Madrid, Day 233: Home!

Oh yeah I lied, so I’m not home exactly, but arriving in Europe was like coming home. A thrilled sensation of something very familiar hit me the second I got into the city center of Madrid and the sensation was elevated even more after aknowledging that I could still very much communicate with people, in the Spanish that I had learned in the past 8 months. To think about the level you get in high school in 3 years, intensely taught several hours a week, versus learning it slowly in the street in a latin country, it seems almost futile to learn a language outside of it’s natural frames.
I spent almost a week in Madrid, waiting for a letter from my bank in Denmark, moving house and changing host 2 times – the next more lovely and kind and cool than the previous. I spent smiling and enjoyable times in luxurious apartments, with the best WiFi I had had in 8 months, with the sweetest people, eating delicious Spanish foods. If it hadn’t been for the wish of being in Morocco, unknown and exciting territory, as soon as possible – I had probably stayed in Madrid! Haha.
But nonetheless, a week after my arrival to Spain I ventured south alone to hitchhike my way to Tangier – the first city you reach (if taking the ferry from Algeciras in Spain) after crossing the Gibraltar strait, on the African continent. The first ride I god outside of Madrid by hitchhiking, was with a very old guy who ended up really reminding me of the old man in Into the Wild that ends up wanting to adopt Alex. He was the sweetest guy, buying me food, talking to me about his young days when he had long hair and used to sit in the side of the road, partly covering his face with his hair so drivers would think he was a girl. When they stopped, he would then jump in before they realized he was a guy and then started to talk to them so they would realize he did no harm at all. A tough world for a male hitchhiker – still is!
He was also smoking joints while driving haha, but driving skills were good. I slept a bit at a point and whenever we passed through beautiful regions he would wake me up so I could see.

It took me around 16 hours to HH from Madrid to Tangier and I was very lucky – Hitchwiki states that southern Spain is one of the most difficult places to hitchhike. I even got a ride, in Algeciras, with the first truck I signalled to – onto the ferry and through his connections, all the way to the city Tangier afterwards (which is 40 km from Tangier Meditteranean, the habour). The Moroccan men have been very very kind to me; giving me food, water, a place to sleep and all this in very poor language skills on both parts, partly in Spanish, French and English.
I will never forget that day of HH experience – I met so many nice people and it again gives me the feeling of wanting to pay it forward and do good to other people, in order to repay all the kindness.

Adventures in Morocco with pics will follow later 😉

Lovely Carolina/Mundo was my 2. host in Madrid and by far has the sweeeeetest apartment!
She is also very nice 😉 haha, kidding, she’s the best!
WIll visit again, and you are always welcome in my home!

Animation

UFO and Cosmos exhibition – this is melted sand from a desert that is created when meteors hit, from the intense heat. It was/is worshipped in some African tribes.

A painting from 1461, showing a knight being beamed up by a UFO it seems

Huge drawing in kiddy-style like fashion of alien killing machine/spaceship/solar-powered alien tech something something

Time machine!