Beachy Goodness

I’m now on another train heading up from Alicante to Valencia. Unfortunately because I'm moving so much I haven't had a chance to upload my photos, but will soon (you'll just have to read in the mean time). I’ve just had the most awesome and chilled out two days which I have sorely needed. As we all know, it’s not until you stop and slow down that you realise that you actually might need some time off.

After finishing work last Thursday and getting the train to Alicante on Friday morning we had time to kill in town while we waiting from the boys working in Barcelona to come down and get us. We spent the time walking around and checking out the marina and beach area. It felt SO good to have my feet in the sand again, and then to have them in the water. The beach was not quit up to Aussie standards, but it wasn’t too bad at all and we would have been happy with just about anything. Unfortunately we’d left all our luggage in a locker at the train station and so couldn’t get changed into bathers for a swim.

After getting lunch we decided not to waste the afternoon and despite being very tired, we headed up to a big fort thing we ad seen from the beach which is on a hill overlooking the city. There was a huge staircase up the side of the hill which I was considering climbing, but we then found out that the stairs have been blocked off and a lift is used to get instead. The lift goes up inside the hill, so there is a long tunnel to walk to get to the lift itself, then a long vertical shaft for it to go up, all cut out of the rock (pretty impressive).

The fort was excellent and offered gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside and the coast. The water looked good from up there! Art had also been placed in some areas of the fort while others had historical information etc. After taking it all in, we headed back to meet the boys coming from Barcelona. We found out that we were still waiting on one more person to arrive and so we jammed all of our luggage into the car and headed for tee beach. The swim was awesome and they had a pontoon out in the deeper water which we swum out to and mucked around on. After collecting Pete’s girlfriend and John’s mate from the Alicante airport, we finally headed off for Torrevieja at about 10pm.

Because there was now 7 of us in total, we had to send a couple of people in a taxi with some of the excess luggage. We should have just followed the taxi! Pete (who’s house we were going to) sort of knew the way but the onramps/offramps for the expressways stuffed us up a little. It took almost 90 minutes to complete what should have been a 30-40 minute journey. Bugger! We were meeting the taxi people at an Irish pub close to the holiday house, so rather than everyone go back onward and drop the luggage off, a few of us just plonked down in the pub and started drinking.

Pubs in Spain are great because they are open late, so we sat around and had quite a few before heading onward to another pub/club type place. From there we drank more (oh yeah, alcohol I cheap in Spain too) until finally we started to walk back home. On the return leg we found a club and just went in the for hell of it. Next thing we know it’s 6am and the sun is coming up. We all headed home and crashed.

So on Saturday we got up a little gingerly, headed to the supermarket to get food and then cooked up some lunch. At the supermarket they had a van outside which has one side that completely opens up. On that side are just racks and racks of chicken rotisseries, with the rear wall being a huge panel of heating elements. The chickens smelt SO good I had to get one. They were lemon and herb but were cooked to perfection and so juicy! They also collected the drippings in trays at the bottom and that liquid gets put into the container when you buy it. Mmmmm.

After lunch, it was time for the beach! Ah yeah, it was awesome. The water is warm, the sun was out, everything was great. We had a great time just getting used to floating in water etc again (it’s quite salty water there so you float well) and having a swim out to a fairly close buoy and back. A brilliant day – we didn’t leave until almost 9pm! Those little bars on the beach are lethal, even after swimming all day you are tempted to just sit around and have a few cold ones or cocktails while watching the sun go down. And, for the guys, yes there are quite a lot of people bathing topless in Spain, the problem is that most of them are English tourists or aged at least 40 and fat! Occasionally there is a young girl of quality but really not that many. It was also funny to see a lot of ‘older’ women walking around topless and we’d try to work out wither they were fake. Some had some shocking boob jobs! One girl we name Madonna because even while lying down, she had really pointed boobs which were standing straight up (like that Madonna bra). It looked horrible!! (which was a shame, because her figure was brilliant and her face pretty).

For dinner we decided to get some more food from the supermarket and have a bbq. It was awesome and we sat up till 5am drinking and having a good time. I was in charge of cooking the meat and it seemed to go well.. *polish knuckles*. The other reason we were celebrating was that Sunday was our workmates birthday, so as midnight kicked over we had a few toasts etc.

So after going to sleep late again, we were up at 10:30am or so for another big breakfast, then straight down to the beach again. We mucked around again for a while in the water with a beach soccer ball that Brendan bought for 10euro (I only hit one person throwing it) and swam out to the buoy and back for a bit of exercise. The previous day we had seen people going out on banana boats and jet skis so we all decided Sunday was the day.

I shared a ski with John because they only had 2, which left Brendan on his own one. At 45 euro for 15 mins, it is expensive, but a LOT of fun! It’s also very hard on your body if you really fang it (as I of course would) and your legs get a real workout if you are bouncing around a lot (which happens when you go fast, which of course I did too J). The skis are massively powerful though, if you really open it up you can barely just hang on, and they do go fast if you can get a good run through a calm patch. After getting the speed up, I started trying to make if spin and flip etc, doing donuts, that kind of thing. John and I both had to hold onto each other really tight just to stay on when we weren’t driving (we’re just friends, honest!). At one point we were approaching a corner really quickly when I launched off a small wave but turned in the air. When we landed the ski dug into the water so we turned hard into the corner and John simply kept going in the original direction we were travelling… He just flew off the thing sideways and smacked into the water.

Later on I was doing fishtails when we bounced off a wave. The ski was basically sideways in mid air and when we hit the water again, both John and I went flying and the ski almost flipped over! It was so awesome!!! We ended up getting about 25 minutes out there on ours, so that was great. Talking to Brendan later he was explaining that he couldn’t make it swing around like we did. The extra weight seems to help in getting the ski to really lean into the corners. But with one person, you can fang it better in a straight line (it seems easier to balance the ski and keep it straight).

We again watched the sun sink over cocktails and cervesa before heading back to the apartment and getting ready to head out. We went back to the pub/club that we hit on Friday night and started drinking slowly. Before long the shots were coming out and we all kicked into gear. Once again we went back to the club from Friday and once again we got home around 7am. I whipped up burgers for everyone and we collapsed in bed.

The coastline that I could see from our beach is really rocky and beautiful in some places. The two previous days I had wanted to get out and take a jog along it to see what it was like further up, but I’d woosed out. So this morning (after 3 hours sleep) I was up and jogging at 10:30am. There was a good breeze so it wasn’t too hot, but within minutes I was sweating like anything. My legs were also ridiculously sore from the jet ski hammering they had taken on Sunday so it was a real effort. But yes, the coastline is beautiful and the run was really nice. The only downside was that I managed to find the local nude beach, and of course it was only populated by geriatrics. Fortunately they were quite far away so I wasn’t too blinded.

I cleaned up for a bit then helped whip up a quick lunch before packing all my stuff up. We chucked it in the car and headed down to the beach again. It was really windy so there was actually waves which could be bodysurfed.. (it felt like home J). After that we headed back to Alicante for me to get the train and made it in 30 mins on the motorway (as opposed to 90 the other night!). So here I am! The guy next to me on the train bloody stinks though, it’s really nasty (and his breath.. uhh.. he yawns and I nearly faint!).

Tomorrow I am working and should be done around 4pm. CK will be in town getting supplies etc so he’s offered to pick me up (they hired a car) and give me a ride to Calpe. That means I will need an early night so that I am ready for ‘La Tomatina’. I’m having trouble finding some budget shoes to wear to this thing as I know that everything will most likely need to get turfed at the end of the day. So hopefully something will come up tomorrow.

After La Tomatina, it’s 2 more days in Calpe on the beach before heading back to London.

Oh yeah, Dockers owned Eagles! Wooooo!!!! F is for Finals!

Anka