A True Gem of Dreams!

7.6.2011: The days seem to be getting more and more magical with each passing day. We just arrived in Altea, the first major stop of this weekend. It has been a dream come true so far.

Our day began this morning in Guardamar when we stood in line to buy our ticket to go to Alicante. Soon after we bought our tickets, one of the managers of the station came up to us and told us to watch our bags and belongings because the handful of ladies that purchased tickets before us were pick-pocketers… AKA Gypsies. At first, we were really confused about what was going on but soon realized what they meant. It was unbelievable how obvious the Gypsies were. The four or so that were present at the bus station seemed to be crowding in on us, getting way too close, and were eyeing our bags. The movement of their eyes were so apparent… all twenty-five of us just hung onto our bags and stared at each other haha. Anyway, two buses came and picked us up as we headed off to Alicante.

From Alicante, we took a tram along the coast through a handful of interesting Spanish towns… we stopped at one and spent some time walking around before catching the 6:35pm tram to Altea. It was dreadfully hot today so I did what we could to beat the heat and walked down to the beach, ate some ice-cream, and hid in the shade. The beaches there were so beautiful, oh my God. The water is a lot clearer than the water back in Guardamar! Ahhh. Eventually, we caught the tram to our final destination of the day: Altea. Once we got off the tram, Alex pointed to a dome structure on top of the hill and said, “We need to get there.”

The walk up to the small Altea town was unexpectedly steep, but we endured the burn we felt in our calves. The view of the whole town and scenery just got better and better the higher we went. Arriving at the top made us forget about how heavy we were breathing. The town was so beautiful! All the buildings are white, the streets are narrow, and an old-town Spanish culture runs proudly throughout the town. The “pension” that we are staying at is GREAT. It has private doubles so my roommate and I got a room together… with a sweet balcony! It was awesome, dude! Haha.

We spent the evening browsing some really beautiful shops. My roommate and I even ate Margarita Pizza for dinner! We rarely, ERRR hardly ever eat anything from anywhere but convenience stores. So it was a nice change of scenery… on my plate. We really enjoyed our one summer night in beautiful Altea. This gem of dreams is definitely one of my favorite towns in Spain, thus far. Hands down.

The cold shower I ended the night with was numbing haha. But, the view we have from the roof top terrace of our “pension” makes up for it, even the numbness. The view from the top of where we are staying is breathtaking. Some say that it reminds them of Greece. For me… I simply felt at peace.

- Jaimie