Blogs from Ceuta & Melilla, Spain, Europe

Melilla is a little part of Spain on the North African coast. It has been famous for all the wrong reasons recently as its border has been swamped with migrants trying to reach the EU, and the solution seems to be a higher and stronger wall! With our privileged pink passports crossing over was no problem at all though. A short €6 grand taxi took us from Nador to the checkpoint and before we knew it we were walking along the narrow blue caged alleyways towards the Spanish border guards who were unusually jovial. Perhaps it was because it was a public holiday (Good Friday) and there were no crowds for them to police. Sundays and holidays seem good options to make these crossings stress-free! We opted to stay in the Hotel Anfora. It suited our ... read more

(N) "Is the age of European imperialism in Africa dead? Almost, but not quite. Melilla, a Spanish territory nestling uneasily along the Moroccan Mediterranean coast, is one of the last two European territories on the African continent. Home to some 70,000 people of Spanish, Arab and Berber descent, it is a thriving port city marked by beautiful Spanish modernist architecture. Seized in the late fifteenth century, it served for centuries as a heavily-defended garrison town. In some ways its functions remains unchanged today. Although the medieval castle is now a tourist attraction, the territory is ringed by a forbidding EU-security fence whose function is to keep undocumented migrants from North and West Africa out of the EU." Thus writes my friend Nick Megoran, a keen geographer, who invited some friends to help celebrate his 40th birthday ... read more

I took the boat over from Malaga to Melilla, one of the two Spanish enclaves that remain in Morocco. Boat was big empty and had a bar. I slept all the way to the other side, only to be woken by a custom officer to kick me off. Hassle free arrival and checked in in one of the hotels. Melilla is a kind of a strange place as it has all very rich Spanish people living there, who still adore Franco and a large number of poor Moroccons. The place defenitely has a Spanish atmosphere, tapas bars, wines, the language end feels very colonial, with it's big fort looming over th coast. Anyway stayed only one night, although it was nearly the end of my trip.... As I reached for my toothbrush from the shower on ... read more

Okay ... just a quick note to tell you we made it to Gibraltar! The Rock! Well, we knew we were only 45min away by bus, so we're up at 9am and we went to Gibraltar! Madrid had makeets (fictional) now we see Gibralter has macacs (true) ! Gibralter - A British military post grabbed in a treaty agreement in 1713. The Spanish, understandably, aren't happy about it and delibrately clog the border and make phone communication difficult. But the view and the lure of an English ale and pub grub is strong (and palatable). Since it's only a 45min bus ride away...we're up for it!! Wake at 9am and by 930 we're on our way. Now, keeping in mind our non-negotiable train to Cordoba then Madrid is at 3pm from Algeciras. Grab a taxi to ... read more

It's been a hectic few days. I'm on another of my whirlwind mad crazy trips, knocking out passport stamps by the dozen. Well, not quite a dozen, but will end up with 4 new ones. The main reason for this trip is to attend the OpenBSD hackathon in Coimbra, Portugal for 5 days. I've been working on the ACPI implementation for OpenBSD on and off for a year now; my friend Marco wanted me to go to the conference to meet some of the other openbsd geeks. Since I'd never been to Portugal before that was an easy answer. Since I was redeeming an award ticket, it gave me some extra flexibility in adding one or two other destinations. I've been attempting to get on the Traveler's Century Club list, they define a list of ~317 ... read more