Viva Espana - Day 1 - Alicante to Granada

---

Spain is one of the lucky countries in Europe that is basically guaranteed at least 300 days of sunshine a year. Well not today- it’s really pissing it down as we leave the flat and there are huge puddles of water everywhere. It’s weird to see, as usually our little holiday home in Spain is so warm and sunny. Charlie almost needs water wings to get across some of the roads and I'm expecting a group of ducks to swim by any minute. As we pack the car up, Greg meets an elderly couple on holiday who ask him if we're just finishing our holiday and Greg explains we're actually heading down south on a road trip. They look completely dejected about the weather and Greg tries to reassure them it will get better and they look at him with hope in their eyes. Not sure he's right, but here's hoping. As we pass through the Sierra Nevada mountains, we can’t believe it as it starts to snow! It's nearly may for goodness sake! We thought we'd left all that behind - at this rate we'll need to put the snow socks on and get our ski jackets out, talk about 4 seasons in one day.

I'm bursting for the loo as we get near to Granada but figure I'll just hold off until I get to the hotel, seemingly forgetting our usual navigational nightmares. As you’ve guessed it, things don't exactly go to plan as google maps takes us on a wild goose chase around the city. I'm actually in pain as we drive around and every time we go over a bump its torture- Greg later admits that he was doing this on purpose the little scoundrel. Bladder full to capacity, the rain hosing it down and the fact we've been stuck in the car now for over 6 hours doesn't help my mood and I'm freaking out as we yet again pass down the same street. I can't even concentrate on reading directions I’m in that much pain, so thankfully for once Greg acts as a better navigator and eventually we find the right street. There is no sign of the hostel though and we ask some local students standing outside a flat if they know where the hostel is, which they don't. We drive round the street about another 3 times before we have a lightbulb moment and try further back along the street. Lo and behold we eventually find it tucked down a dead end about 200 metres away from where google maps says it apparently should be. Either someone has moved it in the last 24 hours or google is wrong. I’m guessing on the latter. After abandoning the car due to my distressed and now critical state, we go to check in. Our 'hostel' is certainly not a hotel by any means, and although we weren’t expecting the ritz, we weren’t expecting a homeless shelter either. A spanish jake sitting in the foyer kindly greets us in reception, shouting in spanish to shut the door as it’s bloody cold. It’s an awkward 5 minutes while we wait for the receptionist to appear, our attempts at making friendly chit chat with the drunken jake falling on death ears.

I’m afraid it doesn’t get much better when we are shown to our cell, I mean room, and it is about the size of a wheely bin with a window that looks out onto a concrete wall (behind which lies the shared bathroom). Well, it was 20 euros after all. It’s freezing outside, probably colder than Glasgow at the moment, which is saying something. We take the car to try and find a more suitable parking space than the abandoned spot we were in, and end up driving round the block a few times in the hope of some free after hours parking. We end up driving by the same person we asked for directions before at least 5 times, and she must think we are absolutely mental and I can see her laughing as we pass by yet again. Eventually we find somewhere to park Charlie for the evening and then go in search of some food and lots of beer (goodness I need it!). The lady at reception suggests we head to an area where there are lots of little cheap but tasty tapas bars to choose from. You can see there is a big Moroccan influence here so it's a mix of Spanish and Arabic menus everywhere. We stumble upon a place which gives you a free hot filled roll every time you buy a beer so Greg is happy and we don’t need any persuasion. It really is cheap, and indeed tasty and before long I’m beginning to relax and memories of our dungeon back at the hostel are slowly fading. The Locals clock that we speak English and so start asking us for translations of certain words from Spanish to English. It’s really cool being able to understand what they are saying and soundly all wordly and knowledgeable as we give them a brief English lesson. Our TEFLtraining is starting early! We carry on drinking and get tanked up as promised so we can sleep to forget our room and the shitty weather and wake up to a new day.

---