Alicante

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of being my friend on Facebook, you have not yet seen the many status updates with regards to my crazy trip to Alicante. I have been through so much just within a week. My adventure to this place was completely crazy, but almost kind of worth it. I started out in the Seattle Airport and flew the 9 hours to London. I slept some on the plane and enjoyed the free wine with my dinner. It wasn't until the London airport that I met my new friends...Lauren, Carrie, Haley, Melissa, and Mary. We started out adventure by taking a bus to our terminal. Once in the terminal we had to go through security..that took about an hour, only the find that our flight had been cancelled due to the 5 snowflakes had fallen at London-Heathrow. The kind gentleman with British Airways told us that he would do everything he could to get us on our flight ot Madrid. The make this long story a bit shorter, we ended up waiting in line for about 8 hours. The line moved 2 feet/hour. We finally arrived at the front of the line and were told that there were no more flights going out that night and that they'd have to get us a hotel. The process of changing our flight and finding a hotel took about another 2 hours. The nearest hotel was an hour Tube ride into downtown London. So we started our next adventure. The Tube ride went quickly and we arrived at our destination around midnight. We were so happy to finally be at the hotel. We walked through the doors in complete awe, the hotel was amazing. Well that quickly was taken away when the bellman informed us that we had the wrong hotel. He gave us directions, we failed to find it the first 4 times, and then finally an hours later..found it. We got about 4 hours of sleep before we had to get back on the Tube and find our way back the the London airport for our 8:40 flight...only to be informed that the flight had been cancelled once again. We stared at the British Airways line that was about 6x's as large as the one the night before. Luckily, Sue, a kind BA employee was able to help us and put us on standby for the next flight.

Luck was finally on our side as we boarded the 9:15 flight to Madrid. The flight didn't actually take off once we were on the plane for 2 hours because they had to de-ice the plane. We arrived in Madrid, finally!!! And yet again, luck was taken away from us. They didn't have any idea where our luggage was. The 4 day tour that we were supposed to go on had already started, luckily we didn't miss the trip to Sevilla or Toledo.

The day trip to Segovia was really great, besides the fact that it was really cold and I had been wearing the same clothes for 3 days. We were able to see a aquaduct from the 1st century which was incredible. The original structure is still completely standing and although they don't still use it, they could. Did I mention that there was not cement used in building this structure, it's just stones.

We also had the opportunity to walk through the streets of Segovia. I love the little apartments all over and the attention to detail that is put into everything. We took a little break for coffee during the day tour, I must say I have never tasted coffee so good! It was simply, cafe con leche, or coffee with milk...I didn't even have to put in any sugar. There was a beautiful church in the center of the city. We eventually made our way through the twisted, narrow streets to the castle. The castle was very beautiful, but nothing like what we were able to see the next day!

Church in Segovia

Entrance to the Castle

View of the Castle

The next day we went to Toledo. It was absolutely incredible!! The city of Toledo sits up on a hill an is surrounded by a wall. I could get lost in the ancient streets and rich history forever! We went the the most amazing cathedral I've ever seen. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside and the outside pictures don't even begin to do justice.

Overlooking Toledo

The Holy-Church Cathedral

The Apartments

A gorgeous building in the town center

I loved Toledo! I definitely want to go back there when I have more time. The girls and I went out to a nice dinner our last night in Madrid. Unfortunately they all went on their way the next morning to San Sebastian. I'm bummed we didn't end up in the same place, but at least I'll be able to go visit them!

I am finally in Alicante and I started school today. My professor, Maria Lourdes is incredible! Although I'm doing an intensive language course, I have a feeling that this is going to be a really challenging/great semester with her. The lady that I am staying with Chari and her 19 year old daughter Maria are wonderful! They have made me feel so at home which is wonderful! I will take pictures of Alicante in the next few days and try to keep this updated. I am going on day 7 without luggage...and without dryers, my clothes are starting to get stinky. ha ha