A Day in the Life...: ALICANTE

RyanAir.

Alicante.

Three hotels in three nights.

Mediterranean Sea.

Rain and Shine.

Santa Barbara Castle.

Sexos.

Tapas and Sangria.

RyanAir.

Sevilla.

If you read between the lines, this basically sums up my weekend vacation to Alicante, Spain. Alicante is located on the east coast of Spain with its coast being the Mediterranean Sea! This was a perfect weekend to travel because we didn’t have classes from Friday to Wednesday! My friend Danielle and I wanted to get away, but still keep in mind a reasonable budget which is why we chose to stay within Spain…and a great choice that was.

We left Friday afternoon, flying out on RyanAir. Let’s just say the airport layout and process of getting on the plane was completely chaotic! First of all, there were no seats while we waited at the gate…we sat on a window ledge. As soon as the gate agent came, I would have thought the flood was coming with how fast everyone ran in line! I later found out that there were no assigned seats on this airline, so the moment you get on the plane you find an open seat and sit down! That would explain the mad rush! Danielle and I were just hoping to sit by each other. There were so many people and I couldn’t possibly imagine how we would all fit! To add to this new experience, we legit walked out onto the tarmac to get on the plane and climbed the stairs just as they do in the movies…well, minus the red carpet! We found our seats and were off. It was quite a rough flight, but after only an hour we arrived.

For some reason there were no buses to our hostel so we had to take a taxi. As we were driving the taxi driver said that we were in the industrial part of town, not touristy at all, and far from the beaches and city center! Great! Just what we wanted to hear since the internet stated exactly the opposite. Oh and due to being soooo far out of town, the taxi rate skyrocketed; good thing I can get my way and I talked him down! The first thing I asked when we checked in was if we were obligated to pay for all three nights…thank goodness NO, only the first night. With that in mind we decided to stick it out for the first night and take the bus into town to look for other hotels. The catch was we only had two hours before the last bus came back to our hostel from town! MISSION 1: Look for a new hotel! We went to about six hotels to get prices and see if they had a room for both Saturday and Sunday nights. Most of them only had one or the other, so we booked one night at one hotel and the other at another, hence three hotels in three nights! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The city was so wonderful, lots of shops, restaurants and a 10 minute walk from the beach! It was a tease because we didn’t want to leave!

On Saturday morning we got up at 7:30AM (I know…so early for a weekend to sleep in) because we wanted to eat breakfast and get the heck out of there! We got into town at 9AM, checked into our hotel, changed, and headed for the beach on the MEDITERRANEAN SEA! Not many people can say they have been there, let alone swim in the Sea. It was such a gorgeous day! Not too hot, a little breeze, and a blazing sun! What more could two beach-lovers ask for! We laid on the beach for almost 8 hours…needless to say, I enhanced my “Spanish-color” even more J That evening we walked around town, grabbed some grub, and then it rained gatos y perros (cats and dogs)! We went back to our hotel and just hung out and prayed for no rain on Sunday because we wanted to hike up to the castle and see the Roman Ruins.

Sunday morning. No rain, and a sun trying to peak through the clouds. Sounds like a perfect day to go on an extensive up-hill hike! It probably took us 45 minutes to get to the top of the Santa Barbara Castle, but once we did the view was phenomenal! Most of the castles have been blending together in my mind, but this one stood out so much more. It overlooked both the city and the sea. I could really imagine the Roman soldiers in combat because the weaponry was still in place! It was also gigantic… It seemed like there were walk ways in every direction, so we spent hours up there exploring. On the way down it started sprinkling, but by the time we reached the bottom, the sun was out and we decided to go change into our swimsuits for a couple hours. Well, to our luck, we got to the beach, the clouds hovered again and it started raining. To utilize our evening, we went to see a Spanish theater production called Sexos. We figured the price was right and it would be a good experience of the Spanish theater culture! Even though I didn’t understand it completely, I understood the main ideas and the story behind each of the five characters. Basically it was about their sexual frustrations and how one of the girls basically slept around, another was sterile, and the last woman’s biological clock was ticking so she was a bit psychotic…well and the two guys…typical…I’m sure you can figure out their frustrations! After the play, Danielle and I went out for tapas (appetizers) and Sangria! One more night and then on the plane back to Sevilla.

Monday morning we packed, ate breakfast and headed to the airport! I was so excited to get home and sleep in my own bed. I actually missed my senora too because she is the closest thing I have to family while I am here. Once again, so much stress at the airport! After waiting like 3 hours, having to change gates, and boarding the plane, the airline decides to inform us we would have to wait over an hour to take off due to the air traffic controllers. You have got to be kidding. There is no sense of time here whatsoever. After a while we took off and I got back to my house at 5:ooPM. I spent the night hanging out with Senora, telling her about my trip, and doing homework. I think she was just as excited to see me as I was to see her!

Today, I have been doing homework all day because I have a few big projects due this week. We have class this Friday to make up for no class yesterday, so I wanted to get ahead and be able to enjoy my week.

All-in-all, my vacation was fabulous and honestly, without the comical setbacks in between, there would be nothing exciting to share about the trip! Disfrutan mis fotos (Enjoy my pictures)!