Jane's Trip of a Lifetime: Spain – Malaga, Alicante, Valencia

Malaga

On August 1^st (BC Day at home), Candra and I spent the morning shopping in the Medina in Tanger, Morocco and then we boarded our ferry back to Spain. We arrived in Tarifa, Spain and all 3 of us took a bus to Malaga.

Within a few hours, we arrived at our hostel and I basically took a 24 hour siesta. After our really busy weekend in Morocco and going out past midnight each day and waking up relatively early, I needed a break. I called home and talked to my mom for well over an hour and then talked to Deanna for close to 3 hours! Before I knew it, it was 2am and I was still on the phone chatting away.

The next day I decided to just relax. I didn’t see much of Malaga at all which is probably a good thing because there is a lot of stores to shop at! In the evening, Matt and I headed to Candra’s hostel on the other side of the city where she prepared for us a yummy dinner and we hung out for several hours – our last time together.

I have no photos of Malaga – this is a first for me! No photos in a new city – say what??

Alicante

We spent 2 nights in Alicante, Spain (August 3 & 4). Alicante is a very popular location for people in the UK to go to for holidays. It’s a great beach side town where we had a very relaxing time. Our guest house was only a few blocks from the beach which was awesome. I had the perfect combination of beach time and exploring the city. Alicante has a ton of restaurants and cafes, beautiful white sandy beach, and nice boardwalk lined with palm trees which comes alive at night with many different vendors.

The beautiful beach at night.

Downtown Alicante at night.

Some of the best gelato I have had on this trip was from Alicante.

The beach during the day.

Valencia

Matt and I spent 2 nights in Valencia (August 5 & 6). Valencia is Spain’s 3^rd largest city and creator of paella – a very popular Spanish rice dish. Unfortunately, the best paella is found near the beach in Valencia, a 20 min bus ride away, and we didn’t have enough time to venture out to the beach so my paella eating experience is being pushed forward to Barcelona. All this hype over paella, I hope I’m not disappointed.

In Valencia, we did another free walking tour and learned of Valencia’s interesting history involving Muslims and Christians. Valencia is a beautiful city but also has a dodgier looking side – kind of like Vancouver’s downtown east side, but not nearly as bad in Valencia. It’s basically just older buildings with graffiti everywhere. There is something though about older buildings and graffiti that just makes you feel a little unsafe, but the main streets of Valencia were definitely safe!

Valencia

Now contrast the beauty of the first photo to this photo above - nasty graffiti - and only a few blocks away.

Valencia has built miniature replicas of famous monuments/buildings etc in the city so that those who are blind can feel the statue and read a blurb (in brail) regarding the famous monument/building. Unfortunately, it is constructed of metal and it is piping hot! In a country where the sun shines most of the time, I don't think they took this into consideration. I put my fingers on the brail board and it was so hot that I almost lost my fingerprints!

Fountain - I really don't remember the significance anymore - whoopsies!

We also visited a Horchateria – a café serving mainly horchata! Matt tried his first Horchata here but I declined on having one as I find them too sweet. After the tour, Matt and I went to the cathedral to see the Holy Grail – this is the supposed home of the Holy Grail. How they can trace that this was the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, I don’t know…but I went to see it anyhow. Later on that evening, I researched more about the supposed location of the Holy Grail and learned that there are a few other Churches who also claim to have THE Holy Grail. I sense a money making scheme. Interesting, isn’t it?