After spending 3 weeks in Madrid, it was time to move on. A friend had recommended Tarifa to me and I was interested in visiting a place that was not a city.
Tarifa is a smallish coastal town that is known as one of the world's best places for wind sports. The main wind sport that I saw was kite boarding.
Transport from Madrid was a 6 hour train ride followed by a short bus ride. As we approached Tarifa, the bus turned a corner and not only was the ocean visible, but Africa was visible as well. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to live in this area during the time of the Barbary pirates. I imagine it would be like living somewhere with the Viking homeland a stones-throw away. Always wondering if today would be the day that they were going to raid.
A photo taken from the bus. Africa (Morocco) in the distance.
Tarifa is the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are islands that are further south, but if you're on mainland Europe, you can't get further south than Tarifa.
I had only booked 2 nights in Tarifa. Even though my schedule was almost completely free, I did have 3 places to be. While planning my trip (I use the word planning as loosely as possible here) I made plans to meet my dad, mom, and brother (
My first appointment was to meet my dad in Budapest in two months. It gave me a lot of time to make my way to Hungary, but I definitely felt the pressure of needing to make progress towards eastern Europe. With that in mind, I only booked two nights in Tarifa.
A place where I stopped for a beer. The old broken wall in this bar seemed cool.
World Cup was still going on so I spent a good amount of time watching games. In general, I'm not really one for doing activates or touristy stuff so I spent a lot of time finding comfortable places to sit and drink beer. I'm also not one for taking selfies. Early on in my trip I thought selfies were what was expected of me so I took a few. I quickly stopped that habit. Looking back, I think I'm going to wish I had more pictures of myself. I've just never felt comfortable with a camera on me.
One of the few selfies that I took on my trip.
I spent my first day in Tarifa walking around for a few hours. I checked out the beach and the old town area where my hotel was. The old town of Tarifa is a cool tangle of old buildings and small streets and alleyways.
Tarifa also has some old fort and castle structures. According to wikipedia, Tarifa has been fortified and undergone fortification since the 10th century after Islamic conquest.
One building that looks pretty cool is the Castle of St. Catalina. It's not that old, but it's got a unique look to it. According to this site, the building is an observation tower that was constructed in 1931.
Some of the town's fortifications can be seen in the photo below.
The town of Tarifa was named after Tarif ibn Malik, a Berber who attacked (and I assume conquered) the town in 710 AD. I'm pretty sure this is a statue of him.
After two nights in Tarfia I jumped on a bus and made my way to the next city in Spain. I really loved Tarifa and would come to wish I'd spent more time there. I would come back to the town a few months later, but you'll have to wait for that post.
Something unique about Tarifa
I think I've set myself up for failure with these "Something unique about..." sections of my posts. Maybe I'll have to change it to "Something unique from..." I don't have much to say about this stencil other than that it's kind of cool and was found in Tarfia.
Edit: Forgot my pinmapple code :(