Tuesday, (or Martes en Espanol) in Alicante was Roger’s first day for class at the University of Alicante. As a visiting professor, he has a small workspace in the ‘Control Tower’ or office building at the University. Apparently it actually functioned as a control tower for an airport at some point in the history of the city. We explored the campus and found the buiding for his class as well as finding the cafeteria and gymnasium. The campus is very clean and the buildings are the one place we haven’t seen grafitti on the walls. I decided to attend Roger’s class and listen in to the lecture-while catching up on my reading-but didn’t get too much reading done because I really became interested in the Outdoor Travel Writing lecture. As I have been blogging away willy nilly, today I learned that my style of writing, while fun, is probably not going to get me a writing job at any major publications. I could, however, try to make improvements as directed by the professor and who knows what could happen?? In any case, it was an interesting class.
After class we walked over to the cafeteria to get something to drink and lo and behold, there was a cafe stand there. Because of my proficiency in Spanish, I watched what others were ordering and basically followed their leads. I ended up ordering a Cafe Bombon after seeing someone else order it and loved it! I especially loved the price-65 cents!! You sure can’t get that price at Starbucks (or anywhere in the US)-so guess what??? I got a second one. By the way, it is made of a dollop of sweetened condensed milk with a shot of espresso poured over it. A little sweet, but yummy!!
We then rode the bus home, tried to cool off a bit and went traversing around the neighborhood. As a side note, the public transportation in both Madrid and Alicante is very inexpensive and easily manageable for those of us with pequito Espanol. The metro in Madrid isn’t what I would call super clean (reminded me of the metro in Boston), but the one in Alicante is brand new and very clean. We had dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant called Kepap El Barrio down the street. We had Falafel sandwiches and gigante patatas fritas and salsa roja. They were muy delicioso and very reasonably priced. We paid 14E for everything, including drinks. The people who work in most of the cafes, restaurants, and stores are very friendly and really try to make every attempt to communicate with you. I am getting better with my Spanish, but Roger need to practice more!!
We continued walking down to the Esplanade and viewed a multitude of vendors. Lots of jewelry, belts, sunglasses, toys, and WWE posters for sale. We saw some bongs for sale as well as faux Prada and Louis Vuitton purses. The next time we go down to see the vendors I may try to barter a deal with one of them, just to see how much the Prada bag costs.
By the way the Artist from the church in Toledo is El Greco and the fresco in the Cathedral was titled ‘Burial of the Count of Orgaz’.
