No hablo espanol (i don't speak spanish)
followed closely by habla usted ingles (do you speak english) seems to be the only sentences i've said since we got to spain. I guess we have the brits to thank for creating a situation where you travel to a foreign country and expect them to speak English.
Little Britain
No visit to the costa del sol is complete without a trip to Gibraltar (nicknamed little britain) a british crown colony seized from the spaniards over 300 years ago.
You can tell the spaniards are still pissed about it as you have to go through "delays" at passport control to get into the colony.
Pic: The Rock of Gibraltar (seen from La linea)
The place is so small that the main road into the colony crosses over the airport runway (the road has to be closed whenever a plane lands)But i digress, after hearing the full history of Gibraltar you kind of feel sorry for the spaniards but then you realise that spain has done the same thing to Morocco.
Ceuta and Melilla are two spanish enclaves on the African continent and its pretty obvious they are part of Morocco (abi spain reach Africa??)
Pic: Airport runway (seen from the top of the Rock)
3 comments:
Hi
Gibraltar is not a Colony... and hasn't been since 1981! Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory.
The name "British Overseas Territory" was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, and replaced the name British dependent territory which was introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Before that, the territories were known as colonies or Crown colonies.
On perhaps a more irritating note... why express sympathy for Spain? After the Gibraltarians have suffered 11... or 12 sieges (depending on how one defines a siege) over the last 300 years... and including more recently, the closure of the frontier by Spain for the best part of 20 years from 1969 and having to suffer undue bullying and harassment on the part of Spain for the last 40 or so years... and ongoing (albeit relations are seemingly improving at present), don't you think Gibraltarians deserve, if not your support, a little more than your sympathising with Spain! What's there to sympathise? They're just bullys! In a democratic and unified Europe, do you think their continued actions against Gibraltar, just recently being the lynch pins in getting Gibraltar's Football Association barred from membership of UEFA... are justified or to be sympathised with??
Anyone interested in learning more about Gibraltar can do so here:
http://www.gibraltarnewsonline.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar
Saludos! :mrgreen:
thanks cybernest for your comments and the correction i wasn't aware there was any difference between a "british overseas territory" and a "crown colony".
Despite your comments I stand by my original statement. My sympathy lies with the original inhabitants who were driven out and eventually settled in a nearby town in Spain when the English and Dutch armies invaded in 1704. Spain may have resorted to a lot of bullying tactics (and sieges) to get Gibraltar back but can you blame them considering the dubious way in which the british empire got the colony.
Gibraltar is British with every single grain of sand to the top of the rock, do not meddle with that status at all, regardless of who is pissed off.
We would send men to fight to the death to keep that place just as we did for the Falklands.
Your comments can awaken very nationalistic tendencies that could put liberals in camp with the ultra right wing.
Anyway, everyone understands English, just speak very slowly and very loudly with a bit of arm flapping and gesticulations, eventually the whole village comes out to see the clown and you get applause for all your labours.
Sorry, you did not get what you wanted.
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