When the East meets the West!

b]25th October[/b]

Ok, before I start this entry, please let me clear up something for you. As you can see there's 2 dates on all my entries. The first one (which is always the later date of the two) is the date of when I wrote the entry and the second one is the date of the time I was actually in the place I was writing about. Sorry for the unnecessary headaches for those who are anal about chronology and sequence of events like moi..hehe

In my last entry, I mentioned lost of driver's license. I actually did not even realise it was gone until an hour before boarding the bus, that's how terrible I am with things like that..I mean, sure, passport I'm super careful..but driver's license is something I just keep in my money belt and hardly ever look at it except to use it as a security deposit when renting audio guides from the museums and before you enquire, no, I didn't leave it at any museum either! Anyway, I am about to find out how efficient the NZ embassy is overseas.

Right, now getting back to the blog..so not sure if you guys remember my meeting with Robert Kaasmacher during my stay in Seville. Robert, a German psychologist residing in Almeria convinced me (I'm sure he used hypnotism!) that Almeria is worth visiting because a) It is a coastal town facing the Mediterranean (aka, more beach time) and b) they have the Alcazaba, a city fortress only second to the Alhambra (see my Granada entry) and c) In the midst of the winter, the coldest temperature on average there was over 30 degrees!!! What was a historian geeky and beach loving and sun worshipping girl to do?!! I also needed another pit stop from all the travel hectic schedule and so I boarded the night bus from Valencia for Almeria, thinking this new experience (been on night train before but not on bus) would add another perspective to my travel experience but I think I definitely got more than what I bargained for...

The bus I planned to board was scheduled to depart at 23:48 (see, I'm already telling time like an European) but since it's to a small town like Almeria and it was so late, I did not bother reserving a seat..oh why, why does Murphy's Law mock me so! So as you can guess by now, I was informed that this bus was full and instead I had to take the next one, leaving at 02:30..I was like great, what the heck am I going to do for the next few hours, as all the shops in the bus station has already closed down for the day and it's half an hour's bus back into the city, so I decided to hang around, quietly ignoring that uneasy feeling that was slowly rising from the bottom of my stomache..(maybe it was no more sinister than my hunger..)

Ten minutes into my waiting, I was approached by a Morrocan man trying to chat me up...despite polite subtle hints that I rather be alone which was of course not so subtly ignored by the guy, I decided on a more crafty approach (I always believe that rudeness should be avoided at all cost if possible). Summoning my Oscar winning performance, I pretended to call someone on my mobile and proceed to chat away (which of course gave me a good excuse to dismiss the guy). He of course waited for me to finish my call but I was having the most animated and interesting conversation with myself and refused to hang up (maybe that german psychologist's expertise would come in handy later). Finally, he left me alone and I decided to go to a more brightly lit place, so made my way downstairs where there was a cafeteria.

My initial relief turned into anxiety again as I was about to enter the cafeteria, there were like these 4 men already sitting inside who looked like all their Christmases have just arrived all at once upon noticing my arrival. They started calling out for me to come and join them...arrrrgh! My respite has turned into another lion's cage! Murphy mocked me further when I saw the Morrocan guy approaching as well...Talking about feeling trapped in a corner like a poor lil wee wabbit that I was...

As I was contemplating what would hurt less, the "fire" or the "frying pan", I saw the bus that I orginally wanted to take pulling up and instinctively I walked towards it and decided that perhaps the safest thing to do was to see if they have an empty seat by chance so I could leave on this bus instead of waiting for another couple of hours. I shuddered at the thought of having to fend off these predators for that period of time. I guess to be honest, this would be the first time since I commenced my travels that I really wished I wasn't alone. Where is the knight in shining in armour when you need one (tune of "I need a Hero" playing in the background). Anyhow, through my very limited and broken Spanish and lots and lots of wild gesticulation, I managed to convey my request to the bus driver and to my great relief, he nodded and ushered me into the bus.

You know how I earlier contemplated the "fire" and the "frying pan", well, I just escaped both only to walk into a lion's den. I know then what it was like to be a piece of fresh meat. There were many predators in the bus and I could feel their eyes on me and even though the darkly lit bus meant I couldn't possibly see their faces, I could certainly feel them metaphorically licking their lips in anticipation. There were several seats free and unfortunately, they were all beside "hungry" predators. I walked all the way back looking once again for the least painful path of death and ended up sitting beside a man in his 50's in a bright red jacket who turned out to be quite cordial. I really can't describe it but the atmosphere inside the bus was just eerie for me. I was like a cat with all its hairs standing when danger is near or a dog with a slow menacing growl upon feeling threatened..

While Papa Smurf didn't look like he was going to attack me, I had other problems to contend with. The bus' toilet wasn't exactly pleasant and there was a lady blowing her nose and constantly coughing just behind me. It was going to be a long night..surely nothing else could be worst?! Murphy strikes again! A baby started this high pitch wailing and for a split second, I contemplated wailing myself, in misery! These combining factors made me moved a few seats to the front, risking sitting beside this middle aged guy who after several attempts at trying to be "friendly" with me, in the end, decided to leave me alone. However, there were 2 younger guys sitting in front of me, who kept turning back and smiling and staring at me. Forget white knight, a paperbag would have suffice as well at that moment! I thought right, I'll just ignore them and try to sleep. I closed my eyes for not more than a minute when I heard a clicking sound of a digital camera. I was shocked to discover upon opening my eyes that one of the guys sitting in front of me just took a picture of me with his phone camera. Ohmygosh! I'm on the highway not to Almeria but to hell! This has certainly been the worst night travel experiences I have ever had.

I arrived in Almeria, weary and drained but still too wound up and tensed at the same time. I was so glad though to make it in one piece and awfully glad to see a familiar face. Robert was of course apologetic for my experience but of course it wasn't his fault. Oh, I forgot to say that Robert has kindly offered to let me stay at his place while I was in Almeria. He lives about 25 minutes by car in Almerimar (yes, they really need to work on their originality in name of places) and only 15 minutes walk from the beach. But right then, all I wanted to do was sleep and that was what I got..a good solid 10 hours worth to cure the exhaustion!

Later, Robert took me to a nearby town, El Hida for some lunch and we just caught up on news. He then showed me a nearby fortress by the beach of Almerimar. It was once used by the Moorish empire to guard the Spanish water in the 11th century. Today the Spanish custom uses it to guard the same water from Morrocans trying to enter the country illegally.

The fortress of Almerimar.

As you can see from the picture, the weather was indeed as pleasant as Robert described. It was super hot and humid too! We then walked around the beach for a bit before heading home. Robert's place is a nice 2 bedroom apartment with a great view of the sea and it comes also with a tennis court! Excellent! Poor Robert didn't know what hit him when I suggested a game of tennis. I "accidentally" forgot to mention my level of fitness to him. Oops, also left out that I used to play tennis at school. It was also sometime ago since I was able to do any sports or go running. This and all that added tension in the bus made me just want to go out there and blast the balls all over the court...poor Robert but despite my best imitation of Serena Williams, he did considerably well to return the balls despite the fact that he only played tennis like twice in his life...doh! :P

Coincidentally, Robert's family was also visiting from Germany at the same time, so he went and spend time with them that night and left me at home with his satelite tv of over 150 channels. So after leaving my aggression on court, I was able to transform into a couch potato for that night.

26th October

Robert had to work and so he dropped me off at the bus station to catch a bus into Almeria town centre so I can do some sightseeing. It was a nice pleasant bus ride for a change, with views of the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, almost all the way into town.

Almeria, like most Andalusian towns were of course once under Christian rule before the Moorish conquered this region for 700 years, only to then be reconquered once more by the Christians. This rich tapestry of history was proudly displayed all over Andulusia. Similarly, Almeria has its fair share of mosques that were then converted into churches, this was evident from the Moorish styled domes in most of the religious architectures. However, there was no grandeur sight than the Alcazaba, Almeria's fortress located at the top of the hill overlooking this port city.

In 955, Adb al-Rahman, the first caliph of Al-Andalus granted the status of madina to the nucleus of Almeria, ordering the construction of the Alcazaba to act as a fortress as well as the main administration centre for the Moorish to control Andalusia. After the Christian's reconquest, they extended the fortress including building a Watch Tower and a church with a bell tower known as Santa Maria la Mayor in 1763, under the reign of Charles III. Bell was used to warn the inhabitants of the incursions of pirates (think Johny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean *drool*)

As you can see from the pictures below how stunning this fortress was and imagine how much more glorified it would have been during its heydays!

View on one of the admistrative buildings in the fort.

View of the eastern wall

One corner of the wall and a great view of the city below.

Another beautiful view of this sunny port city from the Tower of the Gunpowder.

Another view of the port and the city.

Sitting on the Tower of the Watermill, Princess Al-Delina waiting for her pirate JD to rescue her! Blasted wind!!

The southern wall leading to a monument built apparently by one of the Knight Templars after the Catholic reconquest of Andalusia and this fortress.

After a good tour of the fortress, I caught up with Robert for lunch before heading back to Almerimar.

The rest of the days spent here in Almeria while was Godsent and great for me in terms of recharging the batteries, unfortunately, they are not inspiring to write about. I basically played more tennis, went for runs, sunbathing or simply reading and relaxing. Then on the 29th, I caught the evening train to Barcelona, and this is where I found another Spanish gem!

AO rating of Almeria: Like Bratislava, it wasn't exactly a historical or overly exciting place to be, but at the same time, it is such a delight to be able to take a holiday from your holiday so to speak and actually have no planned itinerary for the day or worry about which museum to visit first. So besides the stressful bus ride initially, Almeria was a good distraction! Right, Barcelona next!