After Granada I was exhausted. It was three jam-packed days, with jogging, walking and exploring every crevice of the city. The following week also got pretty busy and tiring as far as work goes. We were separated from our common lab training group to go into our particular research topics, already with our individual mentors; so it was no surprise when it was Thursday already and I had no plan for the weekend. I asked around the office and they all recommended different cities around the Valencian Community, so I decided to at least stay within the larger Valencia area. After a quick look at the tourism page of the Valencian Community, I learned that was a festival going on in Alicante. Alicante is the second largest city in the Valencian Community, about a two hour drive south along the same highway that took us to Granada. The fair that was coming up was the city's big annual party.
The Hogueras de San Juan (The Bonfires of Saint John) are a yearly festival celebrated all along Spain's eastern coast, from Catalonia all the way down to Valencia. The biggest celebration is in Alicante, and it was going to be this same weekend. As soon as I got home from work I booked the trip there. Syed volunteered to go with me; Brandon was staying home and Chris was going to Paris with Alkali and Kameron (A trip I had originally considered, until I realized they'd only be there for two days, and would be going to all the touristy areas. Another time Paris).
So Saturday we took off, on the road to parts unknown for the last time here in Spain. We were only going for one night because the first day of the festival was that same Saturday. The whole trip there I was uncertain. Uncertain that the festival was going to be any good, uncertain that there would be anything to do at all in Alicante, uncertain even of where we were staying.
When we got there we were met by a throng of people and three-story tall paper-mache figures. Maybe it wasn't going to be such a boring weekend.
We sat down and mooched some Wi-Fi to find a place to stay. In the meantime, I got some Paella Alicantina. This version of Paella is actually mixta, with both game meat and seafood; a big no-no in Valencia city. The rice was a darker shade, and overall a stronger course.
At 2 PM, the famous Mascleta (when the whole town lights off firecrackers for 15 minutes, starting at 2 o'clock) went off. We had our reservations, and we crossed downtown to go drop the bags off and explore the city properly. After walking a bit away from the center of town, the line of tall buildings broke and we were able to look at the Santa Barbara Castle, the dominant feature in the Alicante panorama, and a symbol of the city.
As soon as we dropped off the bags and we checked in, we were off towards the castle. On the way there I convinced Syed to go with me to the bullfight that was happening later in the day. He was reluctant at first, but he finally decided to go. I was finally going to get the Spanish trifecta: flamenco, tapas and bullfighting.
There are two main options to get up the castle. You can either walk up the whole side of the mountain, all 166 vertical meters up; or you can take an elevator. The mountain ends right before the beach, so they dug a tunnel into the mountain, first horizontally and then vertically to make the elevator shaft. Inside the shaft they installed a high-speed elevator that can get you up to the summit in about thirty seconds.
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| "The Turquoise door" |
On the way to the elevator, and
through colorful alleys, we finally got to the coast. It was a white sand beach, a lot like Valencia, with the added bonus of a better backdrop. It was a very deep bay, where cliffs rose in the background and the buildings of the city were bunched up against the sea due to the rocky terrain around Mount Benacantil (the cliff the castle is on).
Just 100-meters from the beach was the tunnel to the elevator. The castle was completely different from the Alhambra. A Christian fortress, it was never the seat of power and it was purely a military structure. The view from here, though, was amazing. It is a single outcropping on which they build a castle, so from the turrets you can see everything for miles around you. From up there you could see the Mediterranean go from the cobalt blue of open ocean to the teal of the shore, to the white sand of the beach; and then see the city sprawl off into the distance of the far away mountains.
I could have stayed up there for a good while longer, but we had a date to catch with a bull.
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