hangovers!
After several days in Lagos, walking the cliff tops, soaking up the sun and enjoying the beaches and the sea I moved onto Cadiz and back to Spain. A car ride with an interesting Swede and a very cool Aussie guy was fun as we cruised the Spanish highways – enjoying the company and scenery.
A night in Cadiz produced another good hostel and a small city with several squares and a nice beach. I was next deposited in Gibraltar where I spent a night in a basic hostel that lacked atmosphere. the small main town centre was nice and people of English-Spanish-Italian-Moroccan mix seemed friendly and helpful. I took a taxi tour up the rock usually £16 per person but got it free. The highlight of the tour was having my picture taken with a wild monkey on my head!
I took several buses to my final destination in Spain, Terefa, apparently the windiest city in Europe, spent a day on its massive beach then caught the evening boat to Tangier, Morocco. The 35 minute journey cost 31 Euros. Once in Tangier an empty port town I went to the main train station and took the night train to Marrokesh in the Southern region. I ran out of money so only saw Marrokesh. It was an interesting city full of mopeds, drums and many smells, ranging from incense to cooking meet and various other unusual fragrants. After a week in Morocco I caught a flight back to London.
My trip lasted three weeks and apart from meeting some fantastic people, breaking my dark glasses and having my cane broken when someone stepped on it in a Moroccan marketplace, it was mostly uneventful.
I next go to Norway.