Gibraltar - a weird but cool British outpost in southern Spain

We spent a day visiting Gibraltar, a 30 minute drive from the house we rented in Tarifa, at the southern tip of Spain. In fact, Gibraltar is a 2.5 square mile rock outcropping at the southern tip of Europe. It's also oddly British - a fact that still causes some tension between Britain and Spain. At the rock of Gibraltar, Morocco is only 10 km away and is clearly visible across the Strait of Gibraltar, an obviously important and highly trafficked shipping channel for any boats leaving the Mediterranean and heading eastwards.

Gibraltar had three major highlights.

The first was the British atmosphere. While Spain has been fantastic, it was fun having a day long escape. We spent much of it eating amazing fish and chips and watching the final round of the British Open in an English pub. We also walked around a little bit down the small but British feeling town, complete with classic red English phone booths. Finally, there were tons of red-faced Brits speaking the Queen's English.

The second highlight were the macaques - the only wild primates in Europe. About 300 macaques, basically tailless apes that look like monkeys, roam in five tribes around the rock of Gibraltar. They are very used to human tourists though, and enjoyed running all around and over our cars, grabbing anything they could find (including a bathing suit out of the trunk), and generally entertaining us.

Finally, the rock of Gibraltar and the views were pretty cool. Most people know the rock from the Prudential advertisements. It is both imposing in itself and also has really cool views back towards Spain and also across the water towards Morocco. It feels a lot like the Cape of Good Hope to me, with a long high rock outcropping in a narrow peninsula out into the water. We finished the day with a tricky scramble up the rock to the highest point in Gibraltar, which would have been much easier in shoes instead of flimsy flip-flops.

Pamplona

The San Fermin festival in Pamplona was definitely my most memorable experience from the summer in Spain. Commonly known as “the running of the bulls”, San Fermin is one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed. Tens of thousands of tourists descend on Pamplona for a week every July for an incredible 24/7 party. Every morning at 8am, 12 bulls are released and hundreds of runners chase (and are chased) by the bulls through town on the way to the stadium. The race was much faster than I expected (bulls are fast – the race only lasts like 3 minutes!) but the surrounding fiesta goes on non-stop.

I went with 7 friends for a day and a night in Pamplona. We arrived just in time for the afternoon bullfight. The bullfight was a mix of enchanting and disgusting, with matadors elegantly performing an ancient ritualistic dance with the bulls, but also killing them in a gory mess that concludes with a stab to the head and horses dragging a dead bull covered in blood out of the ring. The packed crowd of Spaniards loved it though. An interesting tradition is the cutting of the ear. If the crowd thinks that the matador did a particularly good job, they call for him to receive the ear of the bull as a reward. A member of the royal family (of what family, I’m not sure) sits in the royal box. Like a scene straight out of Gladiator, he listens to the roar of the crowd after the fight, and raises his handkerchief if he determines the matador should receive the ear. We saw one granted in the six bullfights of the night.

After the bullfight, we reveled in the streets, parading around, snacking on tapas, and popping in and out of little bars. The scene was smelly, wine-soaked, and energetic, as a number of tourists come to town for the week and just nap in the park whenever they must before jumping back into the fiesta. The fiesta itself is aided by two surprisingly good Spanish drinks – the callemocho and tinto de verano – which are red wine mixed with coca-cola and red wine mixed with a Spanish drink kind of like 7-up.

The actual running of the bulls was quite a scene as well. Part or our group ran and part watched from balconies or wherever they could find a view. I was torn between running and watching but after a twenty-something Californian was gored and needed extensive surgery the day before we arrived, I opted for the balcony. I think it turned out to be a good choice. To run, you really need to scout out the section of the run you want to do ahead of time and prepare some escape options. Having seen it once, I am sure that I could do it. But running on your first day there is a huge mistake, according to both my Spanish friends who have been and having seen the race I would agree. The biggest risk in the race is not really the bulls but that you fall and get trampled, first by the crowd of runners (who will NOT stop to help you up) and then by some angry running bulls.

The runners are a mix of young European and American travelers who want to have an adventure and generally don’t know what they are doing and a bunch of experienced locals who not only want to say they ran with the bulls but who actually want to run as close to the bulls as they can for as long as they can. In my photo below from taken from our balcony, you can actually see one of the runners reaching out and touching a bull. Crazy. But an amazingly fun couple days.

Bullfight

Running with the bulls
The running begins
Fellow spectators
Even we got in the bullfighting act

Montenegro - Croatia for Russians

Montenegro felt a lot like a Russian version of Croatia. Slightly different food, different writing on the signs, and all the tourists clearly came from the East, not Western Europe. It all combined to give it a bit of a more rugged feel. The country's slogan is "Montenegro - Wild Beauty" and it seems pretty accurate to me.

We spent a few days at the beach near Budva. Budva had yet another cool Stari Grad. It was one of the smaller and cozier ones we had been too, but after 3 old cities in Croatia we didn't spend too much time there. We spent a lot of time on the beach. But the highlight of the trip was definitely the day we spent in and around Kotor.

Kotor is a beautiful town set on the edge of Europe's southernmost fjord (see below). It was a really cool natural setting, with mountain walls rising up over a crystal blue inlet of water. We hiked up for a few hours and found our way to the top of an old fort that overlooked the whole scene and spent some time chilling with a couple bird, surveying the bay.

Montenegro concluded our excellent adventures in the Balkans. And after waiting through an endlessly long customs customs that nearly made us miss our flight, we headed off to Spain for the second leg of the summer.

View of Kotor

Sun peeks through city (not my underwear drying on the clothesline)

Kotor old town

Kotor bay

Croatian beach time

Hvar was amazing. It was an idyllic, beautiful paradise of an island. Amazing scenery, buildings, and everything else. We also had no less than 4 of the best meals I have ever had - amazing italian seafood mostly - and took a few hikes to remote beach/coves, including one that culminated in a beautiful one man restaurant called Robinsons that was amazing.

But much like people do not like to hear stories about how cute other peoples pets are, I will not spend much time describing our awesome island beach vacation. I will just say that it was fantastic and the photos barely capture it.

After 3 days in Hvar, we took a boat back to the mainland and a bus all the way to the southern tip of Croatia to Dubrovnik. This old walled city was really cool, but a little over-run with tourists. The old town had really cool walls all around it which you could climb up then hike around to get great views of the city.

Instead of getting a hotel in Dubrovnik we ended up renting a Sobe, or private accommodation, from a nice Croatian couple Bozo and Rada. We rented an apartment in a 400 year old building that had been in their family for generations. Their kids had grown up though, so Bozo and Rada had just finished renovating their apartment for renters. It was really cool being able to stay in a unique place in the heart of the old town.

Despite the daytime crowds (nothing like Venice, but after Hvar almost anything would have seemed too crowded), Dubrovnik was pretty great. And while we have now definitely seen a number of Stari Grads (old town) this trip, Dubrovnik was probably my favorite. We watched an outdoor movie that was projected on the old city wall right across the street from our house. We went to Lokrum island (about 10 minutes away) for some more beach time, and generally enjoyed wandering around, stopping in shops and cafes, and taking in the views from the city walls.

Then, after two great days in Dubrovnik, we headed even further south into Montenegro.

Update after Hvar

Croatia continues to amaze. Hvar was incredibly beautiful and one of the most fun and interesting beach towns I have ever seen. We left by ferry this morning and got to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia earlier today. It is also incredibly scenic. In lieu of a further update, here are some photo highlights from the past few weeks.