It’s
been crazy these past couple days, squeezing in the last few things on our
to-do lists before we leave our beautiful city of Alicante. Sunday was very relaxing, sleeping in until
10, going for a hike up to Santa Barbara castle for the last time, and getting
coffee with the girls. Monday I had
planned on taking my host family out for Indian food. They had never had it before, so as soon as
we got to the restaurant they gave me free reign to decide what we were going
to order. I ordered chicken curry, a
classic, tikka masala with fish, and biriyani, a type of flavored aromatic
rice. We also ordered samosas, a fried
empanada with chicken and vegetables, as an appetizer. Those were my family’s favorite. For dessert we ordered a classic: mango
lassi. Just tasting the blend of yogurt,
mango, and the subtle hint of rose water reminded me of home. Just as we were about to leave, one of my
favorite Bollywood songs came on inside the restaurant, and the outing felt
complete. I was so glad I was able to
share my culture with my host family.
My host family and I at the Indian restaurant
Later
that afternoon we decided to go the San Juan beach for the last time. After a couple hours of chatting and
sunbathing, we returned to Alicante. That night, after a scrumptious meal of steak
and French fries (those things are pretty huge in Spain surprisingly) I went
out to Havana to their salsa dancing class.
Looking at all the new tourists at the free classes, I couldn’t help but
think back to 5 weeks ago when that was us.
A day at San Juan
Tuesday was a big day for us, as we had planned to go to a
different beach for a picnic during the day, and to Benidorm at night. Benidorm is probably the Las Vegas of
Spain. It’s a little hard to explain, so
maybe I’ll just show you.
The beach was a good time, with our home-packed bready
sandwiches (bocadillos) to picnic with.
Although the sand was more rocky than sandy, it was a beautiful breezy
day. When we got back from the beach we
got the chance to shower and rest a bit, as we knew that night was going to be
a long one. Benidorm is about an hour
away by tram, and instead of paying for a hotel, we decided to stay out to 6am
(in regular Spanish fashion) and return home on the 6:30 tram. This, as you will see, proved to be a little
difficult. Upon our arrival at Benidorm,
we were virtually starving. We headed
down toward the beach until we found a café that served eggs…for some reason
that’s what Ashley was craving at the time.
And oddly enough in Spain, they serve eggs all the time, and with French
fries no less. After chowing down for a
while, we started walking toward the beach.
We got directions to where all the cool places were from a friendly
hotel receptionist and proceeded to wander.
It’s what we do best. Once we hit
the club scene, the night took-off. We
danced and had a blast until the wee hours of the morning. Then when it finally hit us that we were
exhausted and hungry, we defaulted to burger king to get some grub. It was still only 5am, but we decided to head
back to the tram station. We played
almost an hour’s worth of “Never Have I Ever” while waiting for the tram,
making some new British friends along the way.
Apparently our American accents are just as fascinating, if not more
fascinating, as theirs are to us. They
made us say a couple of English phrases on the tram while they attempted to
copy our accents, but suddenly we realized…they were REALLY FREAKING LOUD. It was 6:30am and most of the people on the
tram were going to work. They were
warned a couple times to be quiet, to no avail.
I must say, I have not met many people that were more obnoxious and belligerent
than that. Luckily they got off the tram
about half way home. Stumbling from the
tram station tired, slightly hungry, and annoyed, I crashed as soon as I hit my
bed. There will definitely be a long
siesta in my future before our final dinner and wine tasting tomorrow. Can’t wait to be home, but I’m so glad I’m
getting to do everything one last time before I leave. Keep calm and live it up!
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