Another long travel day. Called British Air this morning to see if they could get me to London any cheaper than Royal Air Moroc - they can't, in fact they want more than $100 more! So catch the eight o'clock train for Tangier. The train is pretty full, but I find a compartment with room, so at least I can sit down. Talked with Ben and Katrina (he's Welsh, she's American) who are also heading across to Spain. Caught the three o'clock ferry. I'm starving, but for some reason the ferry we caught has almost nothing edible - not even candy bars. Get to Algeciras about eight o'clock (lost two hours going to Spain). Walked with Ben and Katrina up to the train station to see what my options are to get to Málaga - not much, tomorrow morning at six is the next train - plus it's going to take more than four hours to get there. Say goodbye to Ben and Katrina and go to check out the bus situation. The Málaga bus doesn't leave from the station so I have to walk back to the port.
There's a ten o'clock bus. Ben had suggesting just going to to the Málaga airport and trying to get standby on the next flight out. Since it's high season and most English charters run through Málaga it should be easy. So I buy a ticket and run to get something to eat. The bus pulls in to Málaga at midnight.
I caught a taxi to the airport and started the quest for a ticket. I wandered around the airport looking for someone who could sell me a ticket but, not surprisingly, everyone was closed. Eventually found a charter office, and there was a flight leaving for London that I could board immediately! While writing out the ticket she realized I wasn't from the UK, didn't have a visa (no matter that I don't need on), and had no onward ticket. It turns out that it was against company policy to issue tickets unless one of those is possessed. Since there wasn't time to issue me another onward ticket I couldn't go.
Very disappointing. Since there's some kind of carnival going on in Málaga the chance of finding a room this late is zero - I'd need to head out of town several stops on the train. Given the couple hour wait for the train, and the slim hope of catching a different plain I decided to stay at the airport. It turned out to be a very long night - most of it in the airport cafe. I wasn't feeling all that comfortable with Spain after Amy getting robbed and the attempted bag snatching the other night and there are no lockers or left luggage facilities here so I didn't get any sleep.
