Spent the day in Gibraltar this past weekend. My friend’s parents were visiting and had an extra seat in their car so I tagged along for an unexpected daytrip to Southern Spain. Gibraltar, a 2.5-hour drive from Granada, is technically not Spain territory. It’s a British colony, a nation of its own with 30,000 residents called Gibraltarians. This colony is known for the Rock of Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar. The rock was used for defensive purposes during past wars and for strategic tunnels during World War II.

Crossing the border, the guards barely looked at our passports and were yelling at us in English, which was a change coming from Spain. Parts of Gibraltar were beautiful such as the Queens Quay and Marina, the Rock, Main Street and surrounding coastline but I feel spending one day in Gibraltar is sufficient enough for tourists. The island is also inhabited by monkeys, which are scattered across the city, chilling on garbage cans, roofs, the Rock and just wandering around. If you traveled to the top of the Rock you were able to actually hold one but I stayed in the city center.

On our way back to Granada we stopped at a coastal city to spend some time by the Mediterranean Sea. We parked right next to the beach and chilled on/strolled the coastline. This was right during sunset hour so the ocean and beach was even more beautiful! We skipped rocks (attempted to), wrote in the sand, ran into some fisherman and explored the coastal line. This was my favorite part of the day, simply being next to the ocean with the waves and breeze. It was so refreshing to be in the open scenery since every day of mine is spent in the middle of a busy city.

This week Holly and I leave for Berlin, Germany on Thursday! I’m so excited to travel to Germany! The weather is supposed to be pretty cold (30º F or so) which I’m not looking forward to. So far, we have planned to visit a concentration camp (Buchenwald), the Berlin Wall (what’s left of it), Gardens and lots of museums. Just need to get through these three days of class (we don’t have classes this Thursday or Friday) and we’ll be off to spend the end of the week/weekend in Berlin!