Alicante in Warp Speed
Alright these are going to be quick over views since I really have to catch up on this blog and get back to being up to date by only a few days and not a couple weeks.
So in summary we had Alicante, Spain. There I met a giant group of students from the university there through a guy I met at the hostel who had a friend apart of the group (just to clear up the how i met people question). Most of the students were from the US but some weren't. All in all I met a bunch of translators for me. Some key points from Alicante were hanging out, going to the beach at night, dancing in the club with some free champagne bottle from the hecklers on the street, and salsaing. As part of their class they had to go to a flaminco show so of course I tagged along. Turns out although it was authentic flaminco it was nothing like what you would think it would be. You would picture girls in long flowing skirts dancing with some guys right? I think this would normally be the case but here it was definitely not. There were three guys, one sang one played the guitar and the other in tight pants danced. Although it was kind of cool to see that type of dance it was all very strange. Most of the guys with me were cringing. The funniest part of the whole thing was after the performance everybody was shouting encore so the guys came out another two times but each time they tried to switch parts with the other guys. Which in turn meant the guys who sang and played made fun of the guy who danced when they tried to dance.
Near the end of the trip I met some girls from Aussie in the hostel and went out with some of the guys from the university and ended up going to a bar that was teaching how to salsa. It was extremely fun, it was pretty much a free class to learn how to dance by this authentic guy. That pretty much sums up Alicante besides wandering around by myself to purposely get lost and see more of Alicante. The kabobs are amazing, a staple food from Spain pretty much. There are also a ton of dogs in Europe and they are all the most obedient thing you could ever see. I have heard one dog bark the whole time I have been here, well besides when I dogsat.
Moving on from Alicante after 6 days there I then went onto Valencia. Oh and as a plug and tips to people who may do the same thing I stayed in Hostel De Sal in Alicante which was pretty good. Kind of luck of the draw whether you actually get good people staying there, though it was kind of falling apart in the common room with a leaking roof and squeaking walls. In Valencia it was actually the first place I hadn't booked a hostel the night before I got there so when I arrived I wandered the city for about 2 hours trying to find a hostel, which it was 10 at night by that time so pretty much nothing was open. I eventually went into a Mcdonalds for their free wifi and saw two guys with backpacker backpacks. I strutted straight up and went where the heck are you guys staying. Turns out they were stalling for the train for the night and had just come from the best hostel in the city. So they gave me the map and marked everything. If you go to Valencia stay in the home backpackers hostel. Thing was the map stopped having street names near the hostel so I still managed to get lost for about an hour after I had the map, even though it turns out I was circling the hostel the whole time just looking at the wrong building. If you are familiar at all with spanish streets you will know they are crazy. After being in a place for a few days you can get to know the streets but it is very hard to maneuver or know where you are for a while. They do mark their streets more often then in London though Ill give them that. And at some places there are actual street signs rather then plaques on the wall. I will put the rest of my days from Valencia in my next post.
So in summary we had Alicante, Spain. There I met a giant group of students from the university there through a guy I met at the hostel who had a friend apart of the group (just to clear up the how i met people question). Most of the students were from the US but some weren't. All in all I met a bunch of translators for me. Some key points from Alicante were hanging out, going to the beach at night, dancing in the club with some free champagne bottle from the hecklers on the street, and salsaing. As part of their class they had to go to a flaminco show so of course I tagged along. Turns out although it was authentic flaminco it was nothing like what you would think it would be. You would picture girls in long flowing skirts dancing with some guys right? I think this would normally be the case but here it was definitely not. There were three guys, one sang one played the guitar and the other in tight pants danced. Although it was kind of cool to see that type of dance it was all very strange. Most of the guys with me were cringing. The funniest part of the whole thing was after the performance everybody was shouting encore so the guys came out another two times but each time they tried to switch parts with the other guys. Which in turn meant the guys who sang and played made fun of the guy who danced when they tried to dance.
Near the end of the trip I met some girls from Aussie in the hostel and went out with some of the guys from the university and ended up going to a bar that was teaching how to salsa. It was extremely fun, it was pretty much a free class to learn how to dance by this authentic guy. That pretty much sums up Alicante besides wandering around by myself to purposely get lost and see more of Alicante. The kabobs are amazing, a staple food from Spain pretty much. There are also a ton of dogs in Europe and they are all the most obedient thing you could ever see. I have heard one dog bark the whole time I have been here, well besides when I dogsat.
Moving on from Alicante after 6 days there I then went onto Valencia. Oh and as a plug and tips to people who may do the same thing I stayed in Hostel De Sal in Alicante which was pretty good. Kind of luck of the draw whether you actually get good people staying there, though it was kind of falling apart in the common room with a leaking roof and squeaking walls. In Valencia it was actually the first place I hadn't booked a hostel the night before I got there so when I arrived I wandered the city for about 2 hours trying to find a hostel, which it was 10 at night by that time so pretty much nothing was open. I eventually went into a Mcdonalds for their free wifi and saw two guys with backpacker backpacks. I strutted straight up and went where the heck are you guys staying. Turns out they were stalling for the train for the night and had just come from the best hostel in the city. So they gave me the map and marked everything. If you go to Valencia stay in the home backpackers hostel. Thing was the map stopped having street names near the hostel so I still managed to get lost for about an hour after I had the map, even though it turns out I was circling the hostel the whole time just looking at the wrong building. If you are familiar at all with spanish streets you will know they are crazy. After being in a place for a few days you can get to know the streets but it is very hard to maneuver or know where you are for a while. They do mark their streets more often then in London though Ill give them that. And at some places there are actual street signs rather then plaques on the wall. I will put the rest of my days from Valencia in my next post.
Chelsea, when you come back you are going to be my all time co-pilot. It may take you a while, but you always get where you're going. Or else you go to where you are , whichever.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like so much fun! Learning to salsa dance huh? COOL! It still feels weird to me sometimes thinking that you're halfway around the world but I'm glad to hear that things have gotten better for you at least, or seem to be. Maybe once you come back to the states you can bust out some of those new moves you learned for me. I'd love to see them! :P <3
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