Day 8: Gibraltar

Land!  We're not walking on it yet but at least it's in sight.  This afternoon we sailed through the busy passage of water separating Africa and Europe that leads into the Mediterranean.  I knew it would happen sometime in the afternoon but had a precious (and very difficult to get) time slot at the gym around the expected arrival time.  So I proceeded to work out with ears open and the the camera ready to go.  Sure enough the announcement came and I was able to run off to check out the sights.  It was pretty overcast and hideously windy so the visibility wasn't great but you could see the two continents as we passed through the 8 mile wide straight.  Even with some of the fog, the famous Rock of Gibraltar was clear as we sailed by.  We're currently in the Mediterranean a few miles off the Spanish coastline and slated to arrive in Barcelona tomorrow night.

We had some really good pre-port sessions tonight including a talk by a Spanish college student and some safety tips by a ex-LAPD detective who works for UVA and has been around the world a few times.  Both had some interesting and helpful information.  Tomorrow is actually the last day of class for almost two weeks.  There's obviously no class in port and the one travel day to Italy is a "study day."  It's going to be pretty tough to focus again after we leave Naples.

That's all for now, I have an exam in Abnormal Psych tomorrow so I should probably put in some study time.