Viaje: Gibraltar

Two weekends ago (Sunday, September 26--I'm still behind on my blogging--sorry!) I went to England...by bus. How could this be? I went to Gibraltar, of course!

As always, here is some background on Gibraltar: 

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. Measuring less than four square miles, it makes for an interesting and somewhat peculiar day trip. What's more, you can see Gibraltar's famous colony of apes, the only ones in Europe that run free in a semi-wild state. 

I originally did not have any interest in going to Gibraltar--I really was not familiar with the city, nor was it on my long list of places to which I wanted to travel. However, when I visited my grandparents this summer, my Grandpa Ken told me that I had to see it. He talked a lot about the city, its history, and how you can buy very nice leather there. And so, I decided that during my stay in Spain, I had to make the trip for my grandpa.

My fellow adventurers (Amber and Grace) and I then decided, slightly spontaneously, to take a day trip to Gibraltar last weekend. My Señora told me that it was only about a 2 hour bus ride. However, for the first time, Gloria steered me wrong.

Turns out, it's actually over a 4 and a half hour bus ride thanks to an indirect route and a bunch of stops along the way. This would not have been a problem since I was perfectly content jamming on the bus to my tunes on my I-Pod (Lady Gaga, of course) through beautiful country and mountains. 

View from the bus on the way to Gibraltar
Beautiful mountains and probably over 200 windmills

However, time was running out. The only bus that left Seville that morning for Gibraltar left at 9:00 am. And, the only bus that left Gibraltar for Seville left at 4:30 pm. So we did not arrive in Gibraltar until 1:45 pm, and we needed to catch the bus to go home at 4:30 pm. Which gave us a little over 2 hours to go through customs (because it is technically in another country), get to the big rock, get to the top of the big rock, see the monkeys, take some pictures, and get a postcard for my grandpa. Well, I will have you know that we RAN through that city like the crazy tourists we are!

 And let me tell you, this city is pretty strange. When our program handbook told us it would be a "peculiar" day trip, they weren't kidding. It is a really weird mix of Spanish and British people, with many Spaniards in the city but most of the language in English. It also has typical English food such as fish and chips and other iconic English things such as the red telephone booths. So technically, I was in England for the day. 

Thanks to Amber, after about 30 minutes of intense power-walking, we ended up finding the cable car to the top of the rock. It only took us 6 minutes to climb 412 meters. That's 31 meters above the Empire State Building and 90 meters above the Eiffel Tower. (It's a dang big rock).

Dang Big Rock

View on the way up the rock in the cable car

Three amigas on the cable car

 When we got to the top, the view was gorgeous. 

 

It was real windy up there!

Rock of Gibraltar or Pride Rock?

English Port

  And oh yeah. Did I mention there were wild apes?  

 

I was really anxious to see the apes, so I kept a sharp look-out on our way up the mountain. But all of that was for nothing because when I reached the top of the rock, there he was staring right at me. 

Now, I love apes--they are one of my favorite animals. But before my adventure to Gibraltar, I had never actually seen a "wild" ape--meaning, not in a cage. And you know what? It's pretty scary! 

They obviously are very unpredictable since they have no kind of restraints. And my new friend seemed pretty calm and content sitting on the ledge UNTIL a lady with a plastic grocery bag filled with food came strollin' by. I was standing right in the middle of the scene of the crime when the ape launched himself off the ledge onto this lady's grocery bag. 

Attempt at catching the ape in action!

The lady (her hands are on the right of the above photo) put up a bit of a fight (which I thought was pretty brave/ stupid of her), but she obviously lost. The ape successfully stole her entire bag of food, and continued to eat it all right in front of her.

Sneaky little ape

After we felt that we had a sufficient number of pictures of the apes, and I got my postcard for my grandpa, we still had some time to kill. So we strolled through the peculiar city of Gibraltar, taking all the time in the world. Until we realized: we were still in the center of the city and only had 15 minutes until the bus left. Well, we immediately started power-walking out of the city, which later turned into a sprint as time was quickly running out. I can't imagine how ridiculous the three of us looked, running out of the city, across the airport runway, through customs (we cut every single person in the 40-person line), and to the bus stop with our backpacks and cameras in hand. Luckily, we made it to the bus stop with only a minute to spare. Dang. 

But it was all worth it, because now I can tell my grandpa all about it!   

I made it, Grandpa!