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On October 18 I made my way from Madrid to meet Lauren in Alicante, Spain. What was meant to be a three day trip quickly turned into a six night stay because I loved it that much. On my way in, I passed mountain ranges and wind farms, coastlines and palmtree-lined boulevards into this cool and quiet oasis, high with expectations and excitement to reunite with Lauren. On my first night there, we of course indulged in freshly made paella and sangria and in the days following we lounged in the sun on the Alicante beach - receiving massages from tiny Filipino women and swimming in the Mediterranean - and climbed the Alicante mountain to explore the Santa Barbara castle and get a view of the entire coastline and surrounding city. Alicante is a small place, and this time of year is perfect to visit - hardly any tourists, the weather was perfectly sunny and warm, and even though I stood out as a traveler, I was greeted with kindness and generosity from locals. Lauren sadly left halfway through my stay as she was on her way to England, though she departed stylishly clad in our complimemtary sombreros from our Mexican restaurant adventure the night before...(another story for another time...). On my second last day I met a Vancouverite named Kristen and she and I hung out and planned to meet again on our travels. All in all, I really enjoyed my time there and cannot wait to return - Alicante was exactly what I needed when I needed it and the beach could not have been better.
From Alicante I took a train to Barcelona and stayed in a hostel a little out from the city centre in a quiet neighbourhood north of downtown. It was a great stay, and although I was a bit nervous about my belongings (I've heard some things...) I managed to come away from the busy city luckily without a notorious 'bad Barcelona story'. I spent my time there walking through the huge market on La Rambla - actually, I went there everyday - purchasing fresh fruit and witnessing the shop owners yelling back and forth in Spanish over their meats, fish, fruit, candy, chocolate, bread, and all things delicious. I visited the Barcelona National Cathedral and climbed to the rooftop for a panoramic view of the city, met a new friend named Raphael in an Irish pub, and walked around the Gothic city to witness the intensity of Gaudi's work. On my third day there I climbed to the top of the Montjuic (I feel like I have butchured that spelling, forgive me), which is a high mountain situated looking over the port of Barcelona, and I spent hours within the National Museum of Art of Catalunya. I was amazed by an exhibit entitled 'The Mexican Suitcase' which is a collection of negatives (and some photos) taken by three of Spain's first photojournalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and 37, which was rediscovered in a suitcase in Mexico in 2007. This is the first time it is on exhibition and I was so lucky to stumble upon it - so rich in history, such intense and communicative photography, and just captivating above all. That evening, I spent a tiny moment taking in one of Barcelona's beaches and met up with Kate for a quick visit before collecting my thoughts for my upcoming trip to Nice.
Last Monday, I arrived in Nice and immediately felt relieved to be back in France. My train ride was long - four trains - but it was lovely and unexpected to watch hundreds of wild flamingos wading in the water along the coast on their tiny legs and their necks tucked into their pale pink feathers. That night, I found my hostel to be a pleasant surprise, a villa buried away amidst the hills of the city and can see why it is rated very well among travelers - it is more of a small hotel, really, with a shuttle and all. My first day in Nice I walked through the town and down to the pebble beach that lines the extent of the city, through to the port to see the finest yachts and expensive restaurants, and of course as I cannot afford to eat there, I picniced on the beach and then climbed to the old fort and park at the top of an immense mountain, the name of which escapes me now...For the rest of the day, I walked through the old town Nice and visited the Museum of Modern Art (I feel like I have a lot of mountains and art galleries in my itinerary...but who's really surprised?). The next day, with my new Russian friend Olga, I went to the Musee de Matisse, which is surrounded by an orchard of olive trees and is situated amongst an archeological site of Roman ruins - that was cool - and a nearby monastery with a wicked garden overlooking the entire coastline of Nice. For the rest of the day, I sat on the beach and waited for sunset, and that night I checked out some live music in an Irish pub with three American girls named Gina, Maddie and Michelle, all new-found friends and dorm-mates.
My second last day in France, I took a day trip to Eze - a tiny place high in the hills along the coast between Nice and Monaco. I took a couple of buses to get there and spent my time exploring the medieval village on the top of the mountain. The village is soooo beautiful, it was like a maze - winding narrow cobblestone streets and steps and stone walls with ornated doors of all colours and sizes, and overhanging the walls of these homes and shops were flowerbeds and trees with twisting roots and bright red and yellow leaves turning with the fall. The view of the Med was breathtaking and the gardens surrounding the village not only hosted gorgeous flowers, trees and cacti, but sculptures as well - elephants, fountains, and a larger-than-life chess board.
Two days ago I said au revoir to France and set about on my journey to Zurch to meet up with my friend Kristen whom I met in Alicante. I was happy to sit next to the window throughout the train ride to witness the beautiful scenery of southern Italy on my way to my connection in Milan. Milan was a quick connection, but I had time to feel very out of place in my ragged traveling clothes and backpack - I knew I should have brought those leopard print 5 inch heels with me....When wouldn't I need those? Anyway, no train ride thus far can compare to what happened next: Swiss Alps happened next. I know people take these trains everyday and it's no big deal to them but I felt sooo lucky to be watching the sun set over snowcapped mountains as it really set in for me that I was then in Switzerland. To think I almost passed this up...Anyway - I meet Kristen in the train station and only until arriving at her hostel do I realize that she and I actually booked different hostels and I am in the wrong place. It was okay though - I had a reservation elsewhere (and had paid for it in full already - which I've learned never to do) and as it was only for one night she and I set about finding my hostel and making a plan for the following day. Well - I do not wish to bore you with my stories of this hostel, let us just say it was a major disappointment, the people were really rude, I did not fit in because I was the only one not in a wheelchair, they made me pay extra to be a member of their hostel friendship circle thing for one day, and I electrocuted myself, and there was a really creepy man there who looked like the old man that Jafar disguises himself as in the jail cell in Disney's Aladdin...creepy. Oh well - despite all of this, Kristen and I had a hoot catching up and experiencing all of this together. Needless to say, I was extremely happy to get out of there tomorrow. We met the next morning at the train station and opted to go to Wildhaus, Switzerland for a few days. Kristen chose Wildhaus because this is what came up first when she Googled 'the coolest small town in Switzerland' - literally. It was sweet.
So here I am. In Wildhaus - a tiny town on the side of the Alpstein mountain in the Swiss Alps. No big deal.
We literally made hilarious fools of ourselves on the journey here - our huge bags proving to be gravity's best friend on the bus to Wildhaus from the train station (on which we had to stand because the seats were full of people no younger than 60) on these intense inclines up these mountains. There was a lot of falling going on and a lot of old people ducking out of the way of our packs on our backs as we turned and fell and turned and fell along this trip, each of us crying with laughter at ourselves.
Luckily Wildhaus is full of the kindest people in the world. We arrived on a day when everything is closed and the place is a ghosttown - why would we expect anything to be open on a Tuesday, right? How could we? Shame on us for making that assumption... - it was a holiday when people only go to church and pray for the dead, and obvs on those days no one needs groceries.... Anyway, we found a hotel and although no one was there, the owner showed up a few minutes later once we called her....all was good. In the end, we didn't end up staying in the hotel, instead we are staying in a private apartment for the same price, with our own kitchen, living room, etc, overlooking the montstrous mountain behind us. So, because we traveled all day and did not know yesterday was a holiday, we arrived without any food....Thankfully I had held on to the box of Kraft Dinner my dad had packed for me - thank gooodnessss - good one Iain. Wildhaus is so Swiss and so perfect and so nice and we are the youngest people here by at least 40 years. The lady who owns the hotel even leant me her hiking boots for our trek today :)
We woke up early and went to the grocery store and filled up on supplies for our hike of a nearby mountain. We set out and had a fantastic day today along the Alpstein mountains - took amazing photos and ate our picnic and filled up our waterbottles with the cleanest, coldest spring water from a brook. My hamstrings are sore from the climb, but it feels great to get out and be active and smell the fresh air. Kristen thinks we may both wake up feeling very ill from the water, but we will see :)
Tomorrow we head to Venice, and so I actually need to go look at hostels now... hmm... I will miss Switzerland. Apologies if there are any spelling mistakes :)
Miss you all and hope everyone enjoyed Hallowe'en this year :)
Love,
Sarah
- comments
Maureen great adventures Sarah. so much to see. Glad you are meeting so many good people! Take care. Love, Mom. xoxo