Refreshing, relaxed & a bit Entertaining!!

---

A bit unsure if I could call this a vacation or a business trip, may be a mix of both taking the perspective of my friend. It was a trip without any planning whatsoever, got asked if I would be able to accompany him and I immediately agreed. Made a few calls to arrange my leave from work, bought the tickets online with easyjet and off we go.

Reached Alicante Spain around midday, caught the first flight off Luton. Didn’t really expect a full two hours flight, nevertheless with no onboard meals, it was quite boring. Although luckily we managed to get good seats on emergency exits, which gave us loads of leg space. There was no boarder control whatsoever in Spain, the immigration booths at Alicante airport was all locked so we just walked off straight from the airport. It was a great weather outside, given the time of the year it probably wasn’t meant to be that good, thanks God!

The weather was excellent with 20 degrees and bright and sunny. Our friend was waiting for us at arrival, caught a taxi to city centre. The taxi is kind of expensive, costs around 20 euro, however there was buses to the city for only 2.50 euro each which I came to know about at the time of coming back to Airport on my way back. The ride to the city centre was quite nice and short, bizarrely the road and environment back to town from airport gave a feeling of Dubai, with loads of palm trees along the road and a bit rough terrain with small hills, it was not plain. I guess fishing is a popular sport in Alicante as we saw many people by the seaside on our way back.

Checked in at Eurostar Lucentum Hotel in Mercado Central, we got good bargain as the normal peak season hotel tariff is around 160 euro for a double room which we got for 59 euros! The hotel is nice and especially the reception staff was really helpful, and all of them spoke good English. Spent the evening in the surrounding areas, checked some local bars and bought a bottle of Tequilla, whats the point coming to Spain and not try tequila! Spent the rest of the evening drinking tequila and beer off the mini bar, the beers were just 2.75 euro each. It was cheap however we realized next day that it was a rip off, where bear is available for as low as 50 cent in the off license.

Next morning we were off pretty early, had our breakfast at the hotel basement where they had buffet. Not a great variety, at best it can be called decent however a bit pricey it seemed given 10 euros each. After breakfast we got into business and went on to do the stuff we were there for actually. However the work got finished within an hour and next bit we needed to do was not until the afternoon. So we decided to take a walk along the Esplanade beside the harbour. It was really nice to see all the yachts moored on the bay. The walk actually finished at the beginning of the beachside from where we took a tram ride from Puerta Del Mar along the beach. It was really nice. We changed at Sangueta and finally got off at Cabo Huertas. From there we took a long walk along the beach. The morning air was fresh, light in essence splendid, there were not too many people around, we were told that it gets really busy in summer time. All the cafes along the beach were mostly closed and we saw literally hundreds of newly built apartments along the beach, wonder how crowdy the beach becomes in full season when all these apartments get filled!

Finally we caught a tram back towards Luceros and got off at Mercado. Finished our remaining job and then landed back at the hotel. In the evening we tried to venture some local bars and night clubs, unfortunately there were not any! May be there were some which was not prolly nearby and may have been closed due to off season. One thing for sure, we realized how difficult it was get something just by asking around on the streets, people hardly speak English and more surprising is they hardly understand it.

Next morning our target was to explore Castillo de Santa Barbara, which is a Castle on the mountain top 166m high, which gave a heavenly view of the whole city. There were two ways to go up in the castle, one is via lift for which there is a ticket price of 2.40 euro each and other one is on foot from the parking entrance which is free. There is a museum inside which may be worth visiting if someone has a particular interest in these kinds of things. Spent around half day and then we came back to hotel.

Following morning we went to 35km away from Alicante, to Guardamar del Segura, which is mostly inhabited by expat British community. Checked La Marina, nothing special all were pretty dead which we were told would come to life if it was the season. Apparently there supposed to be nude beaches around, however there was hardly anybody around let alone the possibility of happening something saucy!

In the late afternoon we decided to take advantage of the hotel amenities and went to check out the Jacuzzi and sauna. It wasn’t bad, spent around a hour doing these stuff and then sat down in the bar having beer, just felt something out of the world!

Next morning we came back, but all in all the trip was refreshing and a nice break in the busy schedule, loved the city Alicante. Definitely worth going again but this time may be when the season picks up, hopefully that will be an experience different than this.

---