El Día de los Monos Borrachos (The Day of the Drunk Monkeys)

On Sunday, we woke up and decided to rent a car to drive to Gibraltar. We had been discussing going there for the last few days, but we had trouble logistically because the train and bus schedules didn't really allow for us to be there for a long time. So we decided we'd just rent a car, so we'd have more freedom to do spend as much time there as we wanted.

The trip to Gibraltar took about 2.5 hours. It was a ncie drive through Spain's countryside. I'm in the southern part of Spain, and during the drive we saw a lot of dry fields. I've learned in my classes that Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) gets virtually no rain during the summer, and we definitely saw evidence of that during our drive.

Un pueblo outside of Sevilla

Solar panels

Very dry land.

The big rock you see in the distance is Gibraltar

Gibraltar!

We had lunch in a Chinese place before we climbed the rock.

Salad with crab and shrimp.

Delicious fried rice!

For those of you who don't know, Gibraltar is actually part of the UK. According to one of my profs, they've owned the land since the 17th century. It's really crucial land to occupy because (via the Gibraltar) you control sea traffic through the Strait of Gibraltar, and thus you control a major avenue for accessing the Mediterranean Sea.

A picture of a map of Gibraltar. The bottom of the photograph is Spain, with the Mediterranean on either side. 

 I was really really stoked to "go to the UK". Customs between the Spanish/UK border were a joke, the security guard hardly even looked at our passports. But then we were in the UK! Just walking into another country, no big deal...

UK!

When we were walking towards the rock, after entering the UK, we were walking on a runway (you can see it in the map above) and the hat Niko was wearing blew off his head and onto the runway. He ran after it, and at the same time, some kids playing soccer next to the runway hit their ball over the fence, and it was on the runway too. So Niko went to get the ball (to return it to the helpless kids), and the Gibraltar police didn't like that too much. Running around on active runways in "unsafe", who knew?

First time seeing the Mediterranean!

A fortress used to defend Gibraltar. They're not visible in the photograph, but we could see cannon holes in the side of the castle and in the side of the rock. This land is very sought-after!

The city on the side of the rock.

At the start of our jouney up the rock, we climbed some stairs in the middle of the city.

View of the city.

There were wild monkeys roaming the rock.

Some of the monkeys looked rather borracho (drunk)

At the top of the first peak we climbed. Gorgeous view of the Med.

On our way up the second peak. Also - those mountains on the right side of the picture - that's Africa!

Me &Africa.

Markus, Adrienne, me, Niko, Africa.

Approximately where we were.

We took over 900 stairs to get down the rock.

After our hike up the mountain, we went back to the Chinese place for dinner.

Spring rolls.

BBQ ribs. Some of us were ravenous after the long day in Gibraltar....

Chicken with black bean sauce.

Beef with bamboo and mushrooms.

Sunset on the Mediterranean.

Our cute little European car.

I had an incredible time in Gibraltar. It was the day of many firsts: first time walking from one country to another, first time seeing Africa, first time seeing Africa, first time in the UK, first time I saw wind turbines, etc. It was an awesome day :) anyone who can go to Gibraltar should go. The views from on top of the rock were unlike anything else.