Escaping the Rain: Alicante

~ Day 1 ~

We caught an early train to Alicante. Our Airbnb was right next to the train station which was really nice. So, we quickly dropped off our stuff and then went to get food.

We went to a restaurant that had a paella for menu of the day! Brad wanted more paella, and thankfully their paella didn't have seafood in it like the one in Mallorca did! I gave Brad all of the snails, of course.

^(too excited for paella round 2)

Walked around the streets in the sun after eating -- we had to walk off that huge pan of paella!

Went to beach after felling a little less bloated!

Then we prepared to watch Championship game (soccer = futbol). Weried going to a sports bar but they were full due to reservations. Ended up at a well rated Irish bar -- however they didn't have food! At halftime the game was tied and we were hungry! Drinking on an empty stomach is never a good idea. So we left to grab a pizza to go. We took it back to our Airbnb and continued to watch the game on the TV there. However, within the 20 minutes we were getting the pizza, halftime ended and Liverpool and Madrid both scored to bring the score to 1-1! Then right when we were almost back, we heard some cheering from the bar -- Brad basically ran into the apartment, frantically trying to find the right broadcasting channel. Apparently Bale had scored an overhead scissor kick, getting Real Madrid to 2 goals vs. Liverpool's 1 goal. It was really fun watching the game and eating pizza back at the Airbnb.

Despite the fun end to the day, we actually ended the night a bit worse for wear after battling it out with 5 mosquitos that got into the room because we left the door open to air out the room. Just knowing they were in the room made it very hard for us to sleep...but we got 4/5 of them! By that time, we were so tired we conceded. I am proud that years of camping resulted in 3/4 of the kills.

~Day 2~

We slept in late and then went to get brunch. We walked around and got gelato before heading to the beach for the day. Erin had recommended this gelato place that has really great ratings and that she loved. However, I was disappointed with mine...I always get mango gelato, but this one barely tasted like mango to me! It was less sweet than usual, and that was fine with me because it tasted more healthy in that way, but when it doesn't really taste like mango that's a problem! Usually there are also little mango hairs in the gelato because that's the consistency of mango - they didn't have those as well which makes me think that they used less mangos or the mangos they used were really unrip. Oh well. As you can see below, Brad was into his gelato at least!

After spending the day at the beach, swimming and soaking up the sun, we went back to the apartment to pick up a jacket and the camera.

Since we had planned to spend the whole day at the beach, we had left all of our valuables at home. So we also needed to pick up money for dinner after!

We decided to visit the Castilla de Santa Maria in the evening so we could see the sunset. Unfortunately, the clouds came in so we didn't really get to see the sunset over the mountains...but the views and lighting were amazing for pictures anyways!

On the way down, we were also able to find another path and were able to walk down and on the wall of the castle!

We went to a restaurant called d'Tablas that my friend Clem (from vball) recommended! Such a good recommendation! They bring trays of tapas around and you pick and choose what you want! Then at the end, they count how many you ate and you get the bill! It was such a good deal and the food was really good, especially since each tapa was only 99 cents! We ate so much and really enjoyed the experience. We ate at around 10pm, so we truly had the real Spanish dinner experience!

~Day 3~

We went to another brunch place today! For some reason when I had looked it up online, GoogleMaps had directed me to a town a half an our away. But the previous day we had passed by Baker&Co so we went today!

First, we stopped by the Alicante Market. Some lady heard us talking on the escalator and explained to us that the fish stalls wouldn't be open until the next morning. We realized that many restaurants, including most of the stalls in the Mercado, were closed because it was Monday. Brad was a bit disappointed because he wanted to get food there, but our brunch at Bakers&Co was really yummy so no regrets!

^(Basilica)

Then of course, we spent the rest of the day walking the streets of Alicante, strolling along the promenade and at the beach! We didn't plan well, and unfortunately the museums in Alicante are all closed on Mondays! So while we saw the Basilica, we didn't visit any museums. That was okay in the end though, because we really wanted to enjoy our last days in the sun and evening out our tans before returning to chilly and rainy Madrid. Erin had actually sent us a picture earlier of her soaked pants from walking through the rain! We were so lucky we escaped for the weekend to the south, despite the mosquitos at night, as rain is an enemy for both Brad and I (even though we both appreciate it for the environment and I appreciate it for washing away pollen in the air).

Before heading out, we stopped one last time at d'Tablas. We were going to go somewhere else, but the time listed online was wrong! So since we were near d'Tablas, we went and got more tapas. It wasn't as exciting as the previous night because it was not very busy. When it was bustling the previous night, they constantly had trays coming out and food coming around. With only about 3 parties in the restaurant, the trays came out a lot more slowly and with less variety. Even with only 3 parties though, the trays would be empty or only have 1 remaining tapa by the time they made it back into the kitchen...I think they should have come out with more tapas more frequently, especially the fried ones because they would vary up the fried ones more. Because of this, if the tray came to you later you often couldn't try what you wanted! As opposed to the seafood trays, they would have 3-4 of the same tapa on the tray so you had a better chance of trying one.

We made our way back to catch the train. These huge mushrooms (above) guided us on our way back! We kept an eye out of gelato, but we didn't find any on the way back! Despite coming across so many gelato places during our stay, of course when we were actually looking for one on the way back we couldn't find one! We found a soft serve place...but just wasn't the same.

The train to and from Alicante was really nice and fast and it was great to watch the scenery pass. On the way out, it was also really an amazing sight to see the sun setting beneath the clouds.

All in all, we had a really great weekend in Alicante. However, I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it. Like I said, we had a wonderful time, but there weren't as many things to do as I expected. If I were to recommend a southern Spanish beach town, I think I would recommend Malaga over Alicante. I felt like Malaga just had more charm to it.