ELX - ALICANTE - BENIDORM - VALENCIA - BARCELONA (part 1/3)

(AUGUST 2017)

Spain is always good option if you have got a problem to decided for which destination you should choose. I’ve been in Spain many times (some times in Barcelona and once in Malaga). Honestly, for the first time I planned to choose another country. Pola is my best companion for journey who has never been there. For many years I’ve talked about Spain like the best place on the world so I think She really wanted to go especially there. What is more we found really good price for directly flight Poznan-Alicante (160zł) at 13rd August and back flight for me on 22^nd Barcelona-Berlin (50euro) and for Pola Barcelona-Manchaster (50e). Barcelona is about 530km for Alicante.

The reason of flights for another airports wasn’t price but possibility visit another places. It's Monday 13rd 11:30 we are sitting inside of plane and waiting for start. Flight was about 3hours. First thought after went out “hot as in hell”. It was like that! We caught bus from airport to centre of Alicante(about 2euro) and after 30min we were on the beach. It was “city beach” so there was a little bit crowed. We met with Gabriel in Elche in the evening. We met Gabriel by couchsurfing. He is really nice, open minded, funny guy. Elche is a city about 25km from Alicante. There live about 200 000 inhabitants. There are many palm trees-everywhere!. Beautiful! 

ELCHE

tapas

We ate a tapas and drank Sangria (typical Spanish wine) together. We went out for fiesta in the evening. We were lucky because that time in Elche was a big 3days fiesta around of the all city! We couldn’t believe. There were fireworks show and big party in the streets on midnight. A lot of people were dancing everywhere. Such a great view! I don’t know what time party were finished but we came back about 5p.m. and there were still full of people. I don’t know how it was working but We were sleeping about 4hours per each night of that journey. It was enough. Honestly It had to be enough because we wanted to use time as much it’s possible. 

Tabarca island

We woke up at 9:00am on Monday, than we ate fast Spanish breakfast and went directly to Santa Pola. It is a city close to Alicante with harbor from where we took a “taxi water”(motorboat) to Tabarca Island. Tabarca is the smallest inhabited island in Spain. It’s located in the autonomous community of Valencia, near the mainland. There is about 20km from Alicante and 8km from Santa Pola. It’s very small island about 1800mx350m. Inhabitants(only 75 inhabitants-2010)  don’t use cars. It’s so small. It’s not as famous like Mallorca, Ibiza or Canary Islands.

The return ticket for “WaterTaxi” costs 15Euro. On island there are some restaurants, big sand beach and many rocks. All products on island are very expensive so it’s better to buy something before in Santa Pola. Tabarca is a good choice to spend there all day. Monday evening was next one fiesta in Elche.

After came back to Santa Pola we went for very long walk along beaches. We've done about 8km I think! It's always good time for any sport activity.

Monday evening was next one fiesta in Elche. After back from Tabarca we saw special procession with many people woren in special traditional Spanish clothes. There were many people around which were watching special show. Amazing! Everywhere Spanish flags, flowers and another decorations. Some minutes later fast shower, short nap and let’s go to centre. First point of evening was dinner. It was kind of spanish/polish  lessons. “Madre mia” It was a little bit complicated HAHA. Definitely I need more than one lesson while dinner. At night we met 2guys from Croatia and one Spanish girl. It’s almost impossible but that 2Croatians had got the same plan of journey  like me and Pola. (They arrived to Alicante one day before us and also had got back flight on 22^nd from Barcelona. The same way Alicante-Valencia and Barcelona). At second day of fiesta city was more crowded than day before I think. There were many kind of music so everyone could find optimal place. We chose latin music to feel Spanish climate. What’s more, at 6:00 We didn’t feel legs so back home. Of course it wasn’t finish of fiesta but Tuesday was coming. It was last time in Elche although I hope we will come back there again soon(Gabriel and Dani-thanks a loooot for all! You were the best!).

We arrived to Alicante On Thursday to discover the best places of that city. The most popular place in Alicante is  ”Explanada de Espana”(Paseo de la Explanada). There is a 500meter wide promenade. It starts at Puerta del Mar and continues up to the Parque de Canalejas. There is one of the most popular boulevards in Spain.

The Second point of travel list was  “Santa Barbara Castle”. The castle is located on the top of Benacantil Mountain, 166m above sea level. From there you can see almost the entire bay of Alicante. You can go there by walk or by lift. Return ticket for lift cast 2,5Euro. It’s totally better option at Summer, especially if you have got a weight backpack. 

Than we’ve visited among others:

* Plaza Puerta del Mar-the squere just nearby to port. There is statue of a man with many faces on it.

*Calle de las Setas- the narrow street in city centre with special with mushrooms

*Rambla de Mendez Nunez –the main street with restaurants, pubs, shops

*Plaza de los Luceros-one of the most significant landmarks in the city of Alicante

*Puerto Deportivo- port

*Plaza de Gabriel Miro-beautiful squere

And a lot of many another places. This day we didn’t forget also about resting on the beach. There was “hot as in hell-about 35degrees in shadow”. (Sun! Where are you?! I miss you a lot! L). While all our journey we were meeting a lot of positive people. For example… We ordered pizza in one restaurant. After some minutes Pola asked coffee “one Black Americano”. The man who was working there told “ Sorry I’ve got only one white Sardinian” hahah firstly we didn’t know what he meant but then he showed the cook of that restaurant. He had got white skin and came back from Sardinia”. 

Nice sense of humor . It was almost evening and we still weren’t sure where we were gonna sleep at night. Anyway we could book a hostel/hotel or sleeping on the beach haha but  it’s always better to find any host. It’s good idea to meet new people and spend nice time together. We were chilling on the beach and suddenly one person accepted our request. We had got one hour to meet with him but about 2or3kilometers for walk…Let’s go!

We were going and suddenly turned out we were in area of harbor…in place for trucks in delivery area. Silly we!

We did about 2 extra kilometers! The walk is always good option but not at night with weight backpack after all busy day. It might seem funny..2 girls with backpack at night in harbor area. Finally we arrived to Cesar with delay about one hour. Fortunately he wasn’t annoyed. We were talking almost all night. What is more Cesar lives in beautiful flat 3min from the beach. Perfect area especially if you like swimming a night in sea :D (Pola is it true? :D ). Next morning Cesar went out for work earlier than we. I admire he had to be so sleepy at work. Cesar thanks for all! 

We didn’t have got special plans for Wednesday. We were walking along beach and wanted to visit new places. Suddenly we saw some train directly to Benidorm (ticket about 3euro-about 50min from AlIcante). We were lucky! Good choice! 

in train to Benidorm!

We heard about Benidorm before. Benidorm is a city and municipality in the province of Alicante in eastern Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. It’s one of the most popular place for holidays in Spain. There are many modern skyscrapers. We were kidding-Benidorm is like Spanish Dubai. Some buildings are about 180meters high, about 50 floors. In terms of the concentration of highs in Europe, Benidorm is breaking through only London and Milan.

(the photo of Benidorm [google.pl])

It’s perfect place if you like perfect views for a city, mountains, sea and good nightlife. It’s good place for fun and entertainment or just for relax. Beaches in Spain aren’t as crowded like in Poland at summer. Maybe some city beaches are fully but not as much like Baltic beaches. The reason is the weather. In Poland everyone wants to benefit of sunny days because the next day can be bad weather. 

In Benidorm we spent typical lazy beach day on sunbeds like “battery charging”. Some people before that journey told me “Are you gonna go only with Pola? Maybe it’s better to take more people for fun?” Needlessly! Honestly, We had got still some people with us. It was also a good English lessons. We still used to speak English whole 10days. On the beach in Benidorm we met 4 Italians. Funny guys! They invited us to playing volleyball together. I love that open people. They stayed in Benidorm for holidays with group of friends. At late afternoon we had to back to Alicante again because from that place we had got BlaBlaCar directly to Alicante. We paid about 11euro per person (about 180km). Before our journey we made special list “things to do” and there was also “hitch-hiking” but in that situation we could lost too much time to do this. BlaBlaCar was better choice. We were going with spanish couple. The driver was speaking English very well. We caught a good contact with him. The way from Alicante to Valencia was going by mountains. There were a lot of beautiful views around. 

NEXT PART "VALENCIA"  →