Location: Gibraltor
We started this beautiful day by waking up to an amazing breakfast of fruit pies (thank you, Zo) that set the course for the rest of the day. We started our ascension of Gibraltar rock by climbing a lot of stairs. Then we went on to climb more stairs. After that, before reaching the start of the hike, we climbed even more stairs. During the hike, yes, you guessed it, we climbed almost all the stairs. Joke aside, it was a hard but beautiful walk up; we could see the city, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic, and the coast of Morocco. I don’t know if you know this, I definitely didn’t, but living on a boat makes you terribly unfit, no workout, no walking, good food But we made it up, and the view was totally worth it. On the way up we saw our very first monkey, some of us were very excited to see them, and some of us not so much They are, for the most part, friendly; some of them even rode the taxi vans, you know, just getting a lift. We even saw some engaging in policy-breaking activities, if you know what I mean… After a small break at the top, we visited O’Hara’sra’s Battery and made our way to the restaurant. After lunch, we went down to St-Micheal Cave, which was breathtaking. The exhibition called the Awakening, had a light and sound show inside the cave, which is so big it sometimes hosts concerts. Throughout its history, it has also been considered a natural bunker and an emergency hospital in case of attack.
We got ice cream at the souvenir shop after the visit, or at least tried to since a monkey stole mine when I tried to get out, resulting in not only the loss of a well-deserved snack but also of my integrity. If some off us already told you the story, they are lying, let me tell you what really happed: I got out of the shop with a still wrapped classic Magnum (details are important) when the monkey started following me. Keep in mind this all happened within seconds. I started walking faster toward our groups, but he was closing in. I thought: if I redhead run after me, so I should throw the ice cream to the group; if someone catches it, the monkey loses sight and won’t run blindly into a big group of people. My only mistake was to throw it really poorly and it is landing on the ground. The monkey got to it before I did, opened the packaging and ate it. Sad and ice-creamless, we then went down the stairs along Charley V’s wall. As we were leaving, Jonathan got given a key chain from the souvenir shop guys for being really nice to him and making his day! At the bottom, we were greeted by shaking legs and a very thirsty monkey who stJoey’sey’s water bottle. Struggling to drink from it from just a tiny hole, Andy stepped in to help him drink the water. Let’s be honest; Joey had already relinquished all right to that water bottle.
After the hike and the monkey adventures, we walked down the mountain and were free to do as we pleased. Joey and Will had some beach time, Flo and Charley went to the Yacht club, etc. Zoe, Nora and Mac had prepared some potatoes and meat balls for dinner and we squeeze question of the day, since 4 of us are leaving in 36h, was: In 10 words, what is your overall appreciation for the trip? We ended the Squeeze and called it a night by doing an amazing round of hide and seek. I found everyone eventually, but the winners were definitely Joey and Mac. That’sit for me today. See you here again in 15 days.
Lucie