costa blanca

The train was at four and we pulled into the mile long ticket que at 3.30, it made no odds that a couple gave us their que ticket, the next available seat was at 8pm, but not discouraged in our weekend break we headed to Huertas our favourite part of Madrid. Hannah and I were taking our one weekend away to meet a friend of mine on the costa blanca, and the weekend started now, outside our favourite jazz bar we passed the time with a beer and later boarded one of spains long distance trains, its seats more like business class than chicken coup and its food carriage looked more like a local tapas bar.

we pulled into Alicante at midnight and we left no choice but to pay the 55 Euro taxi to the town down the coast, but it was worth it, the sleepy little town that happened to have a fiesta going.
Saturday we roasted and after branding ourselves with a sun tan at the water park headed into Benidorm. The tacky tourist city sits proudly on the beach but beyond the Brits abroad and topless grannies we found aspects of the place to be quite nice. paddling along the gorgeous beach and having drinks at the top of the headland looking back over the bay.

About to board our Sunday night train, it appeared our return ticket was not so return as one way, removing my flip-flops and legging down the station I jumped the que to find no-one could help the train was full. We headed across town to the bus station, in part excited by the prospect of having a night unavoidably stuck in Alicante and a few more hours of beach, but praying we could get back before class the next day, it would not be looked upon well to return monday after class so close to another outreach trip.

Our 1am bus would get us in at 6am and leave us a couple of hours to see Alicante, as we whooped, splashed as screamed down the beach in delight, kicking water and generally soaking ourselves under the setting sun we found a small bar at the end of the beach, cocktails in hand, and getting text updates from our friends for the Real Madrid final, it was the most perfect end to the most incredible weekend.