New Years

We had a pretty laid back new years eve. We went out to dinner at a really good Japanese restaurant near the center of town. We bought a few drinks at the store and headed back to our place. My roommates invited us to the living room to take part in a Spanish New Years tradition; at midnight you eat 12 grapes, one every time the bell dings. If you can eat all the grapes it is supposed to bring you good luck in the New Year. We had a little champagne with the roommates and then headed to bed because we started our last trip before Ingy leaves back to the States. 

We have decided to spend the last week in Morocco. Our plan was to head to Gibraltar on New Years Day and then on the 2nd take the ferry over to Africa. We got up early this morning and left Sevilla at 9:30 on a bus to La Linea, which is the town right outside Gibraltar. Gibraltar is British territory at the Southern tip of Spain at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. About 15 minutes into the 4 hour bus ride I got really sick feeling. If you haven't ever traveled with me then you are lucky. I tend to get motion sickness in cars and especially buses. I was puking before we made it out of Sevilla. Luckily there was barely anyone on the bus so I found a nice quiet section in back to empty my stomach and then passed out across a few seats. I woke up just before our stop and I thought I was feeling better. I ate a little food and drank some water and then 10 minutes later started puking again. Luckily we were of the bus shortly after and I felt fine. 

We got some food and then made our way into Gibraltar. When passing through customs in Gibraltar the man at the counter was on the phone and didn't even open our passports and motioned us on like he was annoyed we showed up. We made our way through the town in hopes of getting to the Gondola to take us to the top of the rock to see the views and monkeys that are native to the rock. 

Of course they would have these

Rock of Gibraltar 

Downtown

It felt like a ghost town as we were making our way from one end to the other. Everything was closed. We made it to the Gondola and sure enough that was closed for the day too. We neglected to realize the possibility of this before hand. Instead of walking around Gibraltar while nothing was opened we decided to catch a bus to Algeciras Spain and take the ferry over to Africa.

Old cemetery in Gibraltar 

We bought our tickets for the ferry and made our way onto the boat. Our destination was a small Spanish Territory on the north coast of Africa called Cueta. The ferry was about an hour and a half long and luckily the swaying of the boat didn't make me puke. We stayed on the deck of the ferry for a while to take some photos and watch the sunset before it was dark. While heading out of the port there was a school of tiny dolphins swimming in the opposite direction of us. The inside of the ferry was really nice. We laid down on a few couches and rested for the duration of the trip. 

Ferry 

Leaving Spain

Gibraltar in the background

Dolphin swimming near the ferry

How ninjas sleep

Inside one section of the ferry

The town of Ceuta was pretty small. We found a hostal and went and ate some food near the water. Our plan is to head to Fes, Morocco in the morning and spend a few days there. After that we are trying to go to one more city before we head back up into Spain. We are going to try and make it to Gibraltar on the way back home because we both really wanted to go to the top of the rock.

Hope everyone had a great New Year! Ingy and I are having a great time. She flies back to the States on the 10th. We are planning on getting back in Sevilla on the 8th at night or early on the 9th. Hopefully I will be able to post a few times before then, but if not I will have a lot of photos and stuff to talk about from our time in Morocco.