Gibraltar

I told my brother Scott I was going to Gibraltar this weekend. He told me to watch out for the monkeys.
Well...he was right.:)

We left Friday night after school to take a four hour bus ride to La Linea (the town in Spain that is right outside of Gibraltar). We stayed in an amazing hostel on a golf course (Shane you would have been jealous) that was right by the beach. We got up early Saturday morning to walk across customs into Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a British territory that is pretty much in Spain. We walked about fifteen minutes to get from Spain to Gibraltar. It was pretty crazy to go from speaking Spanish and using euros to speaking English and using pounds in only fifteen minutes. As much as I love learning Spanish, it was kind of a nice break to order food and ask for directions in English. After we got into Gibraltar we watched the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea.

Then we found a taxi tour that took us up the rock of Gibraltar. Our driver Michael made the trip extra fun. He spoke Spanish and English (like almost everyone in Gibraltar), and he knew all of the history about the country. It was really interesting to hear his view on Gibraltar belonging to England and to hear the views of my professors and other Spaniards on Gibraltar belonging to England. The Straight of Gibraltar is extremely important for ships to pass through so it has been fought over a lot, and I think there is still some disagreement on who should own it. :)

Our first stop on the tour was stopping at a point where we could see three countries (Spain, Morocco, and Gibraltar) and three bodies of water (Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and Straight of Gibraltar) at once. It was a perfectly sunny day and the view was breathtaking.

Next stop on our tour was a cave in the Rock of Gibraltar. I think the stalactites and stalagmites in caves are absolutely crazy.

Once we explored the cave for awhile, we continued up the rock to see the monkeys. We turned a corner in our bus and all of a sudden we could see monkeys running over the road. Our bus driver knew the monkeys well since he had been up there so many times, so he helped us get them close to us. They were on our heads, holding our hands, and playing with our hair. They are adorable when they are little, but I definitely would not want to mess with some of the bigger ones.

We also got some great shots of one side of the Rock of Gibraltar while we were by the monkeys.

After playing with the monkeys we got a chance to walk up a Moorish castle which gave us a great view of the city. And after all that, we had a beautiful walk down the rock and found a quaint British restaurant to enjoy some fish/burgers and chips in the sun.

After a day like that I was feeling like it couldn't get any better, but then it did. We went back to our hostel (the one on the beach), and got to walk along the beach for a few hours. It was a pretty incredible feeling to have my toes in the sand in the beginning of February. Walking along the water and sitting on the sand with the sunshine pouring down on us was a great way to end an amazing trip.

Now for those of you who think I am all play and no work here...I do have exams this week. :p Hope those of you in Minnesota are surviving the blizzard!

Love,
jana