El Campello

This weekend I made the last minute decision to go with four other of my girl friends to Valencia, about a 2 hour train ride north east of Alicante.

But before I get ahead of myself let me tell you what I did last weekend and this past week:

Last weekend was a pretty chill weekend, one I would like to call a normal weekend in Alicante. Of course Friday night we went out. We met at my house around 11 since the busses stop running at 10:30 and we have a few people who have to take the bus from kind of far out. We chilled at my house and played cards and talked until it was late enough for us to go out and not look lame for being out too early. How crazy is that, you are lame if you go out at 12 cause it is too early! We did the usual walk around from bar to bar, run into people we know, and dance! You gotta love dancing. We wrapped up the night when around 5:30 when one of my friends started to fall asleep in the bar. Saturday we were going to go to a town just a tram ride away at 10 but we clearly didn't up doing that. Instead I was able to sleep in and later on Britta, Garrett and I went to El Campello to walk around and chill on the beach. It was a fairly nice day, just a bit windy.

They had these boulder piers that were a lot of fun to walk out on.

Beautiful view of the city from the end of the pier.

Attempt at taking a picture of myself so there was a least for this little trip.

Garrett was a bit crazy. The was freezing but he insisted on going all the way out to where the waves were hitting the rocks. I don't think he know they came up that much. Some of the rocks were covered in moss too so he almost slipped. That would have not been fun.

Look at how beautifully clear the water is here. I truly amazes.

I felt slightly weird doing this when we were in El Campello, but oh well I wanted to.
I thought this was a cool picture cause when I first looked at it is looked like the hand was coming out, but obviously it is an impression of Garrett's hand.

On Sunday Britta, Samuel and I went to the Marq, the archaeological museum literally right across the street from me. It was neat to see all the old stuff like the old coins, plates, tools, and such. It was only 1 euro to get in so it was a nice cheat way to entertain ourselves. I think I want to go again and get an audio tour in English so I know more about what I am looking at. I will do that one day when I am super bored just sitting at home.

After the Marq we all went to the church that Samuel, Mandy, and Michelle had been going to, but neither Michelle or Mandy went this week. It was definitely hard to understand anything, but it a cool experience and it was super weird because we sand Lord I lift your name on high but in spanish! At first I didn't realize it but once I heard more of the tune I got super excited. Such a cool experience.

After church we decided to go explore where Samuel had the week before, up by the castle. We found this little fountain park around the side of the castle. Then we met Michelle back at my house and we were going to make cookies but we couldn't find the measuring cup. I was convinced Pepita was hiding it from me so I couldn't use her kitchen, but I found it just sitting out on the counter today! So instead of making cookies we played cards.

The rest of the week was routine. School, homework and hanging with friends. We went to the chocolateria again but this time with more people. We all shared the fondue and it was delicious, expect the not so crunchy apples.

And after that we walked along the promenade and looked at all of the vendors.

Baking in Alicante....hard but not impossible.

As I have mentioned before baking here is Alicante is definitely a hard task, but not impossible. Thank goodness it isn't impossible because I think I might die if I couldn't bake even one thing for 5 months. For those of you who know me know I L-O-V-E to bake, it is just something I enjoy doing and I enjoy being able to put a smile on people's face with baked goods.

As you know from an earlier post I have made Christmas Crack before here and it was a hit! I mean honestly how could it not be who doesn't love chocolate, brown sugar, butter, and saltines. I don't know anybody. So some of my girl friends and I decided to make it again. Thankfully Pepita is nice enough to let us use her kitchen. (which side note, I am so happy that Pepita lets me have people over to hang out and bake and such cause pretty much all of my friends are not allowed to have people over so if Pepita didn't allow it we would be in the streets hanging out) We ended up making two cookie sheets of christmas crack and chocolate chip cookies! Thanks to my mother I had chocolate chips for the cookies and a measuring cup. SO helpful!

Britta and Alex double teamed laying out the parchment paper and saltine crackers.

While Michelle chopped up the HUGE milka chocolate bar for the christmas crack.

The christmas cracked turned out really good, so good we ate half of a cookie sheet of it before we were done baking the cookies. The chocolate chip cookies didn't sure out as good because we didn't have a measuring spoon for the vanilla and baking powder and we put in a little too much. They still tasted fine but exactly like chocolate chip cookies.

I bought ziplock baggies at the grocery store the other day since Pepita has no such thing. I mean why would she need to keep food fresh and away from ants just for us? But since I bought some I was able to bring all my goodies to school and share with all our other friends and my teachers. My spanish teacher is pregnant and said she had been craving chocolate so I figured what is a better way to get an A than to bring in some chocolate! She tried the christmas crack and loved it. She had me explain to her how I made it and she wrote down the recipe so she could try it. She actually told me today that she tried it yesterday and it didn't turn out all that good, but her daughter loved it.

Since that I made a boxed cheesecake too which was just ok but my roommates liked it. I told them if they wanted me to make it for them again they can just buy the box and I will make it. I am nice but not nice enough to spend all of my travel money on baked goods.

Did I tell you guys I love to bake for people :)

Carnaval and Altea.

Lately I have found it much easier to forget to write on my blog and that just isn't acceptable, I have to keep on top of it. Also looking back at some of my other posts I realized there are definitely a lot more pictures than words. I think pictures are more how I explain and tell what has been going on in my life and I have never been a very good writer so that is how what my blog has transformed to, more pictures less words. I don't know what people prefer more words or pictures, but I am going to have very few pictures in this post because I simply don't have any more pictures to show you yet.

The main reason I don't have pictures is because I refuse to bring my camera out with me at night especially for Carnaval cause I did not want it to get stolen or anything else happen to it.

I kind of wish I would have had my camera for saturday night of Carnaval because it was CRAZY and there were so many cool costumes!!! Seriously Spaniards know how to party it up. Friday night Mandy, Britta, a few other random people and I went out to see the parade they were going to have. Well that was kind of a flop... Mandy's teacher told her there was going to be a parade at 9:30 starting at the Plaza de Toros, which was perfect because it is right by our house. Then Britta was looking online and said it didn't start until 10:30 so we waited and went down to the plaza around 10:30. Of course when we got down there there was no one around so we decided to go down the street a little further and see if we could find it. Nothing, absolutely no one was out looking like they were waiting to watch a parade so we went back up to the plaza de toros just to check again so see if anyone was there. Still no one so we ended up meeting up with a few other people from our program and went to a little bar and relaxed and talked for an hour or so. We were pretty bummed that there was no parade and we felt kind of stupid but that is okay we still had a good night.

Friday afternoon after I got out of class Mandy wanted to go to the chocolatería so Mandy, Rebeka (my Swedish roommate), and I went. For those of you who don't know which I assume is most of you a chocolatería is a little shop, that kind of looks like an old time ice cream parlor, that has an entire menu of just chocolate stuff. It is amazing! Here in Alicante since the Valor chocolate factory is so close the chocolatería near us is a Valor one.

We were literally the only people in the place besides a women and her daughter who came in for about 10 minutes.

This is what Rebeka got, it is a cold chocolate drink with whip cream and sprinkles on top.

It is kind of hard to tell but Mandy got churros and chocolate.

It is delicious, but the chocolate is a lot to take and technically you are supposed to drink the chocolate once you are done with the churros, but I don't think any of us could have done it.

I got the coolest thing of the menu. The are little shot glasses full of different intensities of chocolate.

I would barely even have half the shot glass of any of them so Mandy and Rebeka helped me out. My favorites were the lightest ones, but I liked the dark chocolate one too. The one I absolutely hated was the second on in from the left. Something about it was just disgusting.

This explains to you what I got. They had it is Spanish and in English, that is what I call a cheat sheet :)

We also got a box of assorted chocolates so share. We got a row so we picked the five flavors we wanted. They were all really good!

The next night of Carnaval Britta, Mandy, and I went out to see what festivities were going on and guess what we found a parade!!!! We just laughed when happened to stumble upon a parade we weren't even looking for. It made us feel a little better after the night before. We walked around looking for people from our group and ended up running into a kid from my class and his group of friends so we hung out with them all night. It was fun because I finally convinced Mandy to go out on a weekend!!! Normally she isn't the type to go out and drink and such but I told her that it is just as fun going out and just dancing. Low and behold she came out didn't drink danced and shockingly had a good time :) I was happy I got her out of our house for a change.

Saturday night is the big night for Carnaval. It is the night where everyone dresses up like it is halloween and pretty much just parties in the street. Here is Alicante they closed off La Rambla, which is the main street where all the bars are, and had stages and vendors lined up all over the place. I was C-R-A-Z-Y there was an insane amount of people all over the place and what got me is that it isn't just adults, kids were out too with their parents. I don't think I would ever bring my child out when I knew it was just going to be a huge drunken party. Pretty much the entire night was spent walking around looking at people costumes and dancing. It was a lot of fun but a tad overwhelming for me. Even when we went down to the port there were people everywhere, it is definitely the younger crowd though. I was terrified someone was going to fall in the water or something because practically everyone was wasted. On my walk back home at 5:30 in the morning I was looking at the ground and thinking I feel bad for whoever has to clean this up. It was such a mess, alcohol, broken bottles, pieces of costumes, pee, and all sorts of random stuff on the ground. Overall it was a lot of fun though but not something I could handle for more than one day.

Sunday Pepita had here entire family over for lunch and she made delicious pork roast! It was so yummy I had it for lunch dinner and lunch again the next day. Unfortunately it caused a little stomach, acid reflux pain but it was good while I was eating it.

Also Sunday Mandy decided she wanted to take the tram a few towns up to Altea so her, Samuel and I went around 4:00. Unfortunately we went a little late so it was kind of cold and it got dark really fast, but it was nice to get away for part of the day and explore a new place.

Again yet another beautiful place :)

I loved that it wasn't sand beaches, it was white rocks instead. It made such a soothing sound when the tide would roll in and out.

Mandy

We were thought we could take this path all the way around and quickly realized we could not unless we wanted to get wet.

Haha this picture is hilarious. Samuel was jumping from rock to rock and I just happened to snap a picture right when he was jumping with perfectly straight legs, perfect posture and hands in the pockets. For some reason it just looks strange and it cracks me up.

The city was so beautiful at night with the cathedral at the top of the hill all lit up.

Almost as pretty as our castle at night.

So I kind of lied there were quite a few pictures but not as many as normal and I made sure to write a little more. Hope you all enjoyed it!

To the castle we go......again!

On Thursday last week we decided we needed to actually follow through on our promise to go to the castle once a week. It made me sad though cause when we decided we would go the sun was out, but about a half hour later it got windy and cloudy again. Even though the weather took a turn for the worse we decided to stick with the plan and take the hike up! This time we had more people too so it was a lot of fun! It was the four of us from last time, Britta, Michelle, Mandy, and me plus two guys, Garrett my roommate and Samuel a guy from ASU in Michelle's spanish class.

Since you all have already seen the views from the castle I will spare you repeat pictures, but I am including the pictures with people in them. They are so much more fun to look at, plus you guys can see who I am spending all of my time with over here.

Last time we were on the way up to the castle we saw a little dirt path but we didn't want to take it then so Mandy decided we were going to take it this time. It was pretty neat, it went around the base of the castle and out to a little rocky peninsula thingy. It was fun going off the beaten path and it was excellent for new pictures.

Mandy.

Samuel.

Michelle.

She was leaning on the tree and I thought it looked like one of those cheesy senior pictures so I made her pose for a pic.

We wanted a group picture so we put my camera in the tree and set the timer. It was semi difficult to find a spot my camera could balance, but we made it work and got an excellent group picture.

Samuel, Britta, Michelle, Mandy, Garrett and of course ME :)

It is really hard to see, but there are people living up here in a tent. I was really surprised they have a really good set up. They have a clothes rack, their laundry hanging up, a stove thing, and of course the tent. It is hard to believe they haven't been kicked off of the mountain.

I had to take another few guard tour pictures, the last one just cracked me up.

This time it was Garrett's home not Britta's.

Mandy found this tunnel and wanted to see where it went, but it didn't go far. She was a little bummed.

We found another new area that was blocked off, but we went into it anyway. I really liked this look out point, it is so beautiful so I made Samuel pose.

I liked the picture so much I wanted one with the rest of us. It is a little zoomed in but thats ok you can actually see our faces this way.

Garrett and the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.

I love the old canons they still have up in their original places. SO pretty.

We had to get a picture with this background, but the I realized that the picture of Mandy and me is on Mandy's camera. I will have to get it from her.

We cheated on the way back down. We took the elevator instead of walking back down, but at least we did the harder walk up and not the other way around. Michelle and Britta randomly wanted a picture of them running through the tunnel. After we were done everyone decided that they wanted to get a coffee so we went to a little shop on the main street in Alicante. I didn't get a coffee cause I actually wanted to sleep, but it was fun getting to warm up and talk.

Day trip to Valor Chocolate Factory and Benidorm

This past weekend one of my friends, Britta, came up with the idea to go to a local chocolate factory just a few towns up for a little day trip. It was an awesome idea, we got a group of nine people together and headed out at 9:00 in the morning. We all were able to pick up the tram at different location and the ride was only 40 minutes, not bad at all. Since we were able to use our bus passes for the tram, the ride was pretty much free! We got to the Valor chocolate factory around 10:15 and found out the tours only start on the hour so we walked around the town until 11:00. The tour was free too! It was a decent tour for being free. It started with a little video that got all of us salivating right away, then a tour of all the old equipment that they used and it ended with a walk through the delicious smelling factory and free samples of chocolate in the gift shop. We realized by the time we got to the gift shop that the reason they don't have to charge an entrance fee is because pretty much everyone is craving chocolate by the end of the tour and they end up buying a ton.

This is the tram that we road. It kind of reminded me of the MARTA in Atlanta.

The tram ride was beautiful so I of course took lots of pictures.

They were a little hard to take because the tram was going fast and there was a reflection on the windows, but I got a few good ones.

As you can see besides us the tram was pretty empty. There were a few more people on the ride back though.

Britta, Garrett, Erin, and Kat

The sky was so pretty, very few clouds and sunshine!

A random huge billboard toro.

Kat and Alex.

Sarah and Michelle.

Mandy and Me.

Looking at this picture you could guess that it was taken in AZ. With the dirt, cacti, blue sky, and mountains.

The original sign.

I have an obsession with taking pictures of all the cacti I see. It just makes me so happy to have a little piece of home with me :)

Waiting for the tour person to come let us in.

Kat, Garrett, Erin, and Britta

Michelle, Alex, Mandy, and Sarah.

Before we went in for the tour we were able to get a group picture in front of the old school delivery truck.

This is what they used to use to grind down the cocoa beans.

The old molds.

I had never really seen what cocoa beans looked like so I though this was interesting.

After the chocolate factory we got back on the tram and continued on to another town, Benidorm. It is definitely a tourist spot for all the old British people but it was a nice town to walk around and take pictures in. While we were there it got pretty hot so we sat on the beach and took in some sun. It was fabulous.

When we first got to Benidorm we found a spot to sit and ate out sack lunches :) I felt like I was in elementary school again on a field trip.

Erin and Alex apparently don't have as cool of moms as the rest of us so they had to buy lunches for themselves.

Just so you know I am not lying about where we went :)

The beach was so beautiful!

We had seen other people's pictures from when they had gone to Benidorm and most of them had pictures up on this white balcony thingy so we were determined to find it and take some photos there. It didn't really take us long to find and it is definitely a must for some amazing pictures.

Michelle and me.

I liked this spot for pictures cause it looks like it just drops off behind me. Those are where the stairs are down to the balcony.

I was able to stack some stuff up to put my camera on and take a group shot. You can't really see the ocean very well but it is still a good picture of all of us.

We had to do a goofy one too just for good measure.

Me and the GORGEOUS view. This is most definitely my facebook profile picture :)

Look how clear the water is!

Just chilling on the beach in February, no big deal...

We hung out until about 6:30 and headed home. It was a perfect little day trip that was inexpensive and fun!

This weekend in Carnaval which is a big deal in Spain so I am sure I will have lots of pictures to post of the festivities. Hope all is well back home!