Note: I highly recommend reading this entire entry to yourself in a British accent.
Note 2: One of my goals for this blog post is to avoid using the pun "Gibraltar ROCKS". We will see if I can make it through without succumbing.
This past Friday, we loaded onto a bus and made the three-hour drive to Gibraltar. After going through the most laid-back customs procedure ever (wave your passport in the general direction of a guard who's barely paying attention), we crossed the runway* and headed to the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce. There, we were given a PowerPoint presentation about the history and economy of Gibraltar from a very jolly British man. Delightful!
The rock of Gibraltar is incredibly impressive/foreboding in real life. I want to know who first saw that looming mountain and was like, "Yeah that looks like a great place to live!"
This overhead view of Gibraltar is a picture of a picture in the Gibraltar customs office. The population of Gibraltar is about 28,000 people and they live in about four square kilometers of land. As you can imagine, traffic is terrible.
*To get to the main part of Gibraltar, you have to walk across a runway. Yes, a functioning airport runway. You have to stop and wait for about ten minutes every time a plane takes off or lands. There are signs everywhere warning you not to drop anything because you could cause the plane to crash. Who designed this stupid island?
Not the best picture, but this is the delightful chap who gave us the information session. Even when he was talking about the volume of freighters that come through Gibraltar's port every year, I was still hanging onto every word because that accent is AMAZING!
A VERY Brief History of Gibraltar
In the early 1700s, some British sailors were returning from a very unsuccessful trip to Italy. Not wanting to come home empty-handed, they stopped at Gibraltar and claimed it for England. Though Spain technically ceded the territory in a 1713 treaty, they've been trying to get it back ever since, and neither side will shut the hell up about whose it is. Right now it is officially a "British overseas territory", and most Gibraltarians prefer that it stays that way.
After the information session, we had a bit of free time to explore the city. Unfortunately, our bus was late arriving that morning and there wasn't quite enough time to go up to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. (So no monkeys on this trip, but don't fret as I've already scheduled a return trip in April. I'll hang out with some dang monkeys if it's the last thing I do!) Instead, we went to some museums and wandered around taking pictures.
Have you noticed a theme yet? Basically every place I go my initial plans don't work out, so I just mill around taking photos of everything. Hey, I'm not complaining, it's still awesome!
A dilapidated building built into the side of the rock. I don't know why, but this picture reminds me of Jurassic Park.
We went to a glass-blowing museum and watched the workers there make a vase. Amazing! Considering that I can barely make a sandwich properly, watching someone craft molten hot glass into something useful was particularly impressive.
After the glass-blowing museum, we visited a small art gallery.
Obviously I was going to try honest-to-goodness UK fish and chips! It was everything I had ever hoped for. Note that the fish there, the one that is over a foot long, is a "medium". What's the large, a dolphin?
The red phone booths actually exist in real life! How positively charming! (Also, can I just say that I'm looking forward to the weather improving? I'm so pale it looks like I'm emitting light in this picture.)
It's like they're just BRAGGING about how British they are, seriously.
This storefront is essentially a giant wall of alcohol (an "alco-wall", if you will). Since Spaniards tend to come here to buy cheap booze and cigarettes, the city is absolutely full of liquor stores. They have monstrous bottles of Jack Daniels that are the size of a fire hydrant, it's unbelievable.
After spending a good amount of time in tourist shops, I can say with complete certainty that Gibraltar wins the award for most ape-related merchandise.
Overall, our day trip to Gibraltar was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back and see everything I didn't have time for. I give it a solid B+, with the option of grade revision once I see the monkeys and all of the other tourist attractions on the rock. Oh, and this blog post is dedicated to Ramya's parents. I'm really excited to meet you both!