Gibraltar Rocks

On Sept. 7th we decided to trek out to Gibraltar. Gen, Drew, Allyson, Corinne and I all thought it would be a way cooler place to visit then Seville or Grenada where everyone else was headed. We walked over to the bus station, which was thankfully only a few blocks away. We got there at about 9:30 and the next train wasn’t until 11:30 so we found a little café with Churros con Chocolate. I thought that they would just serve them with a chocolate dipping sauce, but instead they serve it with sugar and a thick hot chocolate. They were delish. We got on the bus and it was a 3-hour ride to Gibraltar. This was a little longer than we had expected, but it was a very pretty ride. Spain uses a lot of wind power, so there are huge white windmills all along the coast and the mountains it is gorgeous. Finally we got to La Linea, the town right next to Gibraltar. We had to walk over the boarder to get into Gibraltar.

Gibraltar is still a British Territory, so we had to cross over the boarder and go through security to get in. It reminded me of what it would be like if one were trying to walk from Mexico in the US. We sweet talked the immigration guy to give us a Gibraltar stamp in our passport since we didn’t get one in Spain Once we got in it was a completely different world, it really was as if we walked into England. All the license plates were British, the phone booths were all red in the typically English style and all the policemen were dressed like Bobbys! They primarily use the pound sterling as well, but euros are accepted as well.

The super interesting thing about Gibraltar is there is one road in…that road also functions as the airport’s runway! This does cause some interesting traffic patterns and makes entrances and exits a little tricky. We wandered around and we started to notice that there were a ton of Gibraltar & Union Jack flags everywhere. I thought they were just very patriotic, but we found out that we were lucky enough to be visiting on Gibraltar’s National Day! We found a very cute little restaurant in Irish Town and got some food. I had chicken in a pepper sauce. Drew also ordered me a Bulmer’s hard cider, which was super yummy. We sat and ate at the base of the rock and then continued to wander around. We decided to take the cable car up to the top of the rock. They kept calling it the top of the rock, which reminded me of nbc and 30 rock.

The cable car ride was fabulous. It only took a few minutes to get to the top of the 1,396-foot rock and once we got there the view was amazing. We could see 3 countries (Spain, Gibraltar & Morocco) 2 Continents (Europe & Africa) and 2 bodies of water (the Mediterranean and the Atlantic). It was a gorgeous view. I was also amazed at how many boats were in and around the harbor. I counted over 35 just floating they weren’t all docked they were just there. I later found out why this was.

We had to get the last train back to Cadiz so we were short on time, but there was so much more we could have done. There were a ton of caves to explore and fortresses to see. There is also a Moorish castle built into the rock. We headed back down the cable car and got some snacks for the long bus ride back. We even found Sangria in a can! We were very excited. We had to run a little to make sure we got the bus, but everything worked out really well and in 3.5 hours we were back in Cadiz. It is weird doing independent travel sometimes because the dean of students was on our public bus back and forth to Cadiz. It is interesting to turn the professor/authority role on and off so easily. We are in such close quarters on the boat I work out next to my professors and then go sit in class and then eat dinner next to them and their kids. It is taking some getting used to.

Anyways, the last day in Spain was Gen’s birthday, so we wandered around, had some churros and used the internet for the last time in a while. There was only one day between Spain & Morocco and we actually spent it docked in Gibraltar’s harbor. I guess fuel is extremely inexpensive in Gibraltar, which explains why there were so many boats just chilling everywhere. It is still very expensive to fully dock, so a fueler ship just pulled up along side of us and filled us up as we were floating. It was strange, but also really cool to see how they did it.

Spain was really great, but definitely a cushy introduction to what will be our next few ports. It was a gentle way of easing us into this experience. Anyways, miss you all loads!
xoxo