The Rock

Trip Start Sep 05, 2008

Trip End Jan 01, 2009

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Flag of Gibraltar Gibraltar, Gibraltar
Sunday, December 14, 2008

Yesterday I spent most of the day in Valencia waiting for my overnight bus. I took a bus to the station to buy my ticket then had several hours to kill so I walked around the old town centre. I was planning on going to look at some churches I spotted the day before when I found the coolest shop ever instead so I went in there and did some Christmas shopping. I also stopped in a gorgeous building that was a musical theatre and looked around before hanging out in the hostel so I could charge my iPod for the long trip. While in the hostel common room I met a super cool guy that works for Rick Steve as a guide. I had seen him in the common room before but this was the first time I talked to him and I wish we had started talking days ago! I feel like I missed an opportunity there. But such is the nature of traveling.

My overnight bus was uneventful. I had two seats to myself for the first four hours or so and had a good nap curled up across them until a lady sat next to me and took up half of my seat and all of her own

Doorway of a room in the music theatre

. Then the sleeping wasn't so easy. But I got enough to get around Gibraltar today. I arrived at the bus station before 8am and had some breakfast then walked out of the station to see the Rock right in front of me! I also saw the border was a 20 second walk away. But first I went to McDonald�s to use the free wifi and checked my email. While I was there I met Ken and Alastair, two Scots who work for the British Army and they were going to the rock to do some re-conn work so I followed them around all day.

We took the cable car up to the top of the Rock. The wind picked up as we were going up and our cable car kept bashing into things. It was not a fun ride. But you can see the whole of Gibraltar from up there so when I wasn't trying not to barf it was nice. We got to the top and it was freezing. Gibraltar is quite famous for its apes and as we were taking photos from the north terrace an ape came over and tried to still Ken's bag. Alastair and I got to watch and laugh as Ken tried to fight the ape for his day pack. Luckily Ken did eventually get it back. Then it started to rain-snow heavily so we ran inside the cafe. The apes peered in at all the people inside.

Eventually the rain stopped so we continued our walk across the top of the Rock. Then we started to make our way back down on foot

Exterior wall

. We stopped at all the attractions along the way but they were charging 8 quid for each thing and it was quite ridiculous. I would have liked to have seen some of the things but the admission made me not interested. They have a cave tour which was probably worth it, a Moorish castle which definitely wouldn't be, and the under siege tunnels. Alastair has done all of these things because he was stationed in Gibraltar so he was a good tour guide for us. Ken was stationed here too but long before Alastair and his memory wasn't as good and things had changed more for him.

Once we got back to main street we stopped in a pub and had a drink, then went to another pub for lunch as the kitchen was closed in the first one. Lunch was quite late and by the time we were done I went back to the bus station to see where I could go next. The last bus to Sevilla had already left so I booked myself on the overnight to Madrid. I said good-bye to my new friends and am now waiting for my bus to leave at 10pm.