Gibraltar:
We have a confession to make. We overstayed our welcome. We are not proud of this, but it happened and we were prepared for the consequences.
The Rock of Gibraltar
Javier and I did not do our homework when it came to traveling in Europe. I had been to several countries before, but never any in Europe. Javier had been to Europe with his Peruvian passport, which required a visa for the Schengen zone, but since he was traveling with his US passport, he didn’t realize some of the same rules apply. US citizens do not need a visa to visit the Schengen zone, however, the maximum number of days allowed to stay in the zone remain the same (90 days in a 6 month period). I have never even heard of the word Schengen until I was in Europe for a few months. We entered in Ireland, which clearly stated that we had 90 days to remain in their country. Just about every other country I have visited also has the same rules. I had no idea that almost an entire continent had the same rule. By the time we realized this problem, it was too late. We hadn’t overstayed yet, but we had to make a decision; either leave and be compliant, or stay the course and take our chances…it was as simple as that. We weighed the consequences, which mostly included a fine, and in some extreme cases, a ban from the Schengen zone for 1-3 years. We didn’t have much time to decide, so we tried, and failed to extend our stay. Get this…if we were from a country that required a visa to enter, we could have extended that visa, but because we don’t require a visa to enter, there is nothing to extend. In reading profusely online and speaking with several embassies, a long-term visa needs to be obtained from your home country, and most will not give this long-term visa for tourism. We tried to learn as much online as possible, and what we found was that there are many Americans in the same position as us. Even our friends that we met in Paris had overstayed by a week or so. We tried to find somewhere that explained the possible penalties we could face, and there are no universal rules. Every country can do whatever they want. It’s very unclear. But the bottom line is, rules are rules, and even though it was not intentional on our part, we still broke those rules. Luckily for us, nothing happened and we were able to exit without any problems. And thus begins our Gibraltar excursion.
I won!!
I was paranoid about leaving via the airport. All of the airport stories ended badly. I told Javier I didn’t want to take any chances. Javier was the opposite. He thought we would be able to walk right through with no problems. Since I had spent several sleepless nights researching this, and Javier had not…I won.
We took the train from Granada to Algeciras, a port city in southern Spain. From there we hopped on a bus and made the 45minute ride to La Linea de Concepcion. At passport control, there were two very friendly and happy officers.
Javier crossing the Border.
They passed us through with a few jokes and didn’t make a move to stamp our passports. They told us it wasn’t necessary, but we asked them to anyway. They gladly obliged, which I was glad for because it could have caused problems when we were trying to exit, but more on that later. From there we walked into Gibraltar, via a working airfield.
Crossing the border.
Thankfully, there were no planes coming or going so it was an uneventful crossing. We were relieved, and happily walked to the apartment we would be staying in for the next couple of nights. WE MADE IT!
We had tried to book our ferry tickets online, but were unable to. We were a little worried that by the time we arrived to Gibraltar, they may be sold out. Well, no need to fear. Even though the ferry only leaves from Gibraltar once a week, there were hardly any people on board. The night of our arrival, we walked to the ferry station, only to be told that the tickets were sold about a block from where we were staying, and wouldn’t be opened until the next morning. Fair enough.
The first telephone booth.
Javier and I both commented on how surprised we were by Gibraltar. We assumed it would feel like another Spanish city since we had read that most of the people who work in Gibraltar live in Spain. Stepping into Gibraltar was like going straight back to the UK. Everything felt British- from the shops to the trashcans. The only difference…they drove on the right side of the street. We automatically felt safer. It was kind of weird.
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Our enchantment was Gibraltar ended at our first meal- those darn pounds haunting us again. But I have to admit. It was nice to eat fish and chips again 🙂
View from the Mediterranean steps
We arrived on a Wednesday and had until Friday night to catch the ferry. On Thursday, after purchasing our ferry tickets, we went for a little hike up the Rock of Gibraltar. It was really warm compared to Granada, but a welcomed change. We took the Mediterranean Steps up to the top. It was nice to be hiking again. Once there, we decided to walk across and down the other side. As we were crossing, we ran into some monkeys on the road. One was fairly big, and the other just slightly smaller. We were too nervous to walk by them, so we waited until some other people arrived and we walked together.
More monkeys down there.
We can admit…we were afraid of the monkeys. The walk down included a long, single-lane staircase with warning signs, “Beware of aggressive monkeys.” Great. You will be happy to know that we safely made our way to the bottom of the rock unharmed by the local wildlife.
On our walk home, i felt the sudden urge to return to my UK staple diet of tea and scones, so that’s exactly what we did! Javier found some police officers and asked them where we could find our snack, and they pointed us in the direction of a lovely little place. The tea was good, the scones even better, and it didn’t break our bank!
Gibraltar
The days were warm in Gibraltar, but the nights were flat out cold. We were staying in this apartment that advertised heating. Well, they didn’t exactly lie, but they had one small portable heater for the entire place. There was a soccer game on that Javier wanted to watch, and we had to decide whether we would be nice a warm during the game, but freeze when we went to bed, or freeze while watching the game, and return to a toasty room. We opted for option 1, and went to bed with our teeth chattering- at least until our little heater kicked in.
Fish and chips. Gibraltar.
Our ferry didn’t leave until 7pm, and our host needed us to vacate by 11am, so we had the entire day with all our stuff and no home. So, we did the most logical thing, we went back to the tea shop! We parked our huge backpacks and stayed there for about 5 hours, eating and drinking the whole time. When it was time to go, we walked to the ferry, stopping for a quick durum dinner, and waited with all the Moroccans for the ferry. Yes, we were only only odd men out. Interesting side note…when we arrived at the terminal, there was a small group of Moroccans loading their things on the X-ray belt and walking through the metal detector. We started making our way there and were stopped by two guards who asked to see our passports. They checked for our entry stamp, (good thing we insisted) and walked through a separate hallway to the waiting area. No X-ray. No metal detector. As we sat and waited, I watched everyone else go through the same security procedure as the first group. We were the only ones who didn’t have to…Very interesting.
Monkeys
Our crossing was uneventful. When we were looking for seats, I saw a man in the corner and it looked like he was stretching. I thought, well, that’s interesting. I looked around and saw several men all standing and bowing while facing the same direction. Duh…it was sunset and they were all praying…NOT stretching. We arrived in Tangier around 9pm. They funneled us into a single-file line to check passport stamps- we read that if you didn’t get your entry stamp while on the ferry, they would send you back, and good luck finding someone available! We were loaded onto a shuttle bus and taken to the terminal. Our experience in the ferry terminal was nerve racking to say the least, but that’s another story for another day.
To see more pictures of Gibraltar, click HERE.