lot commute to Gib and feasible, crossing the border every day my need to here some think i pick up some where eles
In a nutshell, the advantages are:
Great location if you?re interested in Andalusian (inland Andalusia) and/or North African culture, and like being near the sea. However, be prepared to take advantage of all the benefits life near the ocean can afford, e.g. enrol in a yacht master?s and/or diving course (however, quite a few nuclear submarines have probed the waters here, so you might grow a third eye in the process!), buy a canoe and get paddling, etc., otherwise you?ll be bored out of your brains! It?s best to have a car rather than using unreliable, local transport to visit such great cities as Seville, Granada, Cordoba, etc.
Weather is generally mild in comparison to the UK, but don?t come expecting radiant sunshine and hot weather year round. Gibraltar is often cloudy, rainy, and only warm/hot for about five months of the year (May-October).
Gibraltar is as safe as houses, unlike La L?nea (Gibraltar?s immediate neighbour Spanish side). Even as a woman, you can roam the streets at four in the morning, and nothing will happen to you, unless you?re extremely unlucky.
Gibraltar is bilingual. However, bear in mind that whilst Gibraltarians are schooled in English, they prefer to converse in Spanish. Therefore, you?re more likely to hear ?patatas fritas? on the street than ?chips?, even though signs are in English.
The disadvantages:
Employment in Gibraltar, and along the entire Costa del Sol, is limited for the natives, let alone foreigners who don?t speak Spanish. As a general rule, and due to my own personal experience and the experiences of those I?ve met in Gibraltar, the recruitment agencies here are a waste of space. A common practice amongst these agencies is to advertise jobs that don?t even exist, just to make the purpose of their existence seem purposeful or to market the region as prosperous and especially industrious. It isn?t. Apply to companies directly. Bear in mind that if you want varied and meaningful employment, Gibraltar, and this region in general, should not be considered. Most jobs are occupied, naturally, by Gibraltarians, which is how it should be. However, this means that it is often hard, albeit impossible, to get those more coveted roles due to Gibraltar?s insular, exclusive nature. Your best bet as a foreigner, and especially if you don?t speak Spanish, is to apply directly at the many online gaming companies, such as Ladbrokes, Party Gaming, etc. The pay will not be particularly good, and the employment monotonous and dull; think of customer service and shift work, which really screws with any kind of social life of which you might have dreamt.
This region, with few exceptions (I?m not, of course, referring to Seville, Granada and the like), is bereft of culture. Basically, one can ?do? Gibraltar in a day. There are theatres, but no decent amateur dramatics societies, and no theatrical troupes of any repute visit this region. There is one museum. Enough said. Locals put on the occasional art displays, but for a culture vulture, these are small and largely disappointing. After you?ve been to the cinema, the bowling alley, played table tennis at the local community centre, you?d better hope you have your yacht master?s to save you from despair! Bear in mind, it?s not really feasible to water ski for seven months of the year, and you need to make friends with people who have boats in order to gain access to them.
The cost of living in Gibraltar can sometimes be much more exorbitant than even the UK. As salaries are not great, most people will have to resort to living in the incredibly unattractive commuter town of La L?nea de la Concepci?n. Speaking as someone who, for the most part, loves Spain and is bilingual, La L?nea is an unfriendly, poor, unsafe (for foreigners and Gibraltarians) and backward backwater. There will be some expats for whom La L?nea is safe and nice enough, but for the rest of the discerning populace, people live there because they have little choice. Living further up the coast makes having your own transport indispensable. The Costa del Sol (with few exceptions, such as Malaga) is made up of soulless, high rise apartment blocks wherein live plenty of expats of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps fame; the sort who should never have been let out of the UK in the first place. If you?re in your twenties and thirties, quite well educated, and more quirky than the average, you?ll be bored beyond reason. Go to Seville, Barcelona, Granada or Cordoba to live. Expats here (a minority are of a pleasant mixed bunch), are, in the main, older than the average expat residing in Spanish cities; married with kids; less well educated than your average expat, love the Spanish weather and sadly little else, and to whom ?the Prado? means some sort of Spanish Morris dance. Okay, maybe this is a tad snotty, but you get my drift. Essentially, these expats are not here to learn Spanish and/or anything about the Hispanic culture, look with disdain upon the immigrants back home, whilst forming their own sullen and insular little Brit ghettos over here. Hence, anyone who thinks assimilation is a little more than creating exactly the same kind of lifestyle as you did or didn?t enjoy back home, should look to emigrate elsewhere. If living along the coast, commuting to Gibraltar for work, although hundreds do it, is time consuming and tiring. If you?re doing shift work, magnify this scenario several times. The sweet guards at the Gibraltar/Spain border regularly stage little politically/racially-motivated, throwing toys out the pram tantrums, which mean several hour long delays at the border. If working a 10 hour shift in Gibraltar and residing in Spain, you might be wondering why you didn?t take that high paying job in London.
