Alicante

My first thought when our bus pulled into the city was "I made a mistake, I should have lived here." My first sight was the beach, which spanned the city and was absolutely gorgeous. There was also a port with a multitude of sail boats and it helped that it was a maginificent day. This was my first trip without booking a hostel ahead of time so I was a bit tentative but also proud of my new nomadic tendency. Finding a hostel was no problem and after settling in I headed straight for the beach (a block away). I never would have thought I'd be spending time on the beach in mid-october so it was a welcome surprise. I decided to hold off on the picture taking until the next day as I was so exited to just ramble about the city.

That night I went out to two bars, el coscorron and coyote ugly. The first claims to be the oldest bar in the city. Dating back to 1936, it gets its name from the bump on your head you're likely to get from walkin in under the 4ft door. It's made even smaller by the fact that you have to step down immediately after, I swear it was meant for hobbits! Cool bar though. Although it sounds like a cop-out, my trip to Coyote Ugly afterwards actually was somewhat cultural. I'd never been to one before and although I'd imagine the ones in the states are a bit wilder, this still had value. The port in Alicante juts a few hundred meters out into the water and a string of restaurants and bars line it, Coyote Ugly is one of them. A midnight beer while gazing upon calm waters and beautiful boats isn't a bad way to spend a night.

I'd have to say the most memorable part of the evening happened during my trip to the port. There's only one way in and as I wandered along I was acosted by some very upfront prostitutes, shouting "you want sexy" and "sexy time." Fortunately I was able to contain my laughter until after I had passed them. On my way back I tried to be stealth and walk on the other side and literally had one of them chasing me down shouting various sexual propositions to me...no more port.

DAY 2
I awoke to the sound of rain...not good. After a quick breakfast and a walk through the rain I decided I was going to hike up to this castle that is situated 200 meters up on a hill along the water. It seems very out of place but is really quite a spectacle. I made it about a fourth of the way of when lightening split the sky, this was not the time to test fate. I headed back down, kicking myself for assuming the weather was going to be as good as the previous day. I filled sometime by planning future excursions, reading, and doing a bit of writing. In the afternoon the rain continued but the storm has subsided so I made my journey up to the castle. The scenes were spectacular (city, ocean, coast, etc.) but culturally, the castle wasn't much.

I started my evening with some more reading as the weather poured down. As I was heading back from the port to grab some dinner I noticed the rain had increased substantially (especially for someone who only had a poncho). The silver lining, however, is that I saw the most vivrent rainbow of my life stretching across the port. I snapped what was probably the most amazing picure I've ever taken and noticed an added bonus- the castle in the background actually had a second (though somewhat faded) rainbow coming out of the top.

That night I went out to a disco for "happy hour" which was from midnight until 2am, I felt embarrased leaving before it ended. In the end, I decided Alicante is nice for a weekend but I'm glad I didn't live there, it's a bit too small and the beach is too much of a distraction.


CAMINO
I'm starting my walk on the camino tomorrow so I'll be 'going dark'for about a week. Look for another update around next sunday.