If you haven’t read William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways”, you might want to consider it. Good book, by a kindred spirit.
True. I thought it was an odd exercise, but I needed to get from the Canaries to Germany at the same time as my friend, we had a week or so free and $500 isn’t that much to spend. As an experience, it was great - the bus journey through Morocco was particularly interesting as it took about 24 hours and we spent a lot of that time going through many of the major cities (I think Casablanca was the only major one that we didn’t see). You get to see people living out their lives at all times of the day and night, which is an interesting cultural experience even if you aren’t actually interacting with them much. Once we arrived in Tetouan, we had about 36 hours to spend in the city and visit Ceuta. That was an interesting place too - there are big fences keeping the Africans out, while we were able to pass through to a very European-looking enclave with our magic European passports (so more ‘interesting’ in a ‘shaping your political perspective’ way). The Iraq War had just started, so it was a little tense at times walking around Morocco and being stopped by random people who wanted to discuss politics. In general though, the people were very welcoming and I loved the nightlife; people would be out on the streets with their kids until quite late and the food was great. Gibraltar was amazing; I climbed the rock twice in the evening and morning and we were able to see some other parts and learn some of its history. There were some great times during the rest of the journey (practicing different languages, meeting interesting people, wandering aimlessly rather than joining dots etc.), but I appreciated spending time with my friend and processing the last couple of years we had spent doing voluntary word together, getting a glimpse of a number of cultures and understanding how possible and affordable travel in Europe can be if you actually want to do it. We didn’t explore anywhere in depth, but now I have some great ideas of where I want to visit if I get the chance again. I’ve spent longer holidays or lived in a number of places, but the most memorable holidays have been road trips or fairly spontaneous visits where I got to know normal people rather than seeing the usual sights.
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