Gibraltar, Morocco, London, Everywhere!

Hi All,

I apologize for the lack of blog entries, so here’s a really long one about my last few weeks traveling to different continents and roaming around Europe. On October 23, I boarded a train with my friend Emily to Algeciras, Spain – one of the most southern cities in the country…right on the Mediterranean. Algeciras, according to the Rick Steve’s travel book is a horrible city only worth leaving. It’s basically a gigantic port…Rick was right. Fortunately, I read the book before planning the trip so we only stayed in Algeciras for a night, but we went bar hopping which was really fun. One thing I learned was that free tapas in bars are really only a Madrid thing, and expecting free food with the drinks I buy is not welcomed in other places. Bummer.

The next morning we took a bus to Gibraltar, an English colony at the very tip of the continent. We crossed over the boarder, went through customs, begged the officer for a Gibraltar passport stamp, and had to cross Gibraltar’s one runway to walk into the city. The colony itself is only 1 mile by 3 miles, but the most famous part of it is the gigantic Rock of Gibraltar, which when people thought the world was flat, was considered to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, symbolizing the end of the Earth. Good thing about Gibraltar: They speak both Spanish and English. Bad thing about Gibraltar: They use pounds as their currency and their English is UK English…making it impossible to understand.

We walked across the runway into town, which has quite a history, and believe it or not a very large Jewish community. Following Rick Steve’s advice, we took a taxi tour of the Rock, where we visited St. Michael’s Cave (which had really cool stalactites and stalagmites), The Great Siege Tunnels (used as strategic military locations for the British forces), and best of all got to play with the incredible amount of apes on the Rock. Yes, tons and tons of apes. Check out the pictures at the end of the post…it’s unreal. On the top of the Rock there are amazing views of the Mediterranean, Strait of Gibraltar, and the Riff and Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Definitely one of the coolest places on earth.

After the tour, we went and got lunch…some traditional English food. I got a steak and ale pie and Emily got some fish and chips. Overall, I really enjoyed Gibraltar. It was such a quaint community, and the concept of it is just really funny: A random English colony stuck at the very south of Spain. We really lucked out on the weather too…Gibraltar would not be fun on a rainy day. However, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone as a very interesting day trip.

Later that afternoon, we took an hour bus ride west to the Spanish beach town of Tarifa. This town was so cool since it was very laid back, and reminded me of Santa Barbara! Loving it! Tarifa, more so than Gibraltar, is in an amazing location. Emily and I went down to the beach to watch the sunset. We saw Morocco, a mere 8 miles away. On our left was the Mediterranean Sea, and on our right we saw the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty incredible. Got some good pictures there too.
The next morning we boarded a ferry to Tangier, Morocco, where we took the cheesy 10 euro ferry company tour, where they bussed us to the main sites for quick picture opportunities, but with more time spent in the shopping areas – where the tour guides got quite a hefty commission. They took us to a nice Moroccan restaurant, though, where we got couscous and chicken, with a bunch of other Moroccan food. After the tour ended, we decided to walk around by ourselves, and went back to the Grand Socco and Kasbah where finally we weren’t bombarded by poor beggars, knowing we were on a tour and had money. We met this one guy who thought we were Spanish, and he took us to the shop he worked at, speaking Spanish to us the whole time. The owner of the rug store took us to the roof where we got great views of Tangier. He took us to his show room and showed us all his products, speaking very good Spanish to us, and serving us the traditional Moroccan mint tea. I told him that I wasn’t really interested in the rugs and if he had clothes…so he brought a ton of those out. We took pictures in them, which were funny, and then began to bargain. He offered all these clothes to us for 350 Euro…and knowing that Morocco is dirt cheap I thought it was total crap. I offered 80 Euros, and he went down to 250. I started to think more too…did I really want to spend 40 Euros on a Moroccan outfit, and Emily the same? I decided no, and then broke traditional bargaining rules…I began to talk down my original price – using the excuse that I was a student and couldn’t afford it. After discussing for a while, the owner finally agreed to 80 Euros…I had successfully lowered the original price 77% and had him accept my initial offer. Too bad for him that I had already decided I was over it, and we didn’t end up buying anything…which kind of pissed him off, but I talked my way out of it and left peacefully. 8 hours in Tangier was plenty…as it really is the Tijuana of Morocco, and both Emily and I were very excited to go back to Spain at the end of the day.

After a pretty normal week of school I jetted off to London on October 30th. So many people ask me if Halloween is big in Europe…it’s just becoming big. I actually got a Halloween costume in Madrid…a Roman Senator outfit. Anyway, I went to London that Thursday and took the Gatwick express to my friend Michael’s apartment. That night we walked around and saw most of the major sites a night, and we also got some fantastic Asian food – something I haven’t had for a while! The main thing about London that I quickly learned the first night is to not even think about the amount of money you are spending. It is ridiculously expensive. Ridiculous.

Friday the 31st we started the morning going to the London Eye, a kind of Ferris Wheel that has great views of the city. We then went to Westminster Abbey. I’ve seen so many churches so far in Europe that I’m really getting sick of them, but Westminster was actually really cool because SO many famous people are buried there. After that, we went to go meet Michael’s friends and saw the new James Bond movie in the theatre that hosted the world premiere just two days before. That was pretty neat. For lunch I had the traditional Fish and Chips…English food isn’t the most amazing thing ever, but it’s all right. We then walked by Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Harrods department store, Hyde Park, and King’s Cross Station (where I took a picture on platform 9 3/4). For Halloween that night we went to a REALLY European-esque club, which was actually a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning, we went to Buckingham Palace, and then the Tower of London and London Bridge. We then went to the British Museum, which had some amazing ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone. That night we got Indian food, which England is known for, and rightly so. It was fantastic! To conclude the trip, we went to a pub and celebrated Cal’s win over Oregon.

This week at school was back to the grind. Next week I have a bunch of tests and stuff, which I’m not excited about. However, I applied to be an Orientation Staff Coordinator back in Santa Barbara – the same organization I worked for last year, but this time as a staff supervisor, which I’m quite excited about. On Thursday I went with my preschool friend Sara (who is studying on Stanford’s Madrid Program) to go see High School Musical 3 and get a traditional Spanish lunch. My friend Brian is coming to visit me from Scotland tomorrow too, so I’ll be able to do some more touristy stuff in Madrid, which should be nice. Anyway, I should get back to work on my essays and studying. Next weekend I’m going with my program to Cordoba and Granada. The weekend after my parents are coming…and a few weeks later I’ll be in Israel!

LINKS TO PICTURES:

Algeciras/Tarifa:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2293537&l=eb8bf&id=3624742

Gibraltar 1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2293528&l=ed0b1&id=3624742

Gibraltar 2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2293567&l=eea01&id=3624742

Tangier, Morocco:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2293546&l=be6e5&id=3624742

London 1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2295758&l=e180d&id=3624742

London 2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2295777&l=b5ab4&id=3624742



I promise to update more frequently!

Hasta luego,

Michael