An end to the spanish road-trip
Trip Start
May 23, 2008
1
34
54
Trip End
Ongoing
Valencia,
Valencian Country,
Spain and Canary Islands
Saturday, August 30, 2008
We were up thursday at the sensationally bright and early time of 6am to catch the bus over to the Alhambra , Granada´s most famous Islamic palace/fortress/gardens. It was absolutely freezing, and we definitely were not prepared in the slightest for it as shorts and teeshirts were the usual attire for the day, and as the sun had not risen up above the hills the wait in line was very chilly. We had been warned to get to the Alhambra as early as physically possible as we had heard horror stories of people getting there hours before it opened and not getting tickets, but after standing in the slow line for over an hour and a half, we soon discovered the creditcard line was a lot faster and managed to get in at around 9.30am... only an hour after it had opened. Relief! We were designated a time of 11am to see the actual palace, so we wandered around in the meantime through the Generalife (palace gardens) which were absolutely beautiful - lush green hedges, roses, ponds, huge cypress pines, and amazing views across the valley
one of the ponds in Generalife
. We were jumping around like idiots though as we were still freezing cold. We then wandered over to the grounds of the Palacio Nazares ( Nazrid Palace ) and saw the old bull ring, before lining up again to go into the highly hyped palace itself. Built in the 13th Century, it is a stunning palace filled with amazing architectural elements - great marble pillars, domes with the most intricate decorative details that I have ever seen, roofs inlaid with patterns of wood and ivory, and gorgeous patios. We only had half an our in there but it was pretty impressive. We did the full lap through and then wandered to the last area of the Alhambra , the Alcazaba - an 11th Century fortress which guarded the palace, and we climbed up the highest tower and checked out some very very impressive views.
By this stage it was getting very close to 12pm and we knew we were going to be late for checkout, so we quickly jumped on the first bus and hiked back up the hill to pack our stuff and jump in Juan for the big drive to Alicante . It took us another hour to get out of the city and find the right road, but once we were out the scenery was again spectacular, driving through huge mountain ranges and past dams and over bridges. We got into Alicante quite late but found our hotel very easily and headed out to find some food. We ended up choosing the most discusting place for dinner, and were sorely disappointed by the bland pizza and pasta that they had on offer. We were so dirty afterwards that we didn't even feel like gelati (it was that bad). The main pedestrian strip along the waterfront was pretty cool though, and we wandered along checking out the market stalls, portrait artists, musicians, and the most original puppeteer man thing I think I have ever seen (check out the video - it was absolutely brilliant..
gardens in the Generalife
. very impressed). We had a drink at an Irish pub just down the road from our hotel before heading in for an early-ish night at about 1am .We actually managed a sleep in yesterday morning, as i was exhausted and hadn't had a proper nights sleep since Seville . We woke up at 11am and checked out, packed up Juan for our real last day together, checked out the beach and attempted to find the road to a castle towering over the town, before getting frustrated and following the signs out to the main motorway to Valencia instead. It was only a short couple of hours to get there and we had to clean out and farewell our little Juanny at the train station, before we hiked over to the really cool hostel that we were staying in. Im starting to love anywhere that has a rooftop terrace, and this place didn't disappoint, while also providing a really good kitchen, huge dining area, upstairs common room with tv and dvds, pool and fuseball table, and internet. Not that we actually used anything other than the computers and the roof! But we hung out on the patio and met some pretty cool aussies, heard all about La Tomatina (the huge tomato fight that I had missed out on by only a couple of days... it involves truckloads of tomatos being pelted around for a good hour while Spanish guys try and rip off all your clothes and then the locals hose you down in their gardens) and then headed out to find some dinner. One of the staff downstairs recommended an amazingly good pizza place, and after our disappointing dinner the previous night, we were ready for some good food. And this place oozed pure Italian goodness. We ended up sharing an antipasto platter for entrée and then an amazing pizza for dinner. It was almost like I was back in Italy ! The place was totally packed out and we were lucky to get a table, as by the time we were leaving there was an enormous crowd out the front waiting to be seated
Georgie trying to push into the hedge
.After dinner we went back to the rooftop and hung out there drinking sangria until we were kicked out at 11.30pm , and a big group of us wandered over to the sister hostel which had a bar. We hung out with the aussies from earlier on and found out that 2 of the guys were brothers that grew up in Gembrook and that they had gone to Pakenham Hills primary, and oldest had gone to Beaconhills for a term before their family moved up to Queensland. Ben was 24 so he wasn't anywhere near my year, but him and Sam who is 22 became my Pakky buddies for the night. Small world! It was too weird.
After the bar closed we wandered around the streets for a while trying to find something good to do (and trying to loose some drunk American idiot that kept following us around) then ended up heading to bed for some rest as today we head for IBIZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhh
Replies to comments
Mum - im glad that you approve of my philosophies, yes I have pushed my bad memories of Barcelona into the back of my mental diary, I was starting to think that maybe Spain was going to be full of bad luck but thankfully that seems to have passed and now its one of my most favourite places, and yes I will be leaving with some amazing memories. No I haven't done the bullfighting thing, to be honest all I hear is how gruesome and horrible it is to watch, I don't care if its culture I cannot watch a bull be teased and taunted to death in such a cruel and painful way. And they go through 6 or 7 in a night at least
Our blue fingernails from the freezing morning
! There is too much else to do anyway so I don't feel like I missed out on much. The little bulls were so cute though, no they weren't in a ¨china¨ shop - most of the stuff here gets made in places like Morocco anyway. Nice little dig though. My favourite though was the cute little frilly wine bottle covers... they were so cute and highly amused me! Dad - yes the question does come down to hell the hell did I cope with my lack of milk? I think my daily intake of gelati and copious amounts of yogurt helped considerably. Navigating the one way streets would have been considerably much more easy if I had been able to have a map that displayed which way they were meant to go, but unfortunately I don't think that's in Lonely Planets budget when they hire people to do them. Sometimes even road names aren't included in the budget. Its very frustrating to purchase a book for nearly $50 and find that they are almost useless. It will be nice to dispose of it in a couple of months as its like carrying around a slightly helpful but nearly always unhandy expensive brick. Fun times.
I hadn't really noticed that everything had been turned into a male thing, maybe its because almost everyone travelling is female and im subconsciously trying to invent male interaction into my trip? I apologise that we called our car Juan, but to be honest he was a very girly man, and the name fit perfectly so we couldn't help but go along with it
morning view from the Generalife over Granada
. Check out the photos. I will be ignoring the comment of ´keep something in reserve for you folks´. Selective hearing just kicked in, Apologies for that. Glad you appreciate the blogs as it has taken me a shitload of time to catch up with them all. Nearly finished though!
Donna - Its not helpful if the milk is all the way over in Australia , it just makes me more homesick! But that's okay cause I will come raid it when I eventually come home so be prepared my dear. Im glad that you checked out the places that we went, although I don't believe that videos would do it justice as they were both amazing experiences. I must say the massage was simply DEVINE! And my poor shoulders needed it after lugging around Boris for so long!
I love getting comments so please keep them coming :)
Comments
Elvis and bad food
Gee Kate, I didn't know until now that you are such an Elvis fan!!! All of these things I am discovering about you while you are so far from home!!!! I can see why you liked him as he is done so well. Love the way he swivels that microphone around, just like his hips. It's a bit sad that Juan has gone the same way as many of the other friends you have made on your travels. Only difference is I guess you will never see him again while you may catch up with some of the people. Oh well, that's life. After all the good food it must have been aweful to find the place in Alicante that's not up to scratch. Was the food as bad as tagine? How weird to meet someone else who went to Beaconhills. It's a very small world, which reminds me I was just thinking that although you are on the opposite side of the world now your blogs and great pics make you seem a lot closer and the next best thing to having you home. Thanks again for all the time you put into them. Lots of luv Mumxox
Go Elvis
Wow Kate, Marlie being a big Elvis fan loved that puppet...so did I...she said thanks for sending it. I think puppetry is very clever. Well you've met more friends from home, your address book is going to be very full. By the way you look great, great photos, obviously you found some nice passerbys to take some photos for you coz it was good to see the three of you together in some. Anyway gotto go read the next blog..luv Donna xx
Re Elvis
Sorry I meant to say I loved your little giggle on the puppet video. xx