madrid to alicante..

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01-12-06

I am on a bus to alicante right now and there are screaming children behind me that I think might drive me mad, especially since there are still at least 2 hours to. The view outside is amazing now that we have left the city and there are mostly fields surrounding us.
Madrid was amazing but I am excited to see a new place. The hostel used to be an Arabic palace of some sort. It was extremely colorful and had such intricate designs everywhere. There was a bar area to your left when you walk in and then down stairs there was a club area. The downstairs looked like a cave but it was so chill, there were computers, tons of small tables with cushion seats, a stage, a bar and when you move everything out of the way it became a discothèque. I am so glad that I stayed there. I met Veronica who took me out to an amazing thai restaurant and chilled out with me for some beers at the bar. The next morning she showed me through the metro to pick up otto and I have to say it would have been extremely difficult to do it alone my first time. After breakfast at this small little café with the happiest little old man we took siestas. Despues we ventured the city to an art museum until everything started blurring together to look like duplicates of the same piece. Then we wondered some more surrounded by shops all with the sign bajara in red. Sales everywhere so we had to look around a little and I stumbled across my new favorite pair of shoes. Since I don’t really have any shoes I felt it was ok to buy them and now I will probably wear them dead before I come home.
Once we realized we were so starving and had to eat now the only place around us was an American style rib place. Trust me when I say it’s much better in the states. They had the route 66 painted on the wall above us with names of different towns. Flagstaff (flagstafe) was there but that among others was misspelled but their happy hour had amazing deals and a jack-n-coke is a large glass of jack with a splash of coke.
That night we hung out in the downstairs at the hostel drinking cervesas, cheap vino and playing dice games with people from all over the place (Australia, France, England, the States, etc.) from there (when we were all good and buzzed/drunk) we headed to the bars. It was about midnight or so when we left and it was insane. We drank lots of chupitas and danced till we were exhausted and slowly parts of our group began to wander back to the hostel. I don’t think that I even left the bars until 4 am. Then I was unable to sleep for like 2 horas mas. It was so much fun but I definitely drank to much. Otto burst into our room sometime close to noon screaming hey we missed checkout and then headed out for food. My head was pounding and I slept till 2 or so. Everyone who had come out was moving a little slow that day. So we decided since we slept through everything we would leave the next day. We showered of the fragrance of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke and headed to a tapas bar. We ordered all sorts of things and some how ended up with on plate being filled of disgusting array of friend octopus (which wasn’t bad), squid (which was more difficult), and sardines (that was awful). The sardines had heads, tails, scales and spine all included and they have the most retched flavor. I guess it’s an acquired taste.
Afterwards we spent our night walking to just checkout the city and then at a theater show which was almost impossible for us to track down tickets. It not the best I have ever seen by far. I guess it would help if I could have understood more of what they said but they spoke so fast. Basically the main point of the story was that these two annoying children thought they saw their teachers kissing (two girls) and one told her grandmother who became outraged. It was all not true though, but before it was proven false the one lady confessed that she was in fact a lesbian and then her life was ruined so she overdoses on pills the end. Not my kind of show but it was an experience.
So after that it was chillin at the hostel con las otras personas and then out for a snack to this amazing pizzeria. I can say the stomach ache I have from eating cheese was well worth the experience. They gave us a plate of olives and I have never tasted anything so good, the pizza was just as amazing and almost better. To top off all the good food the people that worked there were the friendliest I have met so far. We sat there until 2:30am or something like that drinking and talking because no matter what people here do not rush you and they do not bring the bill while your still eating you have to ask them for it.
So now I am sitting on this bus getting closer and closer to alicante and I am so excited but definitely a bit nervous.



01-13-06

I don’t have much time because I have to meet the group for a tour of the city in 30 minutos. I’m going to need it…
I woke up this morning freezing. I’m still not used to this weather (eventhough it´s really not cold here in comparison) and how there is no heat inside the buildings or houses. It’s definitely going to take some getting used too. Oh well. I got freaked out because it sounded like there was some one tapping at my window and that freaked me out for a little when I first got up. I’m still not sure what it was but I figured that it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t logically explain. So I hurried to the meeting spot, they shuttled us on a bus and we were off.
I sat by myself on the bus which probably should have tried to sit with somebody but I was one of the last people. So I didn’t really talk to anyone there but once we got to the school I got to converse with more of the new arrivers that weren’t there last night. The class rooms were just as freakin cold as the place I’m living but I survived. The told us basically how everything was going to work and gave us maps and a bunch of other stuff.
Part way thru we had a little siesta and had café, zumo y pastries. That was a good chance to talk with more people and get a break from all the information they keep giving us. Then we went back and took our placement test. I placed into track 3 which is pretty exciting and I don’t have classes on Friday!!! More time to travel. I also decided to take a folk dance class and then the one on tourism for my major. We all talked and then me and these 2 other girls Jackie and Lauren went to the computer lab to check our email and then took the bus for the first time. Very exciting. And of all things I ran into brenna the girl I took my summer class with….weird. she looked very different because her hair is like a white blonde.
I went with the other girls to check out phones but still haven’t decided what I want to do so I’m going to wait at least another day. I was starving so I headed home to see if there was a shop open on the way but nope only sit down places…I hate eating alone so I ate my luna bar and wondered lost as could be for I think an hour or less. Finally I decided to use the map I had and managed to find my way!!! So since I now don’t have time to go get something from the market that I finally think I might know where it’s at and bring it back here I have been eating turkey jerky, 2 slices of cheese (great for the stomach) and left over coconut cookies. Hey at least I have some good zumo de pineapple. And I have to leave for the tour….

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