Tarifa - or my Struggling with Crossing Over to Africa (My Magical Mystery Tour - Part 3)

lots of colorful kites at the beaches

From La Gomera, where I stayed for two weeks, me and my friend took the plane back to Seville in Spain.
She planned to go back to Portugal, while I stayed in the city.
But only for one day, because I met a couple in a van, who were on their way to Tarifa to go surfing.

And for I had no other plans, and had never heard of Tarifa before, I joined them, and so we headed southward to the small town by the Straits of Gibraltar :-)

The two of them were going to stay at a beach a few kilometres from the town, but they were so kind to drop me off near the city center, where the hostel was, I had booked a bed in a shared room in.

A staff member of the hostel showed me first my room and then the roof terrace with a wonderful view over the city and the Strait of Gibraltar.
"And by the way" he said "Those mountains you can see on the opposite shore, that is Morocco."

And now I first realized where exactly I was!
And also where I would go next!

Morocco!

city center of Tarifa

I knew I wanted to go, but I was also aware of Morocco being quite different to the countries I had traveled before.
Different culture, religion, in fact I didn't know much about Morocco, I just knew it would be a new challenge for me.

And that scared me a bit.

So I extended my stay in the hostel day after day.
And every time I told myself "Tomorrow I will go, this time for real!"

But in the end I needed two weeks to finally find the courage to take the ferry ^^

I had a good time in Tarifa, really relaxing (except from my struggelling with Morocco ^^).

If you are not a Kite Surfer, there's not that much to do in Tarifa.
So I spent my time with new found friends on the roof terrace or at the beach, or taking walks in the beautiful countryside around the city.

don't know which kind of flower this is, but it's quite pretty, isn't it?

I really needed that break.
Traveling can be quite exhausting, so many new experiences in such a short time.

I also took the chance to call my family and some of my friends. I had been away now for one and a half month, had met a lot of new people, and felt the need to hear some familiar voices.

view from the roof terrace

I interviewed every new guest in the hostel, arriving from Morocco, to gather as much information as possible first-hand, and got a lot of useful advice.

And slowly my worries and insecurities decreased.

Of course I heard some concerning stories, but bad things can happen everywhere, and the majority of people I've talked to told me about how wondrous and exciting Morocco was and how they had really enjoyed their time there.

So on the 23rd of April 2019 I finally got on the ferry. And after a 30 minutes passage across the Strait of Gibraltar, I arrived in Tangier, excited and still a bit nervous ^^

And for the first time in my life I set foot on the continent of Africa.