Experiencing History
During a two-week vacation in Spain 2016, I was able to visit many beautiful spots on the south coast of Spain including a day-trip to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula where I got an unexpected, on-site History 102 experience.
Arrived at the cave we could not believe our eyes when we saw the giant auditorium built into the huge limestone cave. According to our tour guide, there are several concerts in the cave every year.
After leaving the cave we went straight to the top of the mountain where several hundred monkeys live. As you can see some of these monkeys are very used to humans. Our guide brought some peanuts and lured the monkeys (that he knew by names) up to our heads if we wanted to. The monkeys were really warm and it felt pretty funny when they held on to my head with their small fingers.
Already experiencing one of the best days of my life I wanted to stop a place I saw earlier that day, which reminded me of something I learned in History 102 during the spring semester 2016. It was the Trafalgar cemetery where the remains of some who died of wounds at Gibraltar after the great battle Trafalgar were buried. In Dr. Joe Sirens class, we learned that in the battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 the British Lord Nelson defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships without loosing a single on of his twenty-seven ships. In the picture on the left, you can see me besides the statue of Lord Nelson in South Boston, Gibraltar. Ever since the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Nelson is considered a "National" hero of Gibraltar.
On the way back to Malaga, my friend and I reviewed the day and I came to the conclusion that I can take use of my knowledge from school way beyond the benefits of good grades at the end of each semester. I can implement the things I studied into my everyday life, improve my leadership skills through the increased knowledge of foreign cultures and lifestyles, and make even the best days a little better with the connection to something I studied at the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie.
The day started with a ninety-minute drive from my friend’s house in Marbella to the border of Gibraltar where we had to cross the runway of Gibraltar International Airport in order to access the city Gibraltar. We drove once around the whole half Island with a giant rock in the middle that we are to explore later that day until we parked the car near downtown Gibraltar. After eating some lunch in a small restaurant we walked towards the gondola that was supposed to bring us to the top of the famous monkey mountain. The queue at the entrance was so long that we had to wait half a day to get up the mountain. As we were debating what to do next a friendly Gibraltar native offered us the last two seats in his van that drives to the top of the mountain including a tourist guide and a visit to the famous St. Michael’s caves. We did not need to second guess when we hopped in the passenger seats of the van.