Guadalest.

This past week Mandy's best friend from Texas, Jessica, was in town for her spring break. Since she was here during the week and we had school her and Mandy had to stick with just taking the tram places, but on Saturday we were able to a little bit further. We went to a town of 200 people named Guadalest. The town is completely dedicated to tourism apparently because it is the most visited place in Spain. I don't know if I believe that because it is so hard to get to but that is what it said.

Mandy, Jessica, Britta and I all went and left at 8:30 Saturday morning. We wanted to make sure got an early start so we would have a nice long day to explore. We took the tram up to Altea in hopes to catch a bus up to the small town. Unfortunately we weren't 100% sure that there was going to be a bus because the website we looked at was from 2006 and it said they only ran monday-friday and the number we called just kept ringing so. So of course when we got there we asked someone and they said there wasn't a bus. We ended up calling a taxi and splitting the cost for the 40 minute cab ride. Let me tell you I understand why there aren't busses going all the way up there, the roads are SO turny and small. I am not one to ever get car sick, but I was dying on this car ride. I had to focus ridiculous amounts so I wouldn't get sick and at one point I broke out in a cold sweat. It was terrible I could not wait til we got to Guadalest so I could stand on solid ground. According to Britta when I got out of the cab my face was pale and my lips were basically white. I am telling you it was not good. I was lucky I didn't get sick.

There is Guadalest in the distance at the base and the tops of those cliffs! It took a lot for me to be able to take this picture. I really did not want to take my eyes off the road straight ahead but I did it anyway.

Almost there!!!

At the base of the cliffs were a bunch of small shops and restaurants. It was so annoying though case in the entire place they had no public bathrooms, in every store you had to purchase something to use their bathroom. Luckily we were buying lunch when I had to go to the bathroom so I didn't have to waste money.

The views were beautiful even before we started climbing up to the castle.

Mandy and Britta with the bell tower behind them.

Me

Cross.

It is hard to see because she blends in but Mandy is standing up at the top of the stairs.

They had shops up by the castle too. I am pretty sure we went into every single shop there, that is how small this place is.

A strange statue/waterfall thing.

The reason it is up on cliffs and why it is famous is because the ground eroded around the buildings. Obviously not all the buildings as you can see in this picture, whatever was on top of that did not survive.

I think the terraced ground is beautiful, but when I said that to Britta she was all mad cause she said it was ruining the earth. I just laughed at her nicely and said well now it is prettier and cooler earth :)
I was able to set my camera up on the wall and set the timer to get a picture of all four of us.
I wanted to make it look like there was nothing behind Mandy besides a drop, but I don't think it really worked. Still thought it was a good picture though.

There is a lake at the bottom of the mountain. It was such a pretty, unique color.

We had to wait to be able to go up to the castle so we sat on the freezing concrete benches. It was very strange cause right behind me was wall of keychains with people's pictures in them, but the pictures are all candid really bad shots of them. The even weirder part was that people were actually buying them for four euro. I have to say I would not spend that much money on a crappy picture of myself.

Passageway through the mountain.

I told Britta to act like she was working in the kitchen. Haha.

Dude is this not AWESOME! Looks like a comfy toilet to me :) I was cracking up when I saw this. You know they were the cool kids on the block with this toilet.

Here are some more window shots.

The bell tower close up now.

A lot of the castle was in ruins but it was still gorgeous. It made it more authentic.

It was a cloudy day, but it wasn't to cold thankfully.

Taking lots of pictures!

I thought this was neat how they had this in four different languages. For sure a tourist town.

Beautiful ladies.

I really liked this cross.

Best friends.

Mandy is so lucky her best friend came out to visit her....if only my friends would visit me :)

I had to take another one of these pictures. The last one was just too funny.

Finally to the top! So worth the cab ride and walk for the view.

This is why all the men in Spain are short, they make doors like these. Over time they started getting shorter so they wouldn't hit their heads anymore.

Guadalest was such a cute little town I am glad we made the trek up there. Thankfully on the way back down I didn't feel as sick in the car, but unfortunately I passed it onto Jessica. She ended up being fine though so overall it was a successful trip. It was nice getting to meet Jessica and spend some time getting to know her. Now I will have two friends in Tyler, Texas for me to visit!

This weekend I am off to Valencia for Las Fallas.....that is going to be craziness! I am sure I will have lots to post on that when I get back so you will have something to look forward to.