What a great weekend!
Friday morning I got to sleep in and relax, did a little bit of shopping and then I went to the gym for about an hour and a half. Considering the fact that I haven't done any sort of physical activity since my surgery in October, I was so sore that I could have collapsed... but it just hurt so good and I will be doing it all over again tomorrow morning before class!
Saturday morning I woke up early to walk to the Discover Sevilla bus for our trip to Gibraltar. On my way to meet Haley and Jessica, I heard something in the bushes by the river. When I looked I saw a man with his back turned to me... I kept walking, and looking, and when he finally turned around I saw that he was masturbating -- full out, let's not be shy, i'm gonna get down and dirty in public masturbating. Needless to say I threw up in my mouth and ran past him as fast as my little crippled leg would carry me. Oh the things people do.
Anyways - Gibraltar! Soooooo beautiful! Apparently we lucked out because there is usually a cloud covering the whole entire area - so fitting for a British territory :) The weather was wonderful, probably around 65, sunny and with a nice breeze from the water. We walked across the border and hopped onto mini-busses to go up the rock. Our driver's name was Tony and he was this old, dirty-minded and terribly witty Brit who was in love with Lord Nelson. He drove us all around the city and explained the history of all the wars, the fortified walls, the cannons, how many times it's been passed between the Moors, the Spanish and the English, blah blah blah. We took a few breaks to take photos from the scenic spots overlooking the water. It was so interesting to be able to see the southernmost point of Spain to my right, and Africa 20 miles away to the front.
We went into St. Michael's Cave where there were beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. Tony told us to remember that "tights always come down sooner or later" if we were having trouble remembering which formations went which way. Hahahaha - Oh, Tony. We went deep into the rock and it was very eerie yet exciting. During WWII, the cave served as an emergency hospital, and nowadays The Royal Marines of Britain often hold charity concerts in the cave because the acoustics are so good... it was just craziness.
When we came back outside of the cave, the monkeys started showing up. It is believed that the Moors brought monkeys with them from Africa when they came over in the eighth century for either food or pets... but when they were driven out, the monkeys stayed. There are some 300 wild monkeys in Gibraltar that the British government cares for. They are really friendly and used to humans - so they climb on your shoulders and the cars, they give you high fives and sit on your head for pictures too. However, they're really greedy when it comes to food - they looooove peanuts. When we were driving further up the rock to the Apes' Den, Tony told us to close the windows on the bus so that the monkeys wouldn't enter, but he forgot to shut his. He had an entire bag of peanuts sitting on the dashboard, and while we were driving, a monkey swung in the passenger side window, grabbed the peanuts and jumped across Tony's lap and out the other window as fast as lightning. He screamed and then we all laughed... after a few seconds Tony started giggling and said "That monkey just pinched me nuts!" I LOVE IT.
We got dropped off in the center of town and we given two hours or so to dink around. We ate a picnic style lunch in the central plaza and then wandered in and out of the shops. We found this British import sort of shop that had all sorts of preserves, candy, and special foods from the UK. They also had Dr. Pepper, which was a huuuuuuge hit with everyone on the trip because you can't find it anywhere in Spain. I myself bought 3 bottles of blue powerade and a package of shortbread cookies... the combination was like unrefined street crack and I loved every minute of it.
The trip was really relaxing and pleasant - I thoroughly enjoyed my time and loved seeing such an amazing place. I'm really gaining some great memories and experiences from all of the beautiful things I'm seeing this time around, but I'm trying to really see it all for what it is and not worry about having a photo to remember it by. Photos never really do the most amazing things justice...
I leave on Friday to go to Morocco for the weekend - THAT'S IN AFRICA, YO! As my wifey would say, I'm going back to the motherland... let's hope the sun doesn't kill me and that there will be a camel waiting for me with my name on it.
Hope the weather is looking up for you all - it's supposed to be sunny and in the low 70s all week here. It's ok... you can be jealous, I won't judge you.
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