Sunday, February 13, 2011

alicante!

well we just had travel weekend. it was awesome. and only 66 euros.

so, i was not planning on going anywhere for travel weekend seeing as i had a low cash supply but when my freind derek found a trip for us that was only 66 euros to alicante spain, (the number one place i wanted to visit  in all of europe) i could not refuse. our group of four grew to a group of 16. 16 great people.

so our trip started out at 4 am thursday moring. this was after we had all stayed up until well after midnight packing. the taxis came to the bode and we loaded two of them. we got to the train station and as soon as the third taxi arrived we all yelled...where's molly!? we left her. we panicked and called everyone we could but never got a hold of her. luckily, she caught a later train and met us in memmingen at the airport. theresa, a staff memorable from germany was with us and it was her first flight. so that was cool. our flights and trains and all were flawless.

we landed in a desert which was slightly disheartening. however, when the airport security waved us by without us looking at our passports and when we walked outside to see a sunny sky and seventy degree weather, we could not have cared less about what the place looked like.

we took a bus to the city center and wondered why we ever went to germany. alicante was quite possibly the most beautiful city i have ever seen. it was so warm and sunny adn everyone was so laid back. we kind of thought we had found heaven. we set off to find our hostel so we could proceed to eat. we alked aournd and around forever but to no avail. google maps had led us astray. crap. we were all very tired and really hungry. this led to grouchiness in a few of us. we asked a man if he knew where the hostel was. he looked very confused and after about ten minutes of this we realized we were asking where the brothel was. oops.

so we found our hostel and took far too long to settle in. blood sugar levels dangerously low, we headed out for lunch. i was detemined to have some real spanish tapas so i was going to have them. i was getting very grouchy as were a few others. we debated for a few angry minutes and finally sat down at an outdoor restaurant. the tapas were so delicous but not all that filling. my fault. i told everyone they would be bigger. ah well. delicious nonetheless. an old spanish man serenaded us and assumed we spoke no spanish so he sang that we were no good. haha. i tipped him thirty cents.

so then we went to the beach. it was glorious. the water of the mediteranean was super clear. and only slightly super cold. we chilled on the beach. so nice. hmm. what then? we hit the street market for a while which was awesome. hmm. then? we...OH YEAH.  we climbed the mountain. it was shorter than we thought it would be which was great. we watched the sunset from the castle on top of the mountain. it was way more magical than it sounds.

after that, we were really tired so we went to a sketchy grocery store and got cheap food and cheap cigars and had supper on the terrace of our hostel. oh so nice. we were all in bed by what...eleven? we were super tired.

next day started at eight thirty where our hostel had delicious breakfast for us. we all only brought carry on luggage so we would not have to pay extra. naturally we all assumed the other person would bring soap. so no one did. we found an old bottle of pantene in the shower and we passed it around. haha! so we basically went straight to the beach. waded for a while, walked out on a sandbar...rockbar..thing. took pictures bought knock off sunglasses. we stayed on the beach and hit up the market for most of the day.  i think that twas basically it for that day.oh! except we all got dancing lessons from a woman from austria living in alicante. she knew so many languages and had just gotten back from easter island where she learned their native language and their dances. so there are incriminating videos of me doing said native dance.  then we had friday night. the latest bus to the airport was 1040 and we needed to be there at 430. so we decided to call taxis at four. this meant we had no place to sleep so we decided to stay up all night. best and worst decision ever.

we started the night by deciding to go get some real spanish paella. easier said than done apparently when one is traveling with sixteen people. we walked all over the place looking for the cheapest paella and when after we traveled around the town for a while some of our group decided to split off. so we ended up finding a super cheap deal on paella. it was glorious of course and other frineds from bodenseehof hapened to walk by so they joined us unexpectedly. we were scheduled to meet our group at the hostel at ten so we booked it back to the hostel and met up

we had so many hours to kill so we decided to hit up an irish pub. it seemed cool. everything was expensive so we all got sangria which you can get literally anywhere and for a lot cheaper. the irish atmosphere was somewhat hampered by the spanish dancing show on tv, the flamenco music blasting and the sangria. ah well. i was dying tired the whole time so i basically forced myself to stay awake. then we left to go to a club. i was very against this whole proposition and preferred to sit on the balcony of our firned's hostel. when we got to their hostel, the terrace was really awesome. you could see the whole city and the night air was great. we had only been there about three minutes when a man came up and told us they were about to start their power hour. this is when you take a shot of beer every minute for an hour. we vacated the premises immediately.

so we walked around. our RA, justin was with us and he found the biggest Chinese fan poking out of a dumpster. this provided us with temporary amusement. from there we proceeded to the barria which is where all the clubs and bars are. it was bout one oclock and the streets were just starting to fill up. just barely. all the clubs cost money to get in but we found two that were free. the first was super lame and the second was less lame. so we settled for the less lame. apparently dancing doesn't really start until about three so we were the only dorks dancing in the corner. we were laughed at. who cares? it was fun. i danced my way into a sweaty exhausted frenzy. being a free club, we had only kids in braces and trashy old guys wiht us. it was basically great.

we got tired of it so we left. we were scheduled to meet the rest of our group at the krusty krab for crabby patties. yes, they actually have the spongebob restaurant and actually sell crabby patties. so cool. well, we were early so we sat in the street. it was almost three so thinngs were finally picking up in alicante. we were sitting there and as we sat, we witnessed a fight in the street and multiple people peeing. so awesome. we got our patties and then climbed this huge old tree where the roots grew in the air. so cool. then we really had to book it back to the hostel for our cabs. as we waited for the cab, a man peed in the street and then came up to ask if he could pay us for marijuana or cocaine. we politely declined and he staggered away.

so we got to the airport dead and flew back to germany. and then trained back to the bode. dead. so dead. but absolutely too worth it. 

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