It´s been a couple of cliche days here at the Kabul, Barcelona´s rollicking party hostel. There´s been a pub crawl, hardly any food and a few red bulls thrown in for good measure. I´ve decided to make my way down the Costa toward Gibralter and ferry toward Ceuta, a Spanish colonial relic on the North African coast.

As I feared the party hostel and my own compulsive zeal has nearly about done me in here. But who thought that wouldn´t happen¿ I´ve had enough of the predictable fun for the moment and yearn for the uncertainty of the unkown. Toward my goal of reaching Chinguetti, Islam´s 7th holiest city and an unexlpored Ummah (arabic for the Islamic world, and the title of Oliver Roy´s new book)

Spain was once part of the Ummah while Andalus was ruled by the Moors. It is in part this history which I´ll be exlporing.