Eurotrip '05: Alicante

Mon, July 25, 2005 (Day 55)
Hola from Alicante, Spain! Well... somewhere between Alicante and the nearby town of Elche (where Laura's family lives). Laura has been hooking us up. Bigtime.
Before I go on, there's probably a number of confused readers out there who are wondering just where all these european friends keep coming from. Here's the backstory in a nutshell...
A few years ago, Ginny was getting tired with school and was looking for a change of pace. She, with the support of her family, decided to take some time off and go to Ireland to work in a hotel. She worked there for a year and met of ton of international people (like herself) who had travelled to Ireland for the experience, or in many cases, to improve their english. She became very close with a number of them, and they always said that if she was ever back in this part of the world, they would try to meet up.
Fast forward 4 years and here we are backpacking through europe, and Ginny and her friends are making good on their word. Thus, that's where Vera, Arantxa, Aitur, Laura, Marta, Audi, and a whole slew of others came from. These are the people who are taking us from our whirlwind backpacking adventure and really giving us a taste of life in their country. Awesome!
Ok... so... Laura, from Alicante, is another one of Ginny's very close friends. As I said... she is hooking us up. Turns out, she's now a manager at the Holiday Inn, and is giving us a huge discount on an amazing room! 10euro a night each in a hotel with free breakfast! And that's just the beginning...
We arrive Friday evening (22nd), Laura picks the 4 of us up at the train station, brings us to the hotel, we drop our bags in our gorgeous room, and head out to her parents house in the countryside. Now, this is not so much as house, as it is a Villa... I'm talking tennis court, backyard pool... the works! Her parents already have dinner ready for us... a delicious tuna caseraole (it was awesome, and I don't even like tuna!). We chilled out at the villa and then headed on back to the hotel to crash.
We crash until 11am on Saturday the 23rd (I told ya, we're a lazy bunch... especially when we're getting treated like royalty). We get up, and mosey on downstairs to the free buffet - fresh croissants baby! Then Laura informs us that there's an open market out in Elche, so we burn on out there and check that out - very cool. Then we go for a stroll through Elche and visit one of the cathedrals with an amazing view of the Palm Grove Park from the top! I've never seen so many palm trees in my life. Then we all pile into Laura's car and head back out to her folks place for lunch: Spanish Omlets (w/ potato and onion) and chicken strips - absolutely awesome - I'm so stuffed! We hung at the house for a while to let the feast settle.
A few hours later we were jetting out to Laura's sister's house for a BBQ supper! Can you say spoiled?? I think all the weight we lost on this trip is coming quickly back! Had an amazing feast, and once again, were stuffed beyond comprehension. A great night! Love her sister's samouri figures!
The next day (Sun, 24th) the kids hit the beach, and I slept in till 1pm! (lol). Headed on back to Laura's for a Papaya lunch - chicken, peppers and rice - absolutely delicious (do you see a theme here? All we do is loaf and eat. Now THIS is a vacation! Incredible!) Fortunately for our stomachs, this was the only meal of the day (and it more than met the quota). Rested up after that, for you see, Laura had a big evening planned.
She walked up to us and said, "Ok... I can get all of us free admission to the theme park Terra Mitica (think Spanish Disneyland), but only on one condition. If anyone asks, you are all wealthy clients of the hotel." LOL! Steve and I got to pose as "Swiss Bankers". Awesome hey? We kept walking around yelling "Combien de Fracs!?" Once again, Laura hooked us up!!!! Ginny was a German manager, and Krista was a Spanish accountant! Hahaha. Anyway, the rouse worked, and we got in for free!
Once inside, we started hitting all the craziest rides. The Novedad... a 90degree spinning ring thing - fucked! Magnus Colossus - a huge wooden coaster - awesome! Flight of the Pheneix - a 10 story freefall - crazy. Tizona - a 100km/h 360degree looping coaster in 35seconds - NUTS. Plus a whole bunch more. ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE! So awesome... I love you Laura!
Spent most of the next day (Monday the 25th) taking it easy... the boy and I went out for a stroll around Alicante to take in some of the sights. Nice.
It looks like this is where Steve and I part ways with Ginny, Krista and Laura. Ginny has elected to spend the remainder of the trip in Spain with Krista Garland, and in London with Krista Coates for a few days before we head back across the pond. So we said our temporary goodbyes.. which again (like when we lost Kay and Ricketts) was pretty strange.
Up early on the 26th (Tuesday) for our train ride up the mediterranean coast to Girona (just north of Barcelona), to catch our 22:15 Ryanair flight to London Stanstead airport. The way it worked out, it was far less expensive if we flew late in the evening on the 26th to London, and then departed early in the morning on the 27th for Scotland. The only downside: looks like we're sleeping on the cold hard concrete floor in the airport! Anyway... I got a few hours sleep out of it, so it wasn't a totally loss! Frig, I'm cold! I miss Spain already!
QOTD: "DRUGS!!!!!" - at the London Customs desk, our response to "What is your business in the UK?" [This is an imagine-if-we-said-that quote.... not an actual quote]