What language does the “Bus” qualify as??

Drinking while travelling is should only be acceptable, if you have nowhere else to go after. Thankfully, Foster’s marketing slogan is “Fosters is Australian for Beer”, however I think they should rename it to “Fosters is Australian for Budwiser”. An early morning in Gibraltar means that the buses start running from 7am and  getting around Gibraltar via their excellent bus system should be mandatory.

There are a number of great things about taking the bus in Gibraltar:

• You’re guaranteed to see someone twice or three times and you can make conversation on that topic alone.
• Native Gibraltareans seem to all know each. Obviously not surprising since the isthumus is 3.5km by 1.5km.
• It is incredibly efficient. Buses make their respective loops in 15 minutes
• It is a great deal : €1.90 for the entire day. Single fares are .80 cents, so a return trip and an unlimited daypass are almost the same price.
• No need for any walking or a tour bus. The local bus will take you almost everywhere you need to go, except up the rock. (I think this was a deliberate move on the part of the tour operators, since that would destroy their business)
• You get to hear conversations move back and forth between English and Spanish. It’s like watching a badly dubbed Bollywood movie, except with Spanish instead of Hindi
• People speak English, hence an English speaker can actually have a conversation. When you travel through Spain for a couple weeks without speaking English, you’re incredibly glad to be able to understand what is going on around you, without fumbling for rudimentary espanol words.
• If you make conversation on the bus, more likely than not, you might get to have lunch or dinner with a local, especially if you have a cool, melodious Trinidadian accent that you can produce on demand like a Barbary Ape for peanuts.

I personally think that just taking the 4 bus lines in Gibraltar is a tourist event in itself. The drivers are friendly and will stop the bus to walk around with you; if there is no one on the bus.

When I got to Europa Point, and it was just the bus driver and myself by the lighthouse and he just wanted to talk about Trinidad and Brian Lara … he was obviously a cricket fan. How great it was to be at the lighthouse, randomly talking to a Gibraltarean bus driver about Lara’s one legged pull shot – just brilliant I tell you!

Where else in the world would have bus stops called Frontier and Both Worlds but in Gibraltar?