Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Gibraltar

So I’m very behind on the blogs and unfortunately as time goes on, I think things are just going to get more hectic. But anyhow….GIBRALTAR!!!! On Valentine’s Day, I headed off to the British city of Gibraltar with the majority of my American friends at EUSA to get a glimpse of the monkeys, the rock of Gibraltar, as well as the caves. Obviously, I mainly went for the monkeys but the views at Gibraltar were really amazing and I’m pretty sure that those were the first caves I’d ever seen. So we boarded the bus at the crack of dawn and watched Old School until we got there. Once we got there, we flew through the border checkpoint and boarded these little minibuses up the mountain. I felt very lucky to be on bus number 5 because our guide was hilarious. But then again, I find all British people to be funny. The sights were great and the cave as well but those monkeys…it was pretty hard to concentrate on anything else when you’ve got a monkey giving you high fives in exchange for peanuts. I wasn’t particularly interested in having a monkey climb on me and it turns out for good reason. One girl had a peanut drop down her shirt and the monkey was kind enough to reach down her shirt and get it for her….The monkeys are so smart—they know to check your pockets and your backpack for food. Coop and I both got a picture taken with the monkeys but neither one of us really wanted to put our backs to the monkeys long enough for a picture so we both look pretty anxious in them…I was taking a video of a mama monkey and her baby and in the middle of it, the mama swoops over my head and I’m trying to run away….pretty lame to be scared of monkeys but they do bite and some of them are pretty big….anyhow, after the much too short tour of the monkeys and the rock of Gibraltar, we had some free time and we looked at some of the shops. Andy ordered an English breakfast and I was so excited because I had a bite of his beans and they tasted like pork and beans. I must confess, I’m a little sick of Spanish food at this point….so luckily for Valentines day, Coop surprised me by taking me to a Italian restaurant located in an old Arab bathhouse. Needless to say, I was thrilled. We really had a great time although one old man did stop me on the way out asking me who paid and where was my boyfriend. I think he was trying to find his grandson a valentine’s date during the wait for dinner. A little late….I assured him that I already had a Valentine and left a little creeped out. Afterwards we went for coffee and attempted to find a Moroccan tea place. We never found it so we went to the Club Buddha. Coop was pretty tired so I bought him a beer and just when he was beginning to perk up, WE GOT KICKED OUT OF THE CLUB! …but not as dramatic as you might think. Our one friend was wearing white shoes and couldn’t get in because of it so Coop and him were covertly attempting to switch shoes. Unfortunately, the bouncer noticed and they both got kicked out. But then it turns out that for one reason or another, most of our friends got the boot so we all ended up outside Buddha just hanging out laughing about being ridiculous Americans. It was a good bonding experience…In Spain, things don’t run on time, work properly or always go smoothly but the attitude here is so laid-back that you can’t really worry about anything. It’s kinda just go with the flow….also known as hakuna matata. Haha.

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