My EVS in Andalusia 18

In the morning of the 22nd of April, after a whole farewell night of dancing in an Irish pub with all participants, and only two hours of sleep, I took a bus to Gibraltar. After the presence of so many people around me for two weeks, it felt wonderfully calming to travel by my own.                              

Gibraltar put me under its spell from the first moment on. It really is probably the most British part of Britain in this world, and certainly the sunniest! I crossed the (honestly very lousy) passport controls and the airport runway to get to the town centre, then bought myself a giant mint-chocolate milkshake and started sipping whilst strolling around the lively streets and squares. It was impossible not to notice the red phone cells and letter boxes, double-decker buses, thousands of Shippis and restaurants offering “Full English Breakfast”. After my sweet refreshment, and against the recommendation of the lady in the tourist information to take the cable car, I decided on walking up the rock by foot, carrying my heavy rucksack and bag with me. (There were no lockers to be found anywhere). On my way up, I met a bunch of helpful English guys showing me the way. The view was simply breath-taking, green Mediterranean landscape, shiny blue water reflecting the blue sky, and on the other side…another continent: Africa.                                                                                                              

I spent almost four hours on the mountain, feeling completely happy, making the acquaintance of rather naughty monkeys, not wanting to climb on my arm for a proper selfie, but trying to open my rucksack instead in order to steal things from me.

In the evening I went to my Couchsurfing accommodation on the other side of the border in La Linea de la Concepción, were I spent a couple of hours chatting about politics and history with my host, before going to sleep on a (very short) sofa. The next morning, I went to the beach in La Linea to have a better view on the rock and again over the border to enjoy another Milkshake (with yummy Snickers bar flavour). This time, at least half of the people in the street were Jewish, making me wonder if there was a special occasion or holiday for them. In the afternoon, I took a bus to Tarifa, the famous kite surfing paradise.

Tarifa is a picturesque white town with many narrow streets full of tapas bars and a castle which I was lucky to visit for free that day. In the hostel I discovered to be the only guest, living together only with a girl from the Netherlands, a boy from Italy and a boy from Brazil, all volunteering at the place. We spent a nice evening together, talking about our volunteering experiences and plans. The following day, I went to the beach, ambling along the coastline for about two hours, reaching an animated campsite. The weather, foggy in the morning, cleared up and the sun got stronger and stronger, leaving me a strong sunburn on the legs. I stayed near the campsite all day, reading, eating ready-made super-marked salad and strawberries, swimming in the cold water and watching the kite surfers flying over the waves.

On my way back I suddenly found myself faced by a deep tide-way that had not been there before. Surrounded by water the only way was to hold my bag (with phone and e-book) up in the air and start walking straight through the tide-way. The water went up to my chest, but as the the current was not very strong, I fortunately made it to the other side without problems. The two boys swimming in the tide-way started laughing at me when I hurried back to the hostel, soaked to the bones.

The following day, I went along the beach in direction of the town and took pictures of the crystal-clear water and the snow-white sand of the beach. In the afternoon, I took a bus back to Malaga, in order to meet a dear person I spent a couple of more days with.

During the time I was not travelling, here in Purchena, we did obviously continue our workshops, Zumba, Yoga, English classes, having more contact with the two local schools now. Before the Easter holidays we organized the last school day with sport activities in the Gym. Another day we painted the children´s faces like Miguel de Cervantes´ Don Quixote, with different types of beards. We made presentations about our countries and famous people of our countries, did an Origami workshop and will have more projects soon.    

I am also still playing Padel (like Squash) twice a week, playing in a rock band with my violin, reading and drawing a lot.

At the end of this week, I will fly to England and Scotland, finally meeting my beloved friends over there again. You cannot guess how excited I am already!