Day 33 & 34 - Alicante, Spain

Alicante. what a perfect day on saturday. i got up at about 9AM, and took the best shower of my life. a real shower in a real bathtub and the water pressure was unbelieveable. conversely, my shower in the moroccan paradise is just a corner of the bathroom curtained off, and the shower head is at stomache level. so you really can't just stand under the water and relax. you have to worry about flooding the bathroom.

aahhh back to the shower. loving it. get dressed. sqin jeans and high boots of course, the european staples. black tshirt with a green wrap shirt. sunglasses. first time i've worn sunglasses since i got here. eat a granola bar i had from my purse. don't bother to dry my hair. head outside armed with my map, my camera, a plan for the day, but clearly left my sense of direction at home. my first stop was to the Castillo Santa Barbara, the old military fort that overlooks the city. you can see it from miles away. its only about 1KM from my hotel, walking all on city streets. but i can't find the darn entrance and it takes me about 1.5 hours to actually get there. but its ok, because on the way i get to explore the city, walk along the beach, and i find out about a big parade tonight. lucky for me!!

on my way to Castillo SB, i make my initial observations about Alicante. its a very old city. inhabitated for about 7000 years, and home to the greeks, romans, arabs, then finally the spanish. the city has seen many wars, most recently in 1873 when an armoured vessel named the Numancia attached the city, manned by rebels of the cantonist movement attacked the city and its famous castle on the hill.

athough i know the city is rich in mediterranean history, i don't have the same sense of history as i got from brussels. the "feel" of the city is so much different. alicante architecture is simple and a bit drab. it doesnt have a modern feel, but neither does it have a historic feel. most structures are at least 5 stories high, all touching like things always do in cities. no elaborate columns or stone work. most things appear to be concrete and brick. flat facades. nothing distinguishing really. streets are not particularly narrrow by european standards, and most of the sidewalks are quite adequate as well. the city is quite hilly, sloping down to the water. one very notable thing is a very efficient transportation system. they have a train, an above ground tram and and underground tram, a great bus system, and most of the parking is free and underground. i mostly got around on the buses (well mostly i just walked actually). the train and trams mostly take people into and out of the city, and the buses provide transport once you're downtown.

not many folks out this morning. i notice people are moving slowly. people are small. i'm feeling very tall again. i'm used to tall dutch people walking very fast on thier long legs. people here tend to be not taller than 5'10", more petite but still curvy. they have more angular features. didn't see one (real) blonde the whole trip. all dark hair. younger men mostly had short hair that looked like christiano ronaldo (a very famous footballer) see picture below. i mean thier hair looked like his. definitely not all the guys looked like that! heck no if that were the case i'd still be there!! clothing for men tended to be fitted. younger women, although small, seemed to have a lot of spunk. more edgy fashion, but i wouldn't call them fashionable. lots of older people too. very properly dressed though. slacks and blouses for women. hair done and makeup done like old ladies like do to. fierce sunglasses are the must have accessory for the 60 and over crowd. the older men are dressed in slacks and sweater vests and button down shirts.

On my way to the castillo i stop at an open air meat market downtown. its a bit too early for that. my stomache turns a little. i'm hungry though. need some breakfast. i walk along the beach and it is so gorgeous. theres a walkway along the beach called the Explanada and its very intricately paved with ceramic tiles. the craftsmanship is stellar. its smooth. i wonder how many people have walked here. millions i bet. the explanada is lined with palms and occaisonally there are street vendors selling knockoff sunglasses, scarves, purses, and little battery operatored barking dogs. here's a picture below of the explada.

i bet summer here is very crowded. the water is perfect and warm. the ocean is very still today, almost glassy. a perfect blue blanket as far as i can see. the sand is very fine and just warm enough. its a great day to be alive.

ok so i finally make it to the Castillo SB. there's two entrances, one on the beach side and one on the opposite side. the beach side has an elevator. one thing i do notice about Alicante is that is very handicap accessible. ramps everywhere. kudos alicante! so i take the beachside elevator, i cross over the beach frontage road on an elevated pedestrian bridge and here's the view from the bridge.

The tunnel to get to the elevator goes deep into the hillside. i feel like i'm walking the green mile. its very eerie. its about 2 euro to ride the elevator up, but to tour the castle its free. sounds good to me! i take the elevator up, and now im 165 meters up at the top of the round mountain.

The old fort is amazing. you really can see everything for miles from up there. a perfect strategic position. thre are cutouts in the walls and holes for cannon fire and a dungeon. its all composed if a crude concrete it looks like. theres a great lookout point. it would have been crazy to be in this fort during a battle. i felt like i was in the lord of the rings. here's some pics at the top. alicante is in the background below. this castillo is one of the coolest things ive seen/experienced in europe thus far. a definite must-see. while i was up there, i saw a sailing lesson, about 30 little boats zig zagging on the water. what a perfect sailing day. it was like watching a mother duck with her little baby ducks.

So after taking in the breathtaking views at the top of the castillo SB, i walked down the backside of the mountain and headed to the MARQ, which is an exceptional archaelogical museum. i saw these amazing exhibits of artifacts from ancient peoples, including pottery, tools, bones, etc. they also had simulations of what alicante looked like since it was first inhabited thousands of years ago. they had exhibits on the climate change, and the land usage, the religious influence. really really neat museum and i would definitely go back. luckily, while i was there, they had an special exhibit about civil engineering in roman times! they had lots of scale models and engineering drawings of aqueducts, homes and other structures, churches, bridges, water wheels, etc. it was amazing to see how adept the romans were at construction and how innovative they were for thier time. genius. not all the information was in english, so i really wished i had a spanish speaking companion :)

After the MARQ, i walked over to the Plaza del Mar, which is basically a big shopping mall. i was STARVING by that point, and got a really good egg covered sandwhich, kind of like two pieces of french toast with cheese inside. so good. so bad for me!! i mostly walked around, bought some socks (i had forgotten them at home), looked for a pair of walking shoes (i just had my boots with me), but struck out on the shoes. i did find this really cute purple dress though so i got that. will be a fun summer ventura outfit, or good with leggings and a sweater here. after the plaza, i headed back to the hotel to take a shower and get ready for the parade. there was some miscommunication with the bus, so i ended up walking most of the way. i think i've walked about 15K today so far. my legs and feet are so tired.

Got back to the hotel. do i need to take another shower? no not really. but its so nice to have a real shower i just took one anyways :) the parade is supposed to start at 6PM. so i head out at about 6, walk down towards the end of the parade route (which is close to the beach and the harbor area), and gladly pay my 4 euros to sit in one of the blue chairs that line the route. theres thousands of chairs along the route. i probably would have stood if 1)i hadnt walked 15K today, and 2) if the parade wasnt 3 hours long. it was 3 hours long. 3+ actually. it was a beautiful parade, but nearly every float/exhibit was the same. dancers followed by a float followed by a band or music. the costumes had a very middle eastern feel to them. mostly traditional war costumes. the purpose of the parade was to celebrate St. Nicholas de Bari, but it did not have a christmasy feel to the parade. i kind of felt like i was in the "gladiator" movie. i know it sounds weird. the paraders made hand gestures that kind of resembled the gesture you give someone when you're driving and someone cuts you off and you throw your hands up like "what the heck??" comical.

after the parade, i walked down one of the main streets, and there was a small fair going on, mostly selling jewelry and little trinkets. apparently, 10PM on saturday is when everyone is out and about. i went to a store kind of like barns and noble, got an unbelievably delicious apple pasrty, and perused the books. i found a little wall-e notebook, but it was pretty beat up and i couldnt find another one so i didnt end up getting it. on my way back i stopped at a restaurant for dinner, and overall, i've been pretty disappointed by the food here. i was thinking it would be more like mexican food. besides the paella, its mostly sandwiches and eggs. so the place i went for dinner i would equate to like an applebees. i had a really tasty chicken seaser salad. and good news! a very large glass for my coke zero! not a little glass that is two sips like i'm used to in NL. :) good becuase i was really thirsty. i walked back to the hotel and got back around 23:30. i was going to stay out, but for whatever reason, i just didn't feel that safe. maybe it was the warnings on the travel websites i'm not sure. in any case, i decided to listen to my gut.

on sunday, i got up, took another blissful shower, and checked out of the hotel at 11AM. they held my bag at the front desk so i didnt have to carry it around all day which was great. i visited several small museums, including the Museo de Hogueras, the Bancaja Museo, and Lonja del Pescado Alicante. the Museo de Hogueras had exhibits of all these really cool cartoony floats contstructed over many years. There were also many photos of past princesses or some sort of female royalty. They were all wearing similar white dresses, maybe for confirmation or something. the Banjaca Museo was a very interesting gallery showcasing modern art-type works from past olympics. posters and drawings and sculptures. there was one show being played on the big screen that showed a football (soccer) game, but they had digitally erased the soccer ball and put in a textbook. so it looked like the players were kicking around a book. now that's art.

i perused the harbor and took a harbor ride in a little boat for about 3 euro. anything to not have to walk!! my feet and legs are actually really sore today hahah! i'm surprised! i've been working out consistently 3 days per week. i'm dying for some shoes i can tell you that. i took the bus to the airport, a nice 30-40 minute ride. got to see some other parts of alicante and the countryside. once you get out of the city, theres alot of industrial area, but mostly just open space. desolate even. made it back to the airport. i checked in about 2 hours before my flight, pretty standard i thought. i was so early that they hadn't even released the gate assignment for my plane yet. i perused the duty free area, which was rediculously overpriced, and finally about 40 minutes before the departure, they assigned the gate. i headed over. i was the first one there! most people came 20-30 mins before the flight. i thought that is cutting it pretty close but not by standards here. i don't think they have the long unpredictable security lines like in the US. plus this airport isnt very big. maybe a bit bigger than burbank.

flight home was nice. sat next to a nice dutch couple. young and in love. little kisses and whispers the whole flight. actually it was nice to see. i don't usually see any public display of affection from the dutch people. even hand holding is pretty rare! when we landed, i went to get my car and pay the parking, but luckily, the parking machine was broken! so i didn't have to pay the 30 euro it would have been!!! awesome! it took about 2 hours to get home, pretty easy drive, i think i was back around 11PM. exhausted. fantasic weekend. work tomorrow!!