Spain!

So excited to go to Spain. Our first stop was Alicante, Spain. We arrived in Alicante around 3. We booked everything online, so you can only go on what the websites provide you. Which as you will read from our entire Spain experience is definitely not all what it was made out to be. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was in the middle of no where. (but claimed to be within walking distance to the centre of town). At least our room was excellent, like a small apartment. Two rooms, two bathrooms, kitchen with all of the appliances and a deck. Which happened to look out onto a private British school, that I am pretty sure never had classes as there were always kids outside running around! We learned which bus to take into town. It didn't take long to realize that not many people spoke or understood English. (I guess this is just a tourists assumption). So we just pointed on a map to the driver where we wanted to go, and he charged us whatever I think he wanted. We wondered around, trying to find the beach. It wasn't too bad being lost as it was beautiful. We walked along the Mediterranean sea and people watched. We came upon the beach, where we saw no shortage of topless sunbathers. I finally put my feet into the Mediterranean for the first time in my life. Wow, was it cold! We found a place to sit outside and enjoy the late afternoon sun. From here, we thought we would walk into more of the centre of town to find a grocery store. There is nothing like shopping in a store that all you can do is rely on the pictures on the packages. I am not sure how many times we asked one another, what do you think this is. I know this though, wine in Spain is cheap as chips. You could get a bottle of red wine for less than a euro! We also bought a 40 of vodka for 10 euros! This is like 8 pounds, which is like 11 dollars! After stumbling through the store, buying what we thought would be eatable things we got back onto the bus. Well we missed our stop and ended up going on a little detour. The bus stopped and turned off at one point. Umm, Mr Bus driver we need to get back to our hotel! Try getting that across to someone that doesn't understand you. I showed him our hotel card which he thankfully smiled, but he did manage to get us to pay again because it was like we were taking a new trip. We made it back, made some sandwiches watched some Spanish Tv and then went to bed. I should mention what was thought to be salt and pepper turned out to be sage and garlic salt!
Day 2, hello sun! Mom and I were all over our bathing suits, grabbing our books and heading down to the pool. Oh sorry, the pool isn't open for another week! What! Back to the room, got ready and headed into town again. This time we sat in the sun and had a mojito right along the beach. Mom and grandma went to tour the castle and I found a spot on the beach and had a nap! How is this not lush, I could handle this life! After mom and grandma had finished there touring we went to have a drink at a pub. For some reason they are not able to make cocktails until after 6. You can only consume beer or wine before hand. Which I didn't understand considering we had just has a mojito by the beach. But, whatever, you can't really ask why when the person doesn't know what is being asked. No one was in the mood to do much shopping we were interested in finding an Italian place for dinner, but found the grocery store before a restaurant. So it was decided that we would just make spaghetti and meat sauce back at the hotel. Mom and grandma went across the street to a hotel to sit and relax and I went back into the unknown at the grocery store. I had more older men say hi to me then I have ever had in any other venue! Flattering, but if you are closer to the age of retirement or are retired I think you may be a little old for me! We made our way back to the hotel, getting off at the right stop this time, so it took 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes. We made probably the best spaghetti and sauce then we have ever made before. The garlic toast was good too, thanks to the garlic salt I bought yesterday! There is nothing like stuffing yourself at 9 at night and then going to bed at 1030. You are guaranteed to have an excellent sleep!
Day 3, beach! We headed directly to lay in the sun! Lovely! All three of us just laid there for the afternoon soaking up as much as we could. This was probably the most relaxing day of the entire trip. Since it is normal to be topless on the beach in Spain I figured I should try to live like a local! (ya right, but I did change into my bra and knickers on the beach!) (please note, I wasn't the only one in my family to do this!) We did some shopping after the beach, a favourite past time of my mom's. If you have been to Spain you know how they don't measure when they make drinks. Which we quickly discovered when we stopped at this dive. Thankfully we weren't in the mood to make a night of it, or it could have been messy. Another meal back at the hotel. We sure saved money not eating dinners out, no one seemed to be bothered by it either. We knew it wouldn't be the same in Barcelona.
Day 4, early morning to make it to the train station. We had booked tickets to take the train to Barcelona so we could see some of the country side. The train was to be 5 hours and I think we were on it for 6 and a half. That was fine, I caught up on the sleep that I wasn't lacking since we had been sleeping and taking it easy in Alicante. We made it into Barcelona around 2. We had booked into a bed and breakfast again through the Internet. Well, we took a taxi to a not very nice area of the city. Not close to the centre like it claimed to be. It was in an apartment building, and in some guys flat! (It did not say this on the website, it also didn't say that the rooms were smaller than a bathroom). We got into the 'room' where there was a double bottom bunk and a single upper. We didn't have room for our suitcases and we couldn't move with the three of us. I could feel the tension and worry of both mom and grandma. I of course was feeling bad because I booked it. But I did not anticipate this. The pictures on the website were so deceiving. (Later we found out that the owner is a professional photographer!). All we wanted to do was drop our things and get out of there. The least amount of time we could spend there the better. We were given confusing directions by the landlord. We went out and of course got lost. We made it to a place that looked respectful to have a snack. The owner was fantastic, he gave us better directions and some cautionary information. We went back onto the streets, we were looking for an information booth. Supposedly marked with an eye, and supposedly all over the place. I guess I do have poor vision but really, this was ridiculous! A few hours later we came to the centre where we found information. We booked our tickets for the hop on and hop off tour that we would take tomorrow. We shared a pitcher of Sangria as we read the information about the tour and decide which stops we would want to get off. After we went into what use to be an arena where there were bull fights and now is a mall. We walked and wondered like zombies, coming upon a Mexican restaurant. We sat, enjoyed a Margarita discussed the state of our living situation. After taking a taxi back to the 'room' we stood at the door for about 15 minutes trying to turn the key to get in, I had to phone the landlord and in some way ask what was going on. I got a response in Spanish that left me just as stumped. But, it did eventually open. We made it to bed and laid in one spot trying not to disturb one another. Funny looking back, but really annoying when you are there. This was not the sort of place that grandma was use to staying.
Day 5, grandma the first up as it takes her the longest to get ready, came back from the shower and said she saw ants crawling all over the floor in the bathroom. I was like add it to the list of things wrong with this place. I didn't see any ants when I was in there, but it wasn't like I was going to say anything to grandma. We sat and ate dry toast as our breakfast at the bed and breakfast. As quickly as possible we got out of there. We did have an enjoyable day on the hop on and hop off bus tour. We stopped at several attractions including taking a cable car up to a castle, where we were able to see all of Barcelona from up the in the air. We stopped at the Gothic area of Barcelona, where a home designed by Gotti was located. We stopped and toured the Sagarda Familia, the church that was designed by Gotti and has been in the works since the early 19th century. All of the sights were interesting, some more beautiful then others. I think the most exciting event of the day though was being right centre stage for a undercover bust. We had just walked by these men selling knock off Prada and Gucci purses. I had made a comment that I could use a new purse. We stopped to get some money and the next thing we knew. There were men dressed in street clothes running with these scooped up bags and the sellers of these bags right behind. It wasn't until the cops showed there badge that we knew what was going on. Intense, but a good reality check that we needed to be aware of where we were. We stopped at a place for dinner and drinks. This again was a terrible meal, I had a veal hamburger that was so rare that I couldn't even put it in my mouth. I of course couldn't be bothered to complain. I was happy with my chips and red wine. I think that the 3 of us were just a little tired and sick of being with one another that we were all rather quiet. We took a taxi back to the 'room' as we crossed the street we saw our landlord in this dodgy restaurant. He came out and invited us in for a drink. In most cases we probably would have said no, but for some reason we seemed to be adventurous. I am not going to go into details of our experience at this place as I am trying to forget it.
Day 6, have you ever slept with ants? Well I now have. OMG! I have never seen so many ants in a bed before. It is making me gag just typing this. We were up and out of there as soon as possible. Even though our flight wasn't till 5 we showed up at the airport around 1. When we first got to the airport we emptied our suitcases and shook everything out. Yuck! Even when we were back in London we still found one or two ants on our luggage!
I guess you can probably tell which place in Spain I preferred. So many people said that I would love Barcelona, but I did not love it and I don't ever plan on going back! Don't get me wrong I saw some fantastic things, but never again. It is once again hard to describe things I've seen in words that would do it justice so I will post pictures on facebook.