Chapter 13: Real Life

The following day, I had no university commitments, so I was looking forward to spending a day being shown around Gibraltar, by Mum and Nick. Unfortunately I got a taste of the awkwardness of real life in Gibraltar instead!

Not the best welcome!

The plan was to hand in my residence permit application form, and bus pass application first, then see the sights. So Mum, Nick and I headed out to the Civil Status and Registration Office on Secretary's Lane, the address on the application form. However, after waiting in a long queue at what I thought was the right office, it turned out I was at the wrong office, and that there was another office, round the corner on Secretary's Lane, which was the office I needed to hand my forms into. Who knew? After waiting in another long queue, I got to the counter, only to be told I couldn't apply for a residence permit without proof of health insurance. I explained that I had actually paid for the health insurance several weeks previously, but only received the application form yesterday. It did no good, Gibraltarian bureaucracy won't be reasoned with. So I would have to come back once I had my health insurance confirmation. At the time of writing I've handed all the paperwork in, but I am still waiting on the residence permit. Things move fast here!

The office round the corner.

With over half the morning gone and nothing to show for it, I decided to try my luck with the bus pass application. Feeling bad for dragging Mum and Nick on this fruitless endeavour, I left them to meet a friend of Nick's and headed to the office myself. Finding the office was like finding a needle in a haystack. I went to 75 Queensway, the address on the application. But I couldn't see the office. I was in an industrial estate with garages and car show rooms. I wondered if the address on the form was wrong. I saw a girl wandering about looking lost, and figuring she might be a student, I asked if she knew where the bus office was. She said she had been trying to find it for the last 2 hours. We walked on a bit, and she told me her name was Zoe, and she was from America. By this stage we had gone way past where I expected the office to be, so I asked someone working on a construction site ahead. He pointed to a metal shack with a grey corrugated roof. Apparently the office was in this building, which was a bus depot. As we got closer we could just see a bus inside. The office was round the side of the building. Hardly obvious though! I let Zoe go first while I searched for the passport photo I needed for the application. When it was my turn, the old guy at the widow processed my application and asked for £20 to pay for the pass. This was a real bargain for a year's bus pass. £20 wouldn't even get you a bus pass for a month in Edinburgh. However, the joy started to fade when he told me I needed to pay in cash. This wasn't stated anywhere on the form, so I was expecting to pay by card. So I now had to go in search of a cash machine. It was just then that my Mum called. They weren't meeting Nick's friend after all that day, and were waiting for me at the start of Queensway. I was therefore able to borrow £20 cash from them, head back to the depot and claim my bus pass. It was by now lunch time, so we headed to a restaurant at the bottom of Main Street, where I could admire my bus pass. At least the morning had achieved something!

My bus pass!

After lunch I still had a couple more chores to do. The first was to get a Gibraltar sim card for my phone. This I obtained from Gibtelecom, who describe themselves as Gibraltar's leading telecommunications provider. Basically a combination of Vodaphone, Sky and Virgin Media rolled into one. The second chore was finding the supermarket, which happened to be Morrisons (again with the British connection). On the way to Morrisons, Mum and Nick were able to show me one of the sights, 'Edinburgh Estate'. It was basically a block of flats, but made me feel home away from home.

Me and Nick at Edinburgh Estate.

So by mid afternoon I had my bus pass, a Gib sim card, and I knew where the supermarket was, but it had all took longer, and was more awkward, than I had planned. I was also no further forward on the crucial residency permit, which I needed to import my car. Mum and Nick asked if I wanted to do any tourist stuff now my chores were out of the way. Unfortunately I still had to go back to the university to hand in my health insurance form, which I had now been advised I could hand in there. Not exactly the day I had planned, but just a taste of the complexities of life in Gibraltar that awaited me!

No visiting the monkeys for me today.