| July 4th, 2008 | 198No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/07/04/alicante-spain-again-day-4-5/Alicante%2C+Spain...+AGAIN+-+Day+4+%26+5%212008-07-04+10%3A28%3A54Ryan | Spain, Travel

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Day 4:

We got our lazy bodies out of bed this morning and decided that we would head to the Castillo de Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Castle), for real this time! While Liz was getting dressed and ready, I ran down to the Alicante Tourist Information Center to grab a Santa Barbara Castle bus schedule.

When I arrived back at the hotel Liz was all set and ready to go so we walked down the esplanade until we reached the bus stop. It was about 30 C. (86 F.) at this point, and slowly getting hotter. We knew that today would be a hot one especially that we were going to climb to the top of the castle that overlooks the whole city! We were pretty much just making our way closer to the sun, instead of getting out of it.

The bus arrived on time to pick us up and it took us right to the top of the castle. I visited the Santa Barbara Castle back in the beginning of May and I was amazed by the views. Liz felt the same way as soon as she stepped off of the bus. Even seeing it for a second time didn’t bore me.

(more…)

| July 2nd, 2008 | 1971 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/07/02/alicante-spain-again-day-2-3/Alicante%2C+Spain...+AGAIN+-+Day+2+%26+3%212008-07-02+12%3A00%3A54Ryan | Spain, Travel

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Day 2:

This morning we headed off around 11:00AM to Playa del Postiguet, the beach that lies right across from our hotel. Liz has been feigning for some sun and I just wanted to jump around in the clear blue water. The views from the beach are pretty incredible as you can see in the second photo below.

If you’re wondering what that mountain looking thing is in the background, that is Santa Barbara Castle (Castillo de Santa Barbara). If you’ve seen my photo album of Alicante, Spain you’ll notice that I took some pretty amazing photos from the top of that castle during my last visit to Alicante. (more…)

| June 30th, 2008 | 196No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/30/off-to-alicante-spain-again/Off+to+Alicante%2C+Spain...+AGAIN%212008-06-30+14%3A19%3A55Ryan | Spain, Travel

Yep, back to Alicante, Spain! If you’ve been keeping up to date with my travels since I began my euro trip back in April you should remember Alicante quite well. Alicante is not only the first place that I have ever CouchSurfed, but it was also the first country that I visited in Europe not counting Ireland of course! Not only did I enjoy the meeting a bunch of great people in Alicante but I also fell in love with the atmosphere and the amazing scenery that surrounds this beautiful coastal city.

Last night Liz headed off to take a “nap” at around 8:30PM and didn’t wake until about 11:30. She woke up, packed really quick and then fell back asleep again. I think the weekend in Galway really beat her up. I ended up getting some writing done for my website while I watched the EuroCup Final football match between Spain and Germany. Once Spain came out victorious I headed upstairs to pack some things before getting some much needed rest. If we were only heading to Spain one day earlier, we could have been involved in the chaos that went down after Spain won the match! (more…)

| May 7th, 2008 | 1321 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/07/ptm-alicante-spain-day-four-and-five/Alicante%2C+Spain+-+Day+4+and+52008-05-07+09%3A38%3A59Ryan | Spain, Travel

Yesterday morning I woke up early and headed off to take a day trip to Benidorm, Spain which is about a 45 minute drive from Alicante. The train that runs along the coast of the Costa Blanca has a station about 5 minutes walk from Ania’s flat so it’s really convenient.

The train system here in Alicante is called (TRAM). As long as you grab yourself a train timetable map, you’ll figure out how to use the TRAM fairly quickly. I figured that if I was to get lost, I would have all day to find my way back home so I jumped on the TRAM at the MARQ stop and headed out on a journey that ended up taking much longer than I expected.

Considering Benidorm is about 45 minutes drive, I figured that the TRAM might take an hour, or an hour and fifteen minutes. Well after meeting a 77 year old English man and more than two hours later I could not wait to get off of the train. I had been getting my ear talked off by this old english gentleman for the last hour and a half and he even caused us to miss our stop (Benidorm) so we had to get off and wait for another TRAM to take us 4 stops back to Benidorm.

Finally after my new friend and I arrived in Benidorm he insisted that we take a bus down to the center of town where the restaurants and beach is. Now we’re looking a total of two and a half hours to get to Benidorm. As soon as we got off the bus we stopped into this English Pub to grab a bite to eat.

After lunch I split off from my English friend and headed towards the beach, he wanted to come along, but I just had to lose him or I knew that I wouldn’t get anything done in Benidorm. I headed down to Playa de Llevant Beach and took in some of the beautiful scenery. I walked most of the length of the beach until I got to the rock cliffs that surround the east edge of the beach. I wanted to take a swim so I figured that the safest place to leave my belongings would be over on the rocks where nobody sunbathes and where I could just jump in and stay close in case someone decided to walk towards the cliffs. Everything worked out perfectly and I got to take a nice swim and relax for the first time since I arrived in Benidorm.

After my swim I walked back up through the city, and stopped into a few souvenir shops but I couldn’t find anything in them. It was all junk. I knew that I would have a long journey back to Alicante so I headed for the bus to Benidorm Train Station.

As I was waiting at the Benidorm Train Station I met a guy named Darren, originally from Co. Waterford. We chatted a bit about traveling and eventually I found out that the reason that he was in Benidorm today was because he owns two Irish Pubs there. He was down in Benidorm for the day making sure everything was in order and checking in on the Pubs. During the train ride back to Alicante, we realized that we were on the same RyanAir flight on Saturday afternoon from Dublin to Alicante, which was quite odd.

Darren is staying in the Hotel Melia down on the beach here in Alicante because a few of his friends have been working on a movie with Colin Farrell here for the last few weeks. He went on to tell me that he is moving out to Benidorm this weekend to take care of the pubs for the next few months so he decided to make a stop to catch up with his friends while he was in Alicante. By the end of the train ride back to Alicante, we arranged to meet up for a few pints later that night.

Myself, Ania, Aiste, Aiste’s mother, and friend decided to go out to dinner last night as both Aiste’s mother and I were flying out today. We went out to a restaurant on the esplanade called Tarantino’s, it wasn’t too bad. After Tarantino’s Ania, Aiste and I headed off to meet up with Darren in O’Hara’s Irish Pub on the esplanade and we had a pint there before heading to Desden, home of the 1 Euro pints of Budweiser! A few pints later, Ania and Aiste headed home and I stayed out for one more round with Darren before heading home.

Today I’m just lounging here with Ania until my flight 6:00PM this evening. I might take a stroll downtown to see if I can pick up a few little things, but other than that I’m just going to spend my last day here relaxing before I head back home to Dublin.

Hasta Luego!

| May 5th, 2008 | 131No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/05/ptm-alicante-spain-day-3/Alicante%2C+Spain+-+Day+3%212008-05-05+17%3A50%3A19Ryan | Spain, Travel

Last night Ania and I headed down to O’Hara’s Irish Pub to visit Gosia at work. It’s a beautiful area. It’s right across from Playa Del Postiguet beach, and it’s on the esplanade here in Alicante. At night everyone sits out front of the restaurants and pubs to socialize and have a few drinks. We stayed at O’Hara’s for a bit then we headed home because Ania had school early this morning.

When we got back I got online to catch up with my family and friends back home and then headed to bed fairly early. I woke up around 10AM and had to be out of the house before Aiste left for the beach because I had no keys, and they needed to lock up the flat while we were all off doing our own thing today. Aiste, her mother, and friend headed off to the beach and I had to run to the local internet cafe so that I could print out my RyanAir boarding pass for Wednesday evening.

After printing my boarding pass I headed down to the Alicante Tourist Center to see if there was anything special to do and see in Alicante other than the beach, and the Castle that overlooks the city of Alicante. Surprisingly there wasn’t much else to do, which was fine with me. I came to Alicante for the sun, the beach, and to get away from the overcast weather of Dublin!

I found the bus that takes you to the top of the Castillo de Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Castle) and I took the trip to the top for a very cheap price of 2 Euro! I had asked the clerk at the Alicante Tourist Information Center if I could walk to the top of Santa Barbara Castle, but he said that it wasn’t safe because cars and buses drive up and down it. Later on I ended up walking down instead of taking the bus. It was beautiful and no where near dangerous! There was a sidewalk the whole way, so I don’t know what the guy at the Tourist Information Center was talking about.

After arriving at the top of Santa Barbara Castle, I was short of breath. Honestly, the views were out of this world. The city of Alicante was built around the castle and I don’t know too much history on it, because I didn’t get the chance to actually stay up there for that long but I have to say the castle is simply amazing!

There are so many different views and vantage points in the castle, and there are sets of stairs leading to new views, and higher points of the castle every where you look! The best part about Santa Barbara Castle is that it’s FREE! You are free to walk around the whole castle, some of the insides and all of the outside of the castle. It is very well maintained and the grounds crews have planted all sorts of cactus, plants and other flowers inside of the castle. If you are ever in Alicante, this is pretty much the one and only visitor attraction, other than a few museums and the beaches of course! Don’t miss out on Santa Barbara Castle, you’ll regret it!

As I said earlier, I ended up walking down to the beach from the top of Santa Barbara Castle to meet Gosia. It took me about 30 mins to walk down, but it wasn’t bad at all. The weather was beautiful and I just couldn’t wait to jump in to the Mediterranean to cool off. We walked across the Esplanade and headed for a beach I hadn’t been to yet, the main beach that lies in front of Alicante Center called Playa Del Postiguet. It was just a nice as San Juan Beach, but much smaller. I didn’t care really, I headed straight for the water as Gosia watched my belongings on the beach. I spent about 20 minutes in the water and then headed back to lay out for a bit. We stayed at Playa Del Postiguet for about an hour and then Gosia headed off to work while I headed back to Ania’s flat.

And that was day three in Alicante, hope you enjoy the photos! To see more photos, check out the Alicante, Spain album in the Photos section of PTM!

| May 4th, 2008 | 1281 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/04/ptm-alicante-spain-day-1-and-2/Alicante%2C+Spain+-+Day+1+and+22008-05-04+17%3A15%3A00Ryan | Spain, Travel

Hola from Alicante, Spain!

I have to say that yesterday was the first time that I’ve taken a flight where you have to walk out on to the airport tarmac and walk up the fold out stairs to board the plane. I’m used to walking through a tunnel of some sort and directly on to the plane. I guess that must be how RyanAir does it? I’m used to flying Aer Lingus but hey, you get what you pay for! The flight to Alicante wasn’t too bad actually. It took a little over two and a half hours and when we landed in Spain, it was about 70 degrees. The breeze was great and I was looking forward to meeting up with my CouchSurfing host Ania (Ahn-yah) so that I could go back to her place and drop my bags. (more…)

| May 3rd, 2008 | 127No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/03/ptm-taking-off-to-alicante-spain/Taking+off+to+Alicante%2C+Spain%212008-05-03+09%3A18%3A46Ryan | Spain, Travel

Off to Spain!

I’m heading off to Alicante, Spain today around 1:00PM and should be landing in Spain around 5:30PM, they are 1 hour ahead of Ireland so it’s about a 3 Hour flight. Not too bad!

I had some issues last night packing again, but this time due to flying RyanAir, the restrictions are very strict. They are a budget airline so they offer you super cheap flights but passengers beware when you go over your baggage weight or measurements by an ounce or a centimeter they WILL charge you astronomical fees! (more…)

| May 1st, 2008 | 1231 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/01/ptm-last-minute-trip-to-spain/Last+Minute+Trip+to+Alicante%2C+Spain%212008-05-01+18%3A05%3A22Ryan | Spain, Travel

After searching, and searching for a flight out to Spain for this weekend, I finally came across a good deal on RyanAir.com and I jumped on it! As you probably know, I’m heading off on my Contiki Trip on the 11th of May so during my downtime here in Dublin I figured I’d try to find a quick trip to a country or place that I wouldn’t be seeing on the rest of my tour through Europe and Spain was one of the places that I didn’t have on my itinerary as of yet. Oh and of course I checked the weather and it’s supposed to be 80′s this week. Perrrrrfect!

Off I go to the warm and sunny coastal city of Alicante. It’s about 2 hours to Valencia, and about 40 minutes to Benidorm. I’m going to look into taking a day trip or two to a few places during my stay in Alicante. I’m really looking forward to catching some rays and a good few days exploring some of the southern coast of Spain.

I haven’t booked any accommodations for myself yet, but I’m going to try to sort all of that out tonight. I’m a member of two international exchange websites, Hospitality Club, and Couchsurfing. Both of these websites offer nearly 1,000,000 members from around the world that are mostly travelers that are looking for a means to travel and save money on accommodations by staying on someones couch or in a spare bed here and there along the way. You do not need to offer your couch or spare bed to be a member, you don’t even need to host anyone, you can offer to show someone around your native city, meet for coffee, and more.

I’m sure your next question would be, well how can you be sure that it’s safe? Well, both HC and CS have implemented a verification system for all of its members. If you would like to read more about the security/safety of either Hospitality Club or Couchsurfing click on the links below:

Couchsurfing FAQ

Hospitality Club FAQ