A trip to Spain! Day 1
Alhamdulillah, thanks to God I was given a chance to go visit Spain with my friend (letās call her, Erin) during our summer break while waiting for ur graduation day. Honestly, I wasn't that enthusiasticĀ about the trip but after countless of persuasion from Erin, I decided to have it a go. Just to let you know, I am not much of a person who likes to travel a lot, so this trip has been a bit of a struggle for me to start with. Thinking that SpainĀ had once been a Muslim country, I thought that itāll be great to get the feels by going there.
And so we did and I soon realized that it is not that much fun writing in English because it is kinda hard for me to pour out all of my feelings in this post but meh, whatevs.Ā SoĀ kitorgĀ pun touch down kat Malaga dan bermalam kat sanaĀ for 2 nights. Our first day, which is the next day, we went to Gibraltar and left our luggage in a hostel in Malaga. It was a 2 hours journey if Iām not mistaken by bus and we had to go through the border control since Gibraltar is the UK country.
Our main place to visit there that time was to get on top of the Rock of Gibraltar. Erin had booked a return ticket to the top by cable car. Once we got up there, there massive numbers of apes. They are cute but menacing at the same time. One of the travellers who was kinda with us got her paper bag ripped off by one of the monkeys and all her stuffĀ dropped onto the ground. She got a new bag luckily. Another one had the monkey jumped on her shoulder bag and was trying to open and get something out of it. Her friends helped by pushing that monkey away, agitatedly.Ā
So yeah, we knew in the beginning that itās a no-noĀ to bring those kinds of bag. I got lucky that I didnāt bring mine, all because I had dragged on the tar without me realizing the night before. I got so upset because it was my favourite one! Even though it was just a cheap Primark bag T^T once we got to the hostel in Malaga, I washed the bag and it wasnāt the next day so I decided to leave it.Ā
Seriously, I never thought that event would have been a lifesaverĀ from having it ripped, stolen or the cause of I got attacked by monkeys. HehehĀ xD
Okay so moving to Gibraltar, the view up there is incredible. We could seeĀ the horizon on the sea See the line as the sky meets the sea, it calls me... :P Hahahh, okay okay. Erin and I were imagining, taking the feels, that this must have been what Tariq bin Ziyad and his army have seen.Ā
Gibraltar came from the word Jabal Tariq, which in ArabicĀ means Mount Tariq, named after the MuslimĀ general named Tariq bin Ziyad. This is the mountain that he had climbed once he had ventured through north Africa. This is the very place that has become the starting of how Islam was spread across the European country.
Awesome decision we made, right? To make Gibraltar as our first place to visit in SpainĀ ( Ėā”Ė ) ... Okay, I didnāt. Erin did. I was slacking off most of the time during our planning for the Spain trip.Ā
See the video I posted before? Be sure to watch that too! Itās amazing! You know, like, how it gives this thrilled vibe inside your heart. xD
I love it how the Muslim came to the European country not to simply invade their territory, but to free them from worshipping amongst people. āNo god worth worships (Ilah) except Allah.ā That is their main and noble mission theyāve continued from the previous prophets back to Adam alaihissalam.Ā
So who is actually Tariq bin Zayid? He is a Barbar of Algeria and he was tarbiah by a Muslim governor named Musa bin Nusair. Now whoās Musa? He is the son of Nusair who was a product of tarbiah from the Sahabah named Khalid Al-Walid. Nusair had become a great man, and so does how he had thought the same to his son, Musa. Musa has also done the same to the Muslims in North Africa, and he had succeeded to educate amazing people like Tariq bin Ziyad.Ā
Tariq bin Ziyad and his troops went to the land of Iberia to help the people take down the dictator Roderick who was at that time ruling the land. Roderick troops were a lot bigger in number that Tariq bin Ziyad, but with the help of Allah, they won the tremendous fight.
Appreciating their help, the people of Iberia let the Muslim to stay in the land. And that is when the Muslim do their job, by spreading peace to everyone.Ā
So that some part of the story. Honestly, I talked more than I write and I never get tired of talking but Iām starting to get tired of doing this xD meh, Iāll get used to it soon.
Again, the view was breath-taking, and I am sure what we were feeling is different than others. Others must have thought that this is beautiful scenery and all, but for us, itās not just about the view, itās about the great history of the great people from our ancestors to save the world. Awesome...
We actually have the ticket to go back down the mountain by cable car, but I was likeĀ āNah, letās go venture the mountain while we go down the hill. Let us feel how Tariq bin Ziyad feel when he climbs down this mountain!ā And yup, we got what we asked for. It was very tiring and the weather was scorching hot >< We keep on buying more water and taking rest.Ā
My God, this is what Tariq bin Zayid when through with his troop >< So obvious that we lacked on the Qawiyul Jism (strength of the physical) part. How on earth can we do the same if we canāt even climb the mountain without needing to stop too frequently for air and rest? Tu la, tak exercise sgtĀ (ļæ£ļ½ļæ£)
It got worst when Erinās phone died because Erin is the only one who has Internet and we didnāt really know the way down.
Luckily, I took a picture of the map with my phone... and then it died.Ā
į(ą² _ą² į)
We still found our way down alhamdulillah because there were maps here an there along our way thankfully, and we got down through the road where there is the Moors castle, which belonged to the Moors people who are Muslim. We didnāt get to go inside since you have to pay some more for it. I was already too tired and we figured that we donāt have much time left before our bus back to Malaga departs.
Our next plan was to go to the Mosque at Europa point by taking the bus from the city. Along the way, I found this one restaurant underground and saw an aunty wearing hijab. I got so excited (coz it hard to find a Muslim there) that I wanted to greet. And I did. We didnāt really get to talk much because she doesnāt speak English. She was my first time on this trip that I tried speaking Arabic. Huehue, it felt good~~ Sheās from Morocco by the way and the nice aunty gave us free drinksĀ ā” She wanted to serve us with food (which we understand from her gestures) but we declined politely.
Another great meeting was this uncle who is also from Morocco selling desserts from Morocco. This is when I got geared up talking Arabic with him.
ā(Do you speak Arabic?) ŁŁ Ų§ŁŲŖ ŲŖŲŖŁŁŁ Ų§ŁŁŲŗŲ© Ų§ŁŲ¹Ų±ŲØŁŲ©Ųā
ā(Yes, I do) !ŁŲ¹Ł , Ų§ŲŖŁŁŁ ā
ā(Nice!) !Ų®ŁŲ±ā
Now I understand another reason why we need to know Arabic. Because it is our communication language in the Muslim world. I feel great nonetheless!
We got to visit the Ibrahim-Al-Ibrahim Mosque at Europa point. It feels so great to see a mosque in none Muslim country. We didnāt have much time left to appreciate the beauty of the mosque or talk with the aunties in there so we prayed our Jamaā Qasar Asar-Zohor (with khusyuk (acewah)) and quickly run back to the bus stop.
Alhamdulillah, we caught our bus back to Malaga in time and got back to our hostel safely.Ā
And that is the end of the first day!Ā
