Gibraltar

A four hour bus ride south of Sevilla brings you to one of the southern most parts of the Iberian Peninsula. One short walk from the bus station in  La Línea de la Concepción, Spain and you're across the border, in another territory, a British territory to be exact. As long as you have a passport with you, you can be in and out of two different countries. Although Gibraltar geographically appears to be a part of Spain, it is not. And it is easy to see the difference once you cross the border.

Besides the British flag waving, a red double decker bus bringing tourists from the entrance of the territory to the rock itself and a few red telephone booths like the ones you can only find in London that you see as soon as you cross the border, there is much more evidence to show that you're in British territory.

As soon as you cross the runway of the Gibraltar airport, (Yes, there is a runway. Yes, you cross it. So much for all those safety regulations at every other airport in every other part of the world) you enter the main square where almost every restaurant is serving fish and chips and know exactly what the tourists want as soon as they sit down. You hear a mix of English and Spanish and you will be spoken to in whichever language you prefer.

Then there are the tours. If you ever consider going to Gibraltar, A. You should. B. take the taxi tour. It's about 25 euros but it's so worth it! Our tour guide was awesome and answered all of the questions we had. Supposedly 80% of the people who are born and raised in Gibraltar stay on the rock. Also, when it comes time for the kids to go to college many of them go off to study in English universities. It seemed like such a bizarre city to me, but as the taxi wound higher and higher up, the rock got more and more bizarre. Not only was there a concert hall that was built into a cave in the middle of the rock, but there were monkeys!

The monkeys are typical of Gibraltar and everyone knows about them, but I don't think you realize how human-like and smart they are until you get there. They certainly cater to the tourists. You can feed them if you are with a tour guide but make sure you keep everything away from them. They will steal whatever they can get their hands on.

Whether it be walking through Gibraltar's World War II tunnels, eating fish and chips, being climbed on by a few monkeys, Gibraltar is worth the visit!