I spent this past weekend traveling to Tangier, Morocco and then Tarifa, Spain. Of course I enjoyed the incredible views, soft sandy beaches, delicious flavors (minus that chicken curry Ramen from a rusting tea kettle…in a blog post to come), and a few famous mojitos/sangria/spritz. But one aspect of this trip manages to overshadow the rest of my experiences- it was the people I met who made the trip especially memorable.
On the train to Tangier, we fought to get a car with 7 open spots, but considering each car only holds 8 people, we were separated. Five of us ended up in one car after a while, joining two men who I assumed would not acknowledge us besides some brief judgment, per usual. However, soon the men realized we spoke English and one man started talking with us. He could speak a little bit of English, while the other man spoke only Arabic and French. However, their French was very clear so I could easily hold a conversation with them! On this four-hour train ride, I spent about three hours speaking with them. Turns out they are PhD students studying physics and computer science, so I had some quality nerdy conversation with them. We talked about everything from their families to organic chemistry to religion (I got a little nervous to speak to them about this, but they were just truly curious). The man who spoke no Engish did not really understand my explanation of our volunteer work, so he called his friend who speaks fluent English to translate for him, all because he just really wanted to understand. It was refreshing to have a conversation with Moroccans who were just genuinely interested in what we had to say, and vice versa. They were very kind-hearted, offering a place to stay in their hometowns if we ever needed one. What a wonderful start to a great weekend!
The other incredible person I met on this trip is a wild, 50-ish year old, single with no kids, Spanish-speaking, Italian construction worker. How did I manage to even start talking to such a character (considering I know about 4 Spanish words) and end up bonding with him? Two things- spritz and fishing.
A little background- we are dumb Americans who booked an AirBnb that doesn’t let us check in until 5pm, but we showed up in Spain around 10am. So of course 10am in Spain meant time to find some mimosas (again, remember that we are just dumb American college students). We stumbled upon a café with all of our bags and backpacks, as directed by a local, and tried to explain to the server what a mimosa was. Instead, he grabs the menu, points to something called spritz, mimics the exploding of a champagne bottle, shows us a bottle of neon orange liquid called Aperol, and kisses the air to motion delicious. After a performance like that, how could we say no? Spritz all around!
The other incredible person I met on this trip is a wild, 50-ish year old, single with no kids, Spanish-speaking, Italian construction worker. How did I manage to even start talking to such a character (considering I know about 4 Spanish words) and end up bonding with him? Two things- spritz and fishing.
A little background- we are dumb Americans who booked an AirBnb that doesn’t let us check in until 5pm, but we showed up in Spain around 10am. So of course 10am in Spain meant time to find some mimosas (again, remember that we are just dumb American college students). We stumbled upon a café with all of our bags and backpacks, as directed by a local, and tried to explain to the server what a mimosa was. Instead, he grabs the menu, points to something called spritz, mimics the exploding of a champagne bottle, shows us a bottle of neon orange liquid called Aperol, and kisses the air to motion delicious. After a performance like that, how could we say no? Spritz all around!
We are served the beautiful bright orange drink in oversized wine glasses, garnished with an orange. It was delicious and became my new (well, only thus far, but still) favorite Spanish drink. A man standing at the bar was also drinking at 10am, so there was an automatic bond, and he started trying to speak with us. Turns out he’s an Italian man who lives in Tarifa and loves fishing. He asked if any of us enjoy fishing, and two of us (myself and Anthony) immediately say yes. He told us to meet him at the bar at 3pm and we would go fishing, no charge, just for fun.
A little after 3pm, we are standing on a pier-like structure that is essentially a walkway to goes out over the water. Oscar taught us how to cast (shout out to my dad for preventing me from totally embarrassing myself and taking me fishing all these years). Anthony and I both caught a few small fish, got a lot of lines tangled, and lost a lot of shrimp and worms to the fish. Meanwhile, Oscar was enjoying himself, smoking, playing Bob Marley, making bad jokes, and teaching us about his Tarifa lifestyle. Who would have thought I would get the opportunity to go fishing in Spain? How lucky are we!
Around 7pm, we packed up our things in order to meet our friends back at the café where we started our day. We bought Oscar a few rounds of spritz as a thanks for a wonderful afternoon. Oscar gave us one of the fish he caught (ours were all too small to keep) and his email to send him the photos we had taken. Would he ever see us again? It didn’t even matter because he just genuinely wanted to welcome us to Spain with a good time. What a warm welcome to Spain and what a great reminder of how many wonderful people there are in the world!
Around 7pm, we packed up our things in order to meet our friends back at the café where we started our day. We bought Oscar a few rounds of spritz as a thanks for a wonderful afternoon. Oscar gave us one of the fish he caught (ours were all too small to keep) and his email to send him the photos we had taken. Would he ever see us again? It didn’t even matter because he just genuinely wanted to welcome us to Spain with a good time. What a warm welcome to Spain and what a great reminder of how many wonderful people there are in the world!
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