"Melilla - A little piece of Spain in... " a Melilla Travel Page by JulesH

I came to Melilla mainly because a friend of mine lives there. His description of the town as a Spanish enclave in the north of Africa, surrounded by a border fence to keep out Moroccan refugees enthralled me! Most people outside of Spain have little idea where Melilla is, or the second such enclave, Ceuta. And few really care! It's not possible to catch a direct flight there from the UK, so this alone would make it overlooked by many run of the mill British tourists. But this was the thing that spurred me on most! A town which is essentially Spanish in all senses of the word, but not on the Spanish mainland, awash with influences from neigbouring Morocco. A multicultural land where Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Hindus all have an identity...and barely an English voice to be heard! I had to discover this place for myself...

When we arrived in Melilla, we found little evidence of English being spoken, and found it hard to understand the local Spanish accent, but after a few days of "getting our ear in" we started to get the hang of it and found the town to be welcoming, friendly and only too happy to invite us into their lives. Rafael at the Taberna de Andaluza and his patrons gave us more than one night to remember! Even if our Spanish wasn't quite up to scratch, we made it through numerous conversations with a mixture of sign language, Spanglish and alcohol induced bravado!