Gibraltar, that popular destination where Europe almost touches Africa, the entry point to the Mediterranean Sea, place of wonderful history and cultures and that has never been part of my travelling wishes for some unknown reason.
Still, here we are for the second time this year both times for similar reasons - after all this is the closest/easiest non-Schengen destination from Lisbon.
The first time we only spent one night as it was all we needed to clear the log of our sailing yacht The Dream after the purchase and reflagging process.
This time we are looking at maybe a month or so as we wait to get some new equipment and upgrades delivered at more competitive prices.
We've been here for a week now but haven't really ventured out much to explore the town, guess we are enjoying our new home and at the same time still tidying up all our belongings in the most advanced level of Tetris Pro than anyone can possibly imagine. Besides preparing for the new items to come on board.
During the time we've been here, we already found some idiosyncrasies related to languages and nationalities. Often people approach me in Spanish asking if they can pet Ella or telling me how pretty she is when they're clearly British. They assume my olive skin tone and dark hair identify me as Spanish.
Other times while I'm speaking with them in English (no particular accent, my English sounds very international) they switch to Spanish to comment something with somebody else assuming I don't speak it or understand, because they can clearly identify I'm not British but can't pinpoint where my accent is from, and it doesn't sound like a South European speaking English.
I find it funny since all the comments are actually quite positive and always related with Ella, of how cute and gentle she is etc. Nothing negative about it, just find interesting these assumptions Gibraltarians make about us.
This relationship between their Spanish/British identity is quite interesting considering how proud they are of being part of the UK and not Spain, having big celebrations coming up in a few days, like their "national" day and the celebration of the 50th Anniversary Referendum where Gibraltarians voted in favour of keeping their British status and rejected a possible Spanish sovereignty.
But yet so much in them is very strongly influenced by Spain, like the food, the language of comfort when in front of strangers...
Quite an interesting social environment that can only be perceived after a few days in the city.
***In the spirit of sharing our dreams and experiences we have shared this blog post in the NOFOREIGNLAND.COM website sailors community.
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