This weekend, Katie and I headed to Spain to visit Rachel! After waking up at 3:30 to make a 7:45 flight and arriving in Alicante, we managed to make it on the right bus from the airport, and found our way to Murcia. We were particularly terrible about documenting this trip with pictures, but that's okay, because we caught the most important things...the BEACHES (and the ducks)!
Rachel made us some delicious sandwiches, as the gas man hadn't made it yet, so we couldn't use the stove or oven (he didn't make it till Monday). Luckily, with lukewarm showers, we managed to keep the hot water going until we had a new tank.
Jimmy came too, of course.
Friday we went to the beach at Alicante with Rachel, and only had a slight snafu with the buses (totally not my fault, Rachel was in charge). Katie and I were expecting Rachel to come to the beach with us out of more of a sense of duty as host than anything else, as she hates being cold and she hates swimming. It turned out that she was even more excited about the beach than we were. Apparently she had never really been to a beach (including a school trip to Hawaii...I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either). Anyway, she was thrilled. She played in the sand, we taught her how to make drip castles, and with a little bit of persuading, she went wading in the ocean.
Later on Friday night, we ate some more sandwiches, and then went to Rachel's friend Amy's house to try sangria. We had a lot of fun trying a couple of different kinds (Katie and I made the one that was voted the best - score!).
On Saturday we headed to the beach with Rachel's friends Arisvet and Amy. The beach was beautiful, and only a little bit cold. We stopped for tapas and beer, and immensely enjoyed the fact that sunglasses were a necessity (A necessity that I managed to forget -- thanks for having an extra pair Rachel!).
Top: We are really good at pictures. Bottom:Spotted duck!
Sunday the plan was to go climbing, but Rachel wasn't feeling great, so we slept in instead, and figured we would go hiking. Unfortunately, the bus to the place we wanted to go hiking doesn't run on Sundays. Plan C was then put in motion, and we took a picnic lunch to Rachel's university, fed some ducks, lounged in the sunshine, and I found out that I am most definitely still allergic to grass.
Katie and I headed back to the beach in Alicante on Monday, and made the walk to the bus station without a map or any wrong turns, which was really exciting. Though we managed to get on the right bus, a couple of hours before Rachel, a "cinco minuto" stop at a gas station that turned into a 45 minute break, and a search by drug dogs at Alicante meant that Katie and I only got to the beach about fifteen minutes before Rachel did. The drug dog search was actually pretty amusing, once we figured out going on. The dog was much more concerned with the crying baby and the bread in my bag than it was with any of the bags shoved in his face by his handler. We weren't sure if the dog was in training, or if it was just...Spain.
Spain was most definitely a successful trip, and I absolutely want to go back. I would love to go back when it's a tad bit warmer, to spend some more time swimming, and I really, really, want to go hiking and rock climbing in the mountains. I don't think there were nearly so many places I wanted to travel to before this semester, and now the list just keeps getting longer and longer and longer. :)
-El
P.S. -- Thanks to Rachel for stealing my camera to take pictures, and thanks to Katie for taking some pictures on her camera and then letting me use some of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment