Alicante, Spain

Alicante, Spain:

               I took Spanish in high school. I was never very good at speaking the language. As a tourist, I needed to know words like “tip”, and “bill, please.” Words that I learned was more like, “Turtle”, and “Penguin”. I have always wondered, “When would I ever have to use the word penguin in my travels?” It’s not like I would be ordering it for dinner.

               While I was in Alicante, I ran into this amazing woman who is a zoologist studying adaptations in animals in extreme environments. She had actually been to the Antarctic several times to study penguins. I guess I did need to know how to say Penguins in Spanish after all.  

Introduction:

               When my husband and I were planning our route through Spain, we really didn’t know what we were doing. I had chosen Alicante because it was a third of the way to Barcelona from Granada, and that it was on the Mediterranean coast, a sea that I really wanted to see. Other than its location, I really had no idea what was in this city. Our first real introduction to the city was from a man who sat next to us on our plane ride over.

               “Why would you want to go there?” he asked. “It is like the Miami of Spain. That’s where people retire to.”

               This really made us question our decision to go here, and it didn’t get better as we got in. We had decided to rent a car to get there from Grenada. Within two minutes of getting into the city, my husband was cussing me out for not taking a bus. The roads were packed and confusing. Every intersection had a round-about which made things even more confusing.

Our Hotel:

               Somehow we ended up staying in a luxury hotel. The suites were seriously bigger than some nice apartments I’ve seen in Chicago, with a large bedroom and a separate living space. We must have gotten one of the best views at the hotel. It was in the south corner of the building, so we got a spectacular view of the Mediterranean, which was exactly what I had wanted. The bath tub had jets in it, and there was a separate shower that overlooked the sea.

The Scene:

               We have no regrets coming here. In fact, out of everyplace we stayed we had the best time here. Because the crowd is slightly older (in their late 30’s instead of mid 20’s) nightlife started slightly earlier, (10:00 pm instead of 1:30 am). Which was great for me. We watched people go in and out of clubs, or just sit outside on the bars patios with drinks. It was funny I would remark to my spouse how pretty some girl was only to realize later the woman must have been several years older than me. In the morning there were old men drinking coffee outside of shops, and street vendors selling trinkets.

               We were just taking it easy that day. We went on a walk on the beach, where they had exercise equipment set up for the joggers. While we were walking, we noticed a large group of people putting on wet suites. They actually swam in the cold December water for a competition.

The Experience:

               In Spain they still have those cigarette machines that the U.S. got rid of over 20 years ago. My spouse needed to buy cigarettes, so we wondered into this small dinner. It didn’t look like much. We noticed some people eating roasted artichoke hearts. The people looked local and the food looked good, so we ordered the same.

               Now prior to this, every place we went, my spouse would complain that he was stared at. “I had asked him, was it malicious, or where they trying to be flirty?” He told me neither, it was just a stare, but it made him nervous. Anyway, the people who we copied stared at him. So he smiled back. Immediately, a woman from that group jaunted over and started making friendly conversation. Asking us where we were from and if we enjoyed it. The stares that my husband had been getting weren’t mean or flirty; they had been simple invitations to start conversation that we completely missed.

               The group was extremely friendly. They would try to show off what they knew about India, Several of them had even traveled there. They made suggestions on what would be good dishes to try, which, at this diner, was all great. They even invited us to the next bar they were going to.

               This bar was tucked away in an ally. It had some of the best mojitos we had while there. The bar had this little doorway that my husband bumped his head on, on his way out. Fittingly, the name of the bar translates to “Bump your heard”.

               One of my main goals in Spain was to see what people really live like in Spain, and to get invited into someone’s home, unprompted. The Zoologist I talked about earlier did just that. She was having a lunch party and invited us to come along the next day.

               The flat her and her husband/ boyfriend (not sure), had was spectacular. It had one bedroom in the middle and all the other rooms surrounded it. The kitchen reminded me off one you might find in India. The food she was serving was great, from turkey, to olive cheese and ham skewers. There were tons of people there. Half where biologists like our two hosts, and the rest were Cubans. They joked that once you know one Cuban you know them all. We had a really great time here, and we feel lucky to have been invited into their home, to get a real taste of Spanish culture.