Madrid Airport
Into the terminal we go, over to baggage claim to get our backpack. It was going to take a few minutes because they’re pulling it apart again, looking for drugs and whatever.
This was at a time before they had drug sniffing dogs in airports, at least there were none in the airports we’ve been in. We’re feeling quite safe and confident.
We got to the CP Air desk at 6:30 pm, it was closed and wouldn’t be open again until 9 o’clock tomorrow morning; shit. We were looking at the chart for our flight number and departure time; 11:30AM tomorrow.
Fuck! we’re going to be stuck in here for seventeen hours because we couldn’t leave the terminal.
We were never given an official reason why we were unable to leave, we were just unable to leave. Period.
Once we got home and heard about the political issues between the two countries, we knew then our being stuck in the terminal had everything to do with the fact that we had just arrived from Morocco; and maybe they just wanted to keep their Big Brother eye on us; what a joke.
To let us leave the terminal to run wild and loose in the streets of Madrid could be perceived as some sort of breach of National airport Security Protocol.
It’s quite possible they may have thought that we could be,…oh, I don’t know, maybe agents provocateur of a foreign government, perhaps we could be saboteurs, or maybe even terrorists, or perhaps something else equally ridiculous.
Bottom line is, we’re going nowhere until tomorrow morning; and when we do leave it’ll be on a jet flying back home to Canada.
We walked around a bit and ran into a girl who was waiting to make her flight connection to Brazil. Nice girl, spoke pretty good English, but don’t remember her name.
We hung out together and chatted for several hours.
Later we all tried to get some sleep on the benches, not at all comfortable, the floor was our only other option.
It’s early morning now and the terminal is already quite busy, people running here and there for their flights, and of course there’s lots of cops and soldiers.
The Brazilian girl caught her flight home and now we’re just hanging out waiting to catch ours. But we still had a couple of hours before the CP desk would even open.
We met a French Canadian guy who was taking the same flight as us, but only to Montreal.
Eve and I needed to walk around and stretch a bit. I asked the French guy if he would keep an eye on our backpack, he said sure, no problem.
We walked around for a while, found a gift shop and bought a few small things.
We called home to let them know our flight number and ETA.
As we were going back to our luggage, Eve said she could smell the hash.
We went around a corner and I put my nose between her boobs and took a whiff, all I could smell was her Chanel.
A little while later she mentioned it again, again I took a whiff, still couldn’t smell it.
I think she was just a little paranoid.
I suggested she just calm down a bit. It was warm in the terminal so body temperature was rising, maybe that’s why she believed she could smell it.
Maybe just a bit of anxiety about smuggling a couple of small chunks of hash; just stay calm Eve, calm is always the key.
It was now go time. Our plane is ready to be boarded, what a relief. We get to walk out of the terminal and onto the plane with no problem.
However, just as we walked out the back of the terminal to the tarmac there were police, soldiers, and airport security everywhere.
With their guns at the ready they began corralling us.
What the fuck!
All of us passengers were in total shock, we didn’t know what the hell was going on.
The cops began lining everyone up in two rows, men in one, women in the other.
My first thought was, they’re lining us up for a firing squad.
Good grief Joe, you’re being too fucking dramatic, just chill man
As there was no wall behind us, or posts to tie us too, a firing squad was probably unlikely.
But then again, you just never know when life is going to take a great big shit right on your fucking head.
Whatever is happening here doesn’t look like it will end well for someone.
We’re so close to being home, please don’t let anything bad happen to us now.
This is not a reality I was expecting that we would have to deal with.
Whatever is going on here sure as hell isn’t about a couple of little chunks of hash.
This whole scene has put everyone on a knife’s edge. With this many cops and security in place there’s certainly a big deal going on here, but no one is telling us anything, people are really shook up and we’re unable to leave the area; we’re trapped.
We just want to know what the fuck is going on, but it appears that wasn’t going to happen.
Now as everyone knows there’s always a chance that a plan could go awry, even a good plan. But no one really thinks their plan is going to fail or they just wouldn’t follow through with it, right? right.
You formulate your plan, careful to not overlook anything that would cause any kind of system failure then you put your plan into action, comfortable in the belief the odds are in your favor because you took all the necessary precautions, that’s the right approach.
But there are times when circumstances beyond your control surface, and no matter how well your plan is put together, those very circumstances can cause the odds to be stacked against you as well, you just never know when that’s going to be, that’s how people get caught committing crimes.
So if our plan is going to fail, it will fail within the next couple of minutes.
I’m a bit scared, but not so much for myself.
With all the cops, soldiers and security standing guard, there’s obviously something big time going on here, and it ain’t about us and our little bit of hash.
Of course no one believed this was any kind of a normal security measure.
These types of measures are only taken when they’re trying to interrupt or prevent a potentially serious event from taking place; which was obviously the case here.
They were very tight lip and secretive about what was happening, so we’ll never know the reason for all the guns at the ready.
Whatever is going on here, we’re just grateful to not be ones on the hook for some serious illegal activity…
I have my fingers crossed now, because we’re now being subjected to unwarranted scrutiny due to someone else’s plan fuck-up.
Before Eve and I committed ourselves to a hash plan we had a real serious talk about it.
I asked her a few times if she was good with the plan, or did she just want to scrap the whole idea.
I told her in all seriousness, if she wanted to scrap the plan no matter what the reasons were, I assured her that I would be perfectly okay with whatever she decided, absolutely.
I didn’t want her to go along with the plan just because she may have thought I wanted her to. I needed for her to understand this was going to be her decision, and there would be no backlash if she wanted to change her mind; no pressure.
I also told her that we both needed to be on the same page or this whole deal was never going to fly.
And for us to be on the same page was going to require that she be honest with me about how she felt about the whole idea; and I told her so.
Each time I asked, she said she was good with the plan and wanted to do this.
I needed to be sure she was okay with it, so I put a little pressure on her,
almost to the point where I thought she might be getting pissed off at me,
so I quit asking.
She convinced me she was perfectly okay with the plan.
I just hope her position of -I’m okay with the plan- is still in the forefront of her mind when we’re dealing with custom agents at the airports.
Even though our crime was small time and our plan was simple and easy, and about as common as any plan gets, it was still a criminal act that was subject to prison time. So it was important to consider some possible scenarios if there was a glitch.
As I stated earlier, Eve is not a daring or adventurous person. So I was concerned about the possibility of her freaking out if something were to go south on us, that was foremost on my mind; and that’s why I was a bit scared.
Now, I never believed this next possibility would ever come to pass but it needed to be brought up.
In the event of Eve getting caught and I didn’t, in that scenario the only way I could help would be for me to get on the plane, come home and get my hands on as much money as I could and go back and buy her out of jail; but that would take some time; and meanwhile for Eve back in a Spanish prison cell…I can’t even begin to imagine the emotional trauma she would be experiencing in that situation.
Word on the street at that time was the justice system in Spain was so corrupt that getting someone out of jail in this way was not uncommon, but it was expensive.
Money must be paid to a judge, police chief and a lawyer.
In the scenario where we both get caught, then we’re completely fucked.
We’ll spend years, if not the rest of our lives in a foreign prison eating bugs and shit to stay alive.
Possibly never seeing each other or our kids ever again.
don’t like the first two scenarios, they’re absolutely big time bad.
In the final scenario, everything goes as smooth as silk, no issues, no problems; easy-peasy, nothing to worry about, that’s how we felt…
This was the scenario we want to go with.
but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed
A bit of a back step is required here.
Shortly before we exited the terminal to the tarmac, we came to a point where we had to ask ourselves if we felt confident enough with our plan to pull this off.
This would be our last opportunity to ditch the hash.
So, the question is, ‘Are we confident? Can we pull this off’?
The answer was ‘we are confident, and yes we can’.
we are on the same page, I’m pleased
Always being aware of the possibility that something could go wrong,
we’re still feeling confident.
We’re know the plan is going to work perfectly, but I’m going to hang on to just a wee bit of the nervous thing, it’ll keep me a bit on edge which will help keep me focused, not cocky.
I do have faith in the plan, I totally believe we can pull this off; I have to believe.
I do believe.
All we have to do now is be cool and calm and we can pull this off, no problem.
While we’re waiting for whatever is going to happen next I began to get this weird uncomfortable feeling coming on, what the fuck is this now…
Suddenly, from out of the blue comes that part of the brain that evokes responsibility, and rears its ugly fucking head.
Now what?
“what the fuck were you two thinking? This is without a doubt the most irresponsible act of your lives. What in the hell ever possessed you to do something so foolish”? and blah blah blah blah blah blah…
Conscience, you fucking asshole, you could very well be right, but your timing sucks so bad…I can’t deal with your shit right now,….so just piss off so I can deal with the matter at hand.
And the matter at hand is this; we’re in the line up now, it’s too late to change our mind about the direction in which we want to go, we’re way passed the point of no return.
And the possibility of a firing squad has not yet been ruled out.
Those things are enough to deal with right now.
so understand this conscience, there will be no more of your shit allowed at this time, no guilt, no paranoia, just a plain and simple fuck off… okay, thank you
wow, how about that, I just talked myself down; great.
When Eve and I were in the airport moving toward the boarding area , we stayed a few people apart as we moved through the crowd of passengers.
I felt it was better for Eve to not appear to be connected to me. I looked like a hippie, she did not.
If she was with me, she would then be perceived as a hippie also.
We did this to avoid any unwanted attention that could be directed toward her. If someone was going to draw attention or heat, it would be me; and I was clean.
Eve was about two or three people ahead of me in her line up. I was watching real close hoping she could keep it all together. She seemed to be okay. Everyone is going to get frisked or shot to death, not really sure yet…
Okay… it appears they’re not going to shoot us. They’re starting to frisk everyone.
Eve’s best saving grace was the fact that she looked just like a typical lady tourist, not a hippie type at all. Her look was that of “above suspicion”.
There was a very ugly and mean looking female cop who was frisking the women, she was short, thick around the middle, and with a facial expression that said something like “I’m fucking mean and ugly, so don’t piss me off
or you will regret it”
She had a very hard tough intimidating look, and a nasty attitude as well; she was very well suited for this job.
Eve was next in line for a pat down.
She extended her arms out from her sides, the mean ugly cop patted her along her sides and under her arms, then across her shoulders and down from the top over her breasts, then up and down on her back side and up between her legs.
Success! Nothing detected, this was a biggie. It’s always about the plan, at least in large part; although at times a bit of good luck can always help the cause.
Eve was cool and calm and pulled it off like a champ. I was quite impressed.
I considered the possibility she might crack under pressure, but she did great.
When my turn came, the cop looked me straight in the eye for a few seconds, didn’t do or say anything.
Then with his disgusted scowling face he looked me up and down like I was nothing but a fucking piece of shit.
In his mind I was just another drug crazed hippie asshole.
When he frisked me, he touched every single part of me; and there was nothing gentle about this guy. The only thing he didn’t do was a cavity search up my ass.
When he spun me around to frisk my back side and my thought was, well maybe this is where I get a chance to fart in this guy’s face when he checks my butt crack, well he didn’t check, so I didn’t unleash any spicy food farts in his stupid fucking ugly face.
Well,
We got through the frisking process okay,
and we’re not being hauled off to jail today.
However, it could have easily gone the other way,
but we managed to get through it okay,
lady luck was with us this day.
…there, that little rhyme seemed appropriate to celebrate getting through that experience with our asses still intact, and our hash still in Eve’s bra…eeehaw.
…and its all going to be okay now.
Wow man, I’m really glad we got through that part okay, it was extremely unnerving.
We were ushered onto a mini bus that drove us over to the plane. Once we were on the plane Eve mopped up the bullet sized beads of sweat that had leaked out of her face.
We sat on the plane the better part of an hour before it took off.
We had to stop in Lisbon briefly, then back in the air again.
We’re real happy to be on our way home.
Right now I’m experiencing a wave of warm positive rushes.
Next stop Canada…,home and our kids.
At cruising altitude we were well above the clouds. They looked like giant mountains of pure white snow. You would almost expect to see a snowmobile to come flying over the top. It was pretty awesome looking.
There were also some large openings in the clouds which enabled us to see the ocean. I was staring down at it and I could see a ship, but it looked so small, like the head of a match.
The only way I knew it was there was from the straight line of white water behind it. good grief, I’m sounding just like a tourist aren’t I?…yup
The pilot announced our flight was going to take a couple of extra hours because of strong head winds. I hope whoever is picking us up isn’t going to be too pissed off about the delay.
At some point Eve said she thought she could smell the hash again, I put my face between her boobs and took a whiff, I couldn’t smell anything but her perfume.
And just as this was happening a flight attendant came walking by. At first I didn’t see her, but I heard her footsteps shuffling on the carpet. I quickly pulled my head back from between Eve’s boobs and slightly turned my face toward the attendant just in time to catch her smile as she passed by.
A little while later Eve mentioned the hash again, again I stuck my face between her boobs, and wouldn’t you fucking know it,
the same flight attendant walks by and sees us agin,
This time she followed up with a real big grin,
I wondered what her thought might have bin,
‘take her to the washroom man,
and give her a happy ‘mile high’ grin…
and I did
We just laid back and tried to pass the time until we got back to Canada. Eve never said anything again about smelling the Hash. I guess we’re good to go…
Canada, we’re coming home baby!
We were getting close to the Canadian coast, but it’s too cloudy to see very much.
We started to descend and we’re a little below the clouds and could now see the lights of Montreal. This was going to be a quick stop.
We were only there for 30 minutes then back in the air.
Next, and last stop, Toronto.
Finally. Touchdown in Toronto, we made it. The flight took almost 12 hours and we’re exhausted. We just want to get home, see the kids, and go to bed, our own bed.
It’s going to feel so good
But we’re not quite there yet.
I went to baggage claim, no backpack. Everyone’s luggage was there except mine. When I inquired about it, I was told the customs people were “checking it out”, and I should have it shortly as long as there were no problems.
“What kinda problems are you talking about, there are no problems”,….
“except for you assholes”. I said under my breath.
We had one more minor obstacle to get through. That was the desk where you have to declare everything, and if they have even a remote suspicion about anything, they’ll hold you up for questioning.
We’ve come way too far and been through too much to have some bad shit like that happen to us now.
We got to a customs desk, of which there were several, like grocery store checkouts.
There seemed to be some kind of a problem at one of the other desks. A man and woman were having words with an agent, something about the woman’s coat which appeared to be an expensive looking fur coat.
A couple more agents have now sidled over to the desk where the coat issue was happening. I think our agent wanted to get in on the action as well, so he kind of hurried us through the process.
He asked if we had any items to declare, we showed him the few things we had in Eve’s carry on bag, that was all.
He asked if we had anything else to declare, I came back with, “I do declare, it’s wonderful to finally be back home in Canada”. He smiled and let us go through.
I think we owe the fur coat lady and her husband a bit of gratitude for providing a reason for our agent to process us through the system so quickly; thank you folks, and good luck to you.
As we went through the arrivals gate, Eve’s mother and sisters Marge and Dorothy were there to greet us. Everyone was so happy, hugs and kisses all around. Out the door we go, loaded our gear into the station wagon and climbed into the back seat.
We didn’t even mind the one hour drive home, we were all busy talking about the trip.
It was great, we were so happy and excited that we could almost see our front door from here.
We’re at home now, the kids look great, it’s so nice to see them again, and give them hugs and kisses, we really missed them a great deal; more than we thought we would.
I had to check the mail, there were three or four sick benefit cheques waiting for me, awesome.
A couple days later I had to go back to the Doctor for a follow up. We chatted for a while about how I was feeling, I told him I felt great. He said, “good, I’m glad you’re feeling better Joe”.
He seemed very interested in many of the places we visited in Morocco, he asked lots of questions about our trip. We talked for quite awhile about it, probably more than 30 minutes. He seemed to have more than just a casual interest. He wanted absolute details about some of the places we went.
As it would turn out, a couple of months later he and his wife took a month long vacation to Morocco, but not a backpacking hippie trip, absolutely not. Their trip was all about nice hotels and tour buses.
And I just have to mention this also; the next time I saw him after his Morocco trip, he was different.
He had let his hair grow out quite a bit, it now covered the back of his neck and well over his ears, and in conversation with him he casually used terms such as ‘man and cool’.
At this point I felt that the Doctor /patient relationship became a little more friendly and personal; that really pleased me.
Right from the first time I met him, ten years earlier, I liked him, I thought he was a hip and cool guy, and he was. Although on the surface his appearance was that of a clean cut short hair conservative type British gentleman that wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful.
Gee, maybe going to Morocco did something for him, or to him; perhaps he had some kind of an eye opening experience while he was on his trip…or maybe a trip of some other kind.
And now he even looks the part of hip and cool.
I thought his new look served him well, he looked great.
Okay Joe, “I’m giving you another week off to get rid of some of the tan, man”…. [wink wink]
Thanks Doc, you’re awesome. You’ll never know just how much this trip has meant to me.
And I could have never taken it without your help and support.
Thanks for everything Doc.
Beaches we left behind
Early evening stroll along the beach, Agadir
A semi secluded beach, just a bit north of Aglou
The morning after we got home
Looking south on Park Ave from the front porch.
And why do I hate winter so much? because it’s not summer
Shot from the back door
Well, that’s the story of Joe and Eve’s wild and exciting Moroccan adventure. If I were still a young man and had the chance of doing it all over again,
I’d do it a heartbeat, but no smuggling.
And yeah, we smoked a lot of hash during this adventure, but that’s just what we were into at that time in our lives.
We certainly had an incredibly exciting and fantastic adventure that many people couldn’t even begin to imagine.
We experienced more thrills chills and excitement in those four weeks than many people could only hope to experience in the better part of a lifetime.
In the end it was worth everything we had to do in order to take this trip.
I personally came away from it with thoughts and feelings about many things that have stayed with me all of these years, and always will.
A train ride that will always be the premier train ride of my life.
A very spiritual and emotionally moving experience that was gifted to me by the gigantic Anti Atlas valley; I can still feel the emotion that it stirs within me.
And just by closing my eyes and thinking about it for a minute, it’s all right there in my deepest thoughts; and in my minds eye.
Plus all of the ‘over the top’ days we experienced, and there were many.
And when I think hard about these events, they can still give me goose bumps and make my arm hair stand.
It’s just that some of the things I saw and experienced impacted me so deeply that they’re permanently byrned into my brain.
I also now have a much greater appreciation for where I come from, and all that I have in life; although at times I felt I deserved more.
After going to Morocco I began to question myself as to how I could feel I was more deserving of anything after where I’ve been and what I’ve seen.
I found it almost laughable trying to find any reasonable justification for feeling that I deserved more of anything when I’ve seen so many trying to make it through life with so little, and many with absolutely nothing at all.
And yet they never stop trying...it could almost make you cry
Being aware of the struggles and the hardships that so many Moroccans face everyday, but lack the tools to make positive changes in their lives, I’m no longer able to feel I deserve more.
I still want more, which I think is just part of the human condition; but I have to work for what I want. Working [at a job] is the tool that we have to bring about positive changes in our lives that many Moroccans do not have; and probably never will. But to arbitrarily feel I deserve more, absolutely not, that ship has long since sailed.
I also have a renewed appreciation for the opportunities we have for the good life that enriches us in so many ways that far too often we take for granted.
I didn’t just get high in Morocco. I learned some very important life lessons that have stayed with me ever since, and they’ll be with me for the rest of my life.
In the month we were there we experienced a culture so completely different from our own, as well as adventure excitement thrills chills and risks of impending doom, any of which could’ve had extremely dire consequences,
or perhaps something much worse.
But in the end, we made it home, safe and sound……..and with a tale to tell
…and it’s all going to be okay
now
now
now
the end
‘for all that I have in life I am truly grateful’
Thank you for taking the time to read the story of our adventure
I welcome any and all comments.
werebyrne@gmail.com
Don’t forget to visit the Morocco video page, it’s an opportunity to view in live action some of the places where we had been.
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