España

8 is my lucky number.

Spain is the eighth country I've visited in 2013 so there is no surprise that it continued to impress me.

I felt very lucky because I stayed in a small town called Almoradi with Raquel and her mother. Raquel worked in my class earlier this year but decided to return to Spain a few months back to be with her mother and escape the grey skies of England. I can't blame her for going back there, it's beautiful. Her mother is the sweetest woman in the world and the most energetic 74 year old woman I've ever met. Her name is quite long and she insisted I call her Santa. She spoke no English but still talked to me in Spanish and we understood each other, it´s all in the facial expressions and hand gestures and of course Raquel's translating. To give you an example of their hospitality; as soon as I walked through the door Santa proclaimed I was part of the family and that her house was my house.

I arrived late afternoon on Tuesday so we spent the time checking out Raquel's home town of Almoradi. It's a small town close to the coast about 40 mins South of Alicante. She drove me to her favourite beach at Guardamar and I could see why this was her chosen spot to relax, it's a lovely spot.

Raquel´s house

Guardamar Beach

We also spent time going to meet her nieces and nephews. I love kids (no surprises there) but man these were some cute kids. First we met Eloy (7) and Lydia (4), two very energetic kids. They knew a little English so could say 'my name is...' and 'how are you?' but one of the cutest things was when Lydia sung me the 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' song. I caught it on camera, adorable!!! I then played with their vet clinic which had loads of little animals they wanted me to translate for them. Eloy then showed me his football skills. Raquel had told me a lot about them in England and showed me many pictures so it was so nice to finally meet them. We left some very hyped up children and went to call on her other brother and there I met Paula, a shy 7 year old who showed me her skipping skills. Seeing all of them made me think of my cousins and I'll admit, I missed home a bit in that moment.

Lydia, Raquel and Eloy

A few days prior to my trip Raquel had sent me through a few links about everyday life in Spain, in particular their eating patterns. I had a quick browse through these and when I arrived she told me more about it and that I shouldn't expect to eat dinner any earlier than 9pm. As you can imagine when 9pm rolled around I was starving but it was worth the wait because I was treated to Santa's Spanish omelet and various other foods special to their area. It was fascinating to watch Santa make the omelet and I got some tips to help me make it when I get back home. After dinner she started on a pork and turkey paella for lunch the next day and made me sit down and take notes (with Raquel translating). I was ready for bed and they were waiting for their favourite tv show, Master Chef, to start. It wasn't starting until 10.30, timing is VERY different in Spain!

Spanish Omelet!

Santa giving me careful instructions

Paella in the making

Back in England I'm having a bit of trouble sleeping and I think it's because it's getting light so early. Well, the good thing about my room is Spain is that it has no windows so I can sleep I disturbed by the light. I think it's designed like that to keep in cooler because it gets very hot here. So I slept well on my first night and had a lot of energy for exploring Alicante on Wednesday. We walked to the bus stop to catch the 11am bus. Raquel had told me how hardly anyone uses public transport over here because its pretty unreliable and irregular and it really showed at the bus station because it was dead! There were only 3 people (Raquel and I included) on the 1 hour bus to Alicante. I don't think our fares would have covered the petrol it would have cost. It was nice catching the bus because Raquel could point out things and tell me about the area. 

We were met in Alicante by Edu, Raquel's friend whom she met in England but is originally from Alicante. He could tell us a lot of things about the city and showed us some good sites. We went out to one of his favourite spots for lunch and enjoyed some traditional Spanish rice and soda/wine mix. We ate so much I really could have done with a siesta! Edu was really funny to listen to because he had learn English in Dublin. His English was perfect but it was just funny the things he'd picked up in Dublin. He was also quite a character because he works as a IT engineer for a London based company but can work from home and has somehow managed to trick them into thinking he's still working in London but is actually living in Spain. He had to leave us for a conference call at 4pm so we wandered around and got ice cream until our bus home at 7pm.

Alicante waterfront

Walking along the waterfront

I liked these pink flowers

Bank of Spain

Funky blue building

Cool architecture

Church

Impressive dome in the church

Council building

Old ship

Nice spot

Theatre showing 'Beauty and the Beast', wish I was going!

Alicante's main church

When we got back we walked around Almoradi and passed the main church and popped in to a few shops that her friends owned. I couldn't believe how blue the sky still was at 8.30pm. One place we stopped at was a sweet store and I went a bit crazy at the pick'n'mix bit. They had the equivalent of malteser and m&ms to pick so I got heaps of them! When we walked through the door just after 9 dinner was on the table and we talked to Santa about our day.

Lollies!

Alicante cathedral - 8.30pm!

Thursday was another hot day so we decided to spend the morning down at the beach, go home for lunch at 2 and them head to a mall to do  spot of shopping and meet up with my other teaching assistant, Sarah, at about 5. Sarah is English and her sister bought a house out here earlier in the year so it was great to be able to catch up with her. We then spent the rest of the time looking around the shops and I got a few bargains. It was a lovely afternoon. We got back and had another late dinner and I had the best sleep I've had in a long time. 

Guardamar Beach

Paddling in the waves

Friday was another scorching day so we spent the morning down the beach again. I even got in the water this time! We had to get back for lunch at 2 to have Santa's speciality, seafood paella. Oh wow, I could have eaten that all day long! Apparently when Paula was eating it she spilt some rice in the table and ate the rice off the table and said, 'It's just so good I need to eat it all'. After lunch Santa disappeared and returned with a small rectangular box and 'madre, madre' and gave me a small gift for my mother. She'll have to wait until I get home to get that though ;)

Santa, Paula and the paella

Nice pic

I needed a sleep after all that paella, sunshine and beach. We decided to head into Almoradi for the afternoon and called in on one of Raquel's friends and had an iced coffee. We found out that there was a parade/fiesta on that Raquel's niece, Paula, was going to be involved in so after coffee we headed to her eldest brother's house and walked with him and Paula to the sports ground. It was a parade of all of Almoradi's sports teams, and Paula gave us big waves and smiles as she walked past. I also happened to see Spain's ex-Volley ball team's captain; Venancio Costa. After his fame he decided to come back to Almoradi to support local sports team which I thought was pretty nice of him. 

The three girls

This is the FIRST photo Raquel's mum has ever taken!

Paula :)

The kid with 17 on his shorts is a future star... With the ladies ;)

Venancio Costa

As we got back to Raquel's house her other brother, Mario, arrived with the lovely Lydia and Eloy and his wife, Christina. We decided to go out for a few tapas and it was a real family affair because we went to their uncle's restaurant. Her eldest brother was there with his wife and Paula and all the kids were running around while the adults were enjoying a few drinks at the bar. They all practiced some English with me and me a bit of Spanish with them. I invited them all to New Zealand so maybe one day we might see some of them or their children.

Lydia trying on my jewellery, below is Lydia and I practicing her counting :)

My Spanish family :)

When we got back we watched Spain's equivalent of 'The Voice' and I enjoyed seeing some contestants sing in English or Spanish translations of English songs. I didn't want to go to bed because I knew when I got up of have to say goodbye to Santa and Raquel.

It was a hard goodbye with Santa hugging and kissing me saying 'su casa', which translates to 'your house' and also saying I'm family. I have decided that I will definitely be going to back to see her and her family in years to come. This trip was one of those once in a life time thing. I will never forget my few days with Raquel and her beautiful family.

Me encanta España X