Aaaaand we're back!
We just got back from holiday! :) We had such an awesome time, it was so much fun! I warn you in advance that this is going to be a long entry.
We started off with a horrendous 4am alarm, and a drive to Gatwick in time for 6.30am check-in. The flight was a little wobbly but we landed at 11am in a bright & sunny Gibraltar (so much for all the forecast rain & thunderstorms - 26 degrees? Yes please!). Five minutes later we were in a bright & sunny Spain, and a while after that we were checked into the hotel and ready to explore. LOL I just typed explode.
We decided to locate the dolphin watching company, so we headed back across the border, across the runway (!) and over to the marina. Immediately we were spotted by someone who asked if I was Clarissa. Erm....... lol. It turned out to be the Dolphin Adventure guy, but how did he recognise me?! lol anyway he gave us our tickets, showed us around the marina, and we had a quick lunch & drink at a little cafe called Bianca's.
By the time we were finished it was time to board the boat, and we headed out into the Strait to find us some dolphins. Which didn't take long, and soon we had dolphins swimming alongside the boat, it was AMAZING. Saw a couple of sunfish too which was awesome.
After the trip, we pretty much just wandered around, up Main Street, went to find the cable car station, sat in the botanical gardens for a while and then came back to Spain to find the bus station, some food (I had a ham & cheese carbonara wrap although we had to wait for AGES...) and eventually sleep as we'd barely had any. 9pm on our first night on holiday, we are rock n' roll.
In fact, it may have been 8pm. Which is 7pm UK time. lol
Day two was a massive adventure. We got up bright & early (7.30am) and just missed our bus, but we still got to Algeciras in plenty of time.
Except we had no idea where the ferry terminal was, so we guessed - and we would have been right if we weren't interrupted by a man from a travel agency. He offered us a return ferry to Tangier, a guided tour and lunch all for €45... which sounded a little too good to be true, but we were a little confused and I've heard that the tours are supposed to be pretty good, so we went for it.
Soon we were on the free bus to Tarifa to catch the ferry, and we made it just in time - except we didn't have ferry tickets yet. Just as the ferry was leaving, someone turned up to give us our tickets for the noon sailing instead - which meant a 45 minute wait and potentially an hour less in Morocco.
Eventually we were there though! The crossing only takes half an hour, the water behind the boat was INSANE lol. We were met by our guide at the terminal, there ended up being twelve of us, and we headed up to the Old Town (Medina) on a coach. It was a strange but pretty cool experience, apart from the beggars and the serious hasslers! I had some guy follow me down like three streets trying to sell me a necklace & bracelet set for €30 which was then reduced to both for €20, then both for €15... then we disappeared into a shop. And when we came back out 15 minutes later, he pounced AGAIN and insisted I could have them for €12... OMG leave me alone! No = no!
We saw a lot of awesome buildings and views though, walked around the market streets, and had a snake put round our shoulders (!!) before heading to a really nice Moroccan restaurant for lunch.
We had a REALLY nice selecction of food - started with a spicy lentil & chickpea soup, followed by chicken with cous cous (which was DELICIOUS) and finished with authentic shish kebab and peppermint tea. All with a 'band' playing, which gave the experience even more 'atmosphere'.
Then we went shopping; a demonstration in a carpet shop, a few samples in a spices/oils/soaps shop and finally, a walk down to a hotel overlooking the harbour for a drink and a final chance to shop while we waited for a mini bus.
Eventually, the bus arrived and we ventured out of Tangier, past a Pizza Hut with the same logo but 'Pizza Hut' in Arabic!, along the coat until we reached the western coast. Our first stop was at two MASSIVE rocks in the sea, which are said to separate the Atlantic & Mediterranean, which was pretty cool.
Our second stop was to RIDE A FREAKING CAMEL!! I felt really sorry for the camels though, they have to carry people around all day and people are just shoveled onto them and led around, they shoved me & Ash onto the same one and it groaned as it got up. :( :( I can unashamedly say it was a really fun experience though lol, we walked around for a couple of minutes and got lots of pictures, including a HILARIOUS photo of one of the camels. :D
They had a baby one there too and it was adorable! Except it threatened to spit on me, lol.
After that, it was the end of the tour, so we headed back into Tangier to catch the 6pm ferry (I had planned to get the 5pm one so it turns out we didn't lose an hour at all!). It was strange because Morocco is two hours behind Spain lol (so an hour behind the UK) so we got back really late.
As soon as we were back in La Linea, we went on a hunt for food, bought some buns from a random patisserie, and promptly fell asleep as soon as we reached our hotel room. Well, it HAD been another long, busy day... to be fair...
lol our final full day started off with a lie in! For once! I was barely out of bed by 10.30am, and we didn't get itno Gibraltar until almost noon. We briefly went to a few shops on our way to the cable car, bought a disgusting slice of cake, and found a Fightstar CD with weird packaging.
Then we headed up The Rock, the cable car was PACKED so I could barely see anything. :| The view from the top was spectacular though - and then we spotted the monkeys. I immediately handed Ash my camera - and forgot to close my bag. Needless to say, before I even got close to the monkey, it leapt at me and rummaged through my bag. And got VERY pissed off with me when I snatched it back hahahaha.
There were LOADS though, and loads of adorable baby ones, I didn't want to leave!! We headed to St. Michael's Cave which was pretty amazing, it reminded me of the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and they're turning part of it into a music venue which is weird but cool lol. And we met more monkeys.
Then it started raining so we went back to the station and sat in the cafe, and suddenly we couldn't even see the Rock any more through the fog. It was insane lol. Eventually, we bought a poncho and left - and of course it stopped raining and the fog cleared.
Then we got lost. I'm not sure what happened, we headed down towards the castle and Great Siege Tunnels and somehow took a wrong turn and walked through a load of Ministry Of Defence property instead. Whoops! We ended up miles away from the cable car, so we weren't about to turn around, but eventually we found a normal road which led us to the tunnels! And then down to the castle!
The tunnels were quite cool, walking down through the Rock, but the castle was disappointing, apart from to think that people lived there hundreds of years ago. Short people apparently, because even I was too tall to be able to walk through the door to the top. O_O
Because the cable car was now far too far away, we had to navigate our way down the rest of the Rock to Main Street. And we made it! Aching and starving, but we made it. We headed straight to Casemates Square for some dinner, where I ordered chicken strogganof and got beef instead... but it was delicious!
And then we headed back to the hotel to relax, we were going to grab some books and my coat and lay under the palm trees in a park nearby, but Ash's leg was really playing up after all the walking so we just relaxed in our room instead.
Today, my legs have been playing up too haha, they REALLY ache after walking so much yesterday! We checked out of the hotel and left Spain for the last time, and it was much nicer weather so we caught a bus to Europa Point to enjoy the views. Unfortunately even though it was 25 degrees in Gibraltar, it looked a bit dismal in Africa so we didn't get the best view, but it was a lot better than yesterday lol.
We pretty much headed straight back into the centre of town, walked down Main Street one last time and had brunch, I had a delicious Spanish cheese omelette. :) And then it was time to go home. :(
It was such a great trip. Half the reason I went was for the trans-mediterranean crossing and a new continent, but it was probably one of the best holidays I've ever had. If you're stuck for holiday ideas, I'd definitely recommend it. :D