Gibraltar is a tiny little British Colony at the southern most tip of Spain expanding only 6.5 Km. It is basically a small town based around a big rock, and from the top of the "rock" you can see Africa, well only 30% of the time. I am SO pleased to say that luck had finally found its way to me and I happened to be there on a perfect day. Normally it takes about 4 hours to get there from Sevilla, but not if you sneak onto a bus provided by our program, so that is exactly what I did with one of my friends here (and one of my best friends from home -- Abby Cain's best friend from UW)...hope you followed all of that!
This is the colony from afar. I tried taking a picture of it when I was on a ferry from Spain to Africa, but I was too busy concentrating on not losing my breakfast...ANYWAYS it is beautiful! (had to steal this one from internet)
So after a short nap we got to Gibralter and had to WALK through customs. Here is a picture of Gibraltar before entering. How strict are they? Turns out not very. I was literally in the process of pulling out my passport out of my bag when they just waved me through at the first sight of seeing the navy US passport -- reassuring right? Whatever!
Walked through and across the one and only public airport runway. It is closed 7 times a day -- 4 flights in and 3 out. Otherwise, it is a public road that can be both driven and walked on. We had a quick info session about the colony and its source of income: ALL tourism since it is so small they can't produce anything for themselves. Their language? Spanish, English, and a weird combo of the two that you can only understand if you are a native.
Once we were on our own we started walking around the town a little bit. We decided to take a tour that took us to several locations up and around the rock and we were even promised that we would see monkeys -- apparently they are in abundance on the rock! First stop: gorgeous scenic view of Africa! (see below) With the haze of the ocean, that is the best view you will ever get. To witness it firsthand, pretty darn incredible I must say!
Above and below are pictures of the harbor!
Tori and I with Africa in the background.
Next up we saw some caves. These were REALLY cool. They used to be hideouts from WWII and then they were used as shelter and most recently they do weddings and performances there now.
MONKEY BUSINESS!
I went to take a pic of this little guy and he spread his legs and just looked away like..."HERE WE GO AGAIN!" Very inappropriate. Now these monkeys are EVERYWHERE. They tried getting into our van. Take raccoons times 100...they would just jump on people if they were eating anything but we were all warned. But SO cute.
Lovers.
Baby monkey -- so adorable!
Tori and I on top of the rock ... kind of felt like paradise up there!!!
Another set of war caves ... had to give my try at a cannon!
Guard tower to a castle that is now destroyed
One last shot on top of the rock. All these pics were courtesy of my iphone since I did not have a camera at the time, pretty great quality ehh? This should be a marketing campaign for both Gibraltar and iphone4. Needless to say had a great time with Tori, but onto the real thing now, experiencing Morocco AFRICA!
(If you need a short break, now would be the time to do it. As my Grandma mentioned, I tend to write novels, but this next part will be mostly scenic as Morocco was one of the most colorful places I have ever seen!)
Morocco was a cultural experience that I will NEVER forget and that I never would have gotten without going through my program -- CIEE. We left Sevilla for a 2hr bus ride that took us to the infamous ferry. Normally I do not experience sea sickness, but the 45min ferry ride from Spain to Africa I was concentrating on not losing my insides. We passed Gibralter which was neat to see afar, but only saw it for the 10sec my eyes were open. Made it out alive somehow and desperately needed fresh air before loading onto the next bus. BAD IDEA. Was swarmed by like 10 ladies all trying to sell me the same necklace at the same price -- poor selling strategy in my opinion! Anyways, Morocco was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, albeit one of the most smelly as well. I will let the pictures demonstrate just how culturally enriching the country was, but unfortunately they will not do the smells justice ( lucky for you!) After getting home the first night we could not shower fast enough to get the smell of dead fish off of us.
The last thing I want to point out was safety. Although going there may have been slightly dangerous given the situation at hand in Egypt, I went through my program with about 45 kids. We also had security guards with us, equipped with hand guns and all. The men there are extremely verbal and harass, especially to women, especially to American women who are wearing far less clothes than the Moroccan women. It is so sad to see how the women are still being treated in this day and age -- it is something we learn about in school, but to witness it first hand is a whole new experience in itself. We had guides with guns attached to their belts behind and beside us for the first night, and just behind us for the following two days. Necessary? Completely. They had to usher a few people away. The group before us even had a guy offer a camel for two girls. Funny -- somewhat, but the fact that it is serious and that is how women are treated, that is just plain awful. Also, while our group commenced to hear about some history, we had a series of 4 funeral processes go by us. They were singing a song and carrying the casket above their heads as they walked. They are very plain, wooden caskets, and a green sheath covers it if there is a female inside. ONLY males participate in the marching and the women are expected to stay at home and grieve, and go to the burial site weeks after the fact. I can't help to think how terrible it would be to not be able to witness the burial of my husband, but that is just one of many cultural differences I can't wrap my finger around. Enough morbidity, onto the good stuff!
First shot after we went through customs
Nina and I posing in an art school in Morocco
They were doing Arabic tattoos (my mom asked if it was real...are you kidding me?) The lady said she would do our names "Annie and Greg" seems simple enough right? Well "Andy and Gray" is what we got according to our friend who reads Arabic (which you read left to right) but hey, this is why I didn't get a permanent one!
Money exchange! 1Euro=11 Dirhams. Therefore I was RICH! Sort of.. And everything you buy there you haggle for ... But I have always had a problem with this. Yes I understand they set a high price to be bartered down, but I only have it in me to barter so much because these people have so little compared to me. Friends would counter that and say but this is what they do for a living, but at the end of the day I go home to a bed with a full stomach and I can't say I know they do the same...
View from our balcony at the hotel!! After checking in, we were off to Tetuan for our first "market experience."
These markets were never ending, and I am going to start with the good pictures and ease you into the not so nice looking things!
A lot of the markets looked like this. These are nuts and beans and candies! Very cool looking, but swarms of flies were all over. They would also leave out dead animals, biscuits, desserts, and everything was fly infested.
Fabric to make the authentic dresses for females. Most women were covered head to foot, many wore head scarves, and some even had their mouths covered. Temperate was about 80 degrees, and they were the same thing year round!
How the dresses look after the fact!
Chicken coop... when alive... Caution for next few pictures ahead!
This guy basically got his insides chopped out in front of my eyes! Nina and I were bringing up the rear and a guy took a knife and chopped a chicken in half... naturally we screamed! The natives thoroughly enjoyed our naiveness to the situation I am just sure, but after our heart rate dropped it was pretty funny. We walked a little further down and they just had rows of these guys hanging...Bon apetit! AND we ate chicken that night!!!! Well, I had a bite or two, then remembered the smells from earlier, and that was enough for me
Christine and I with our scented flowers. We were given these before going into a natural tannery...where we saw the insides of cows and the before math of leather. It was one of the most rancid smells I have EVER smelled, and every store with leather after that I was haunted. Cow guts were in those pools and we had to walk between them (I stll have nightmares from the waste water treatment plant from third grade and those pools...these pools put them to shame!) This is one of the only natural tanneries left, and although completely disgusting, it was an experience I would never want to take back!
The infamous tannery..
Onto something more pleasant...countryside! After the market which seemed never ending, we went back to the hotel for a meal, showers, and early bedtime since we were up at 6am for a full day!
The next day we were super busy and started with a tour of the Coca Cola Factory in Tetuahan. We had to put on these crazy space suit things but we could not take pictures in the factory as everything is confidential. We saw the production lines of plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cans, and it honestly was really cool just to see how much went into the production line. We saw a coke bottle get filled with orange juice that coke produces too and a huge scene happened to make sure that the bottle did not go into packaging -- good to know they are so careful about their products!
rocking the space suits!
NExt up -- quick stop at the beach. This is me and my "bro" Paul Miller
my current computer background ... we ate lunch over looking this view!
After lunch we went to the Caves of Hercules. This here is looking out from inside the cave...look familiar? Maybe like the outline of Africa? Very cool to see
Next few pics are fairly self explanatory ... WE RODE CAMELS IN AFRICA! Now of course Nina chooses the ONE camel that needs to have two riders and guess who lucky #2 got to be? Yup -- I was chosen by her to listen to her scream like we were on Tower of Terror -- it was honestly hiloarius. I actually thought I was peeing my pants a little I was laughing so hard; turns out it was the camel behind us ( Relax I knew it wasn't really me!) We thought we were funny..until two boys had to do it at the end ... priceless
Only took a few pictures of the last day seeing as we were pretty wiped out but we went to Chefchaun which is the city of blue. Literally every door and building was painted blue and repainted 4X a year. This city was the most beautiful in my eyes. At the end of the tour (see last pic) we went into a natural soaps shop where I bought great natural perfumes and soaps! A little on the pricey side I learned the hard way (had to scalp some money from friends.. actually from Paul who I had literally just got out of debt with .. good thing he loves me ) but all was good! Ending this seriously long blog on a few beautiful pics and a note of thanks for sticking with me :)
Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana
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