31.

Yesterday was my 31st. Which is very odd, because inside my head and I guess my heart, I still feel like I'm 16....without all the hateful things that come along with being 16...like high school, acne, and a string of terrible boyfriends minus one or two.

I should say this though...yesterday when we were running to catch our tour bus before it left us in Gibraltar...I was heaving like a fifty year old and having chest pains! WTF is that about? Not enough power yoga lately, that's what.

So we spent the day yesterday amongst the monkeys and regular folks of Gibraltar...a British territory across the street from Spain, known as "The End of Europe". I'm going to go into a bit of Gibraltar history here, b/c I knew noting about it except that John married Yoko there when the FBI announced him as a Communist/Terrorist threat to society. Poor guy wasn't allowed to travel back home to England to marry so he somehow made it to Gibraltar to get the deed done.

Right. So before Colombus sailed in 1492, everyone thought that the world ended at the Rock. It's also where the Atlantic meets the Med. It now has a population of 30,000...which consists of Jews, Muslims, Brits, Spaniards, and Italians. It has heavy Moorish influences since it's right across the way from Tangiers....mosques as well as churches and synagouges. (did i spell that right?) Not mention a family of 300 monkeys that live among the masses as neighbors. If you need to go to hospital for any reason, you may be sharing your room with a sick monkey seeing as the hospital on the Rock also cares for them as well.

Great shopping. Everything is tax free, so the folks on the tour were snatching up tobacco and booze like crazy people. The funny thing is, these booze hounds chewing on cancer sticks were all elderly. I think they hopped on the tour just for these goodies. Anyway, I snatched something shiny, myself. A nice little blingy, half priced Birthday gift from me to me.

All in all, Gibraltar is a mix of New Orleans and Bermuda. If I ever come back to this part of the Continent again, I would prefer to stay there than anywhere else in Spain...er Britain...whatever. Again, pics to follow soon...including one with a monkey reaching out and resting his leg on my shoulder and the skull of a neanderthal preserved inside the Rock. Pretty neat..as my dad would say.