Another Tuesday in Alicante

Hola, I have to leave for Madrid en la manana, so Roger will have to take over the blogging.  You may see more professional entries from the expert, but I do have to admit this is pretty fun.  Today was a very fantastico culinary day for us in Alicante.  Because I will be leaving and we have avoided the temptation thus far, we finally went to the Churreria below the apt and had churros and chocolate.  OMG!!!  Talk about yummy breakfast!  They just pour hot chocolate (not the drink, but a chocolate type sauce) into a coffee cup and serve it with churros.  Then you dip away and can drink or eat the chocolate after you devour the churros.  Seems more like a dessert, but it is served a lot for breakfast!

After churros, we braved the bus to the University for Roger’s class.  I actually held my tongue today and didn’t try to participate too much, except to adjust the A/C.  It was really nice to sit in a room with A/C for almost 2 hours!!  You don’t know what you are missing until you go without it for awhile.  We took some pictures where I look a little goofy posing with alien cactus.  We came home and made our own tapas from pepinillos, green olives, and pringles.  Yummy.

For the evening, we went back to Austin for some drinks before dinner.  We tried a Capriahni-which was very tasty-but we don’t really know what is in it.  We then explored the streets in search of dining options.  We rounded an unfamiliar corner and happened upon a charming little Indian restaurant called Shiik II.  The people were extremely friendly and even spoke fluent English.  We ate what the owner recommended and everything was excellent.  The samosas and tamarind chutney were out of this world!  So was the rest of the meal.  We also met a very nice family on holdiay who currently lived in Sweden, but were originally from Bangladesh.  Good times, good times. 

Roger and I then walked around the Esplanade and headed for the hot apt.  The experience of ’living’ in a different culture is a great life experience, and very different from just travelling on vacation.  Two big things to remember if you ever come to Europe:  alway go in to the bathroom stall that has a handle on the inside so you can actually leave the bathroom and don’t believe what the internet or newspapers tell you about the temperature!

Thursday is Class Day

Once again, we stayed up until about midnight last night and didn’t get up until about 1000 again today.  We’ve decided there really is nothing wrong with us-it just must be the heat (or sheer laziness).  We went to class and I decided to purchase 2 cafe bombons at once; you know, like a double shot.  Well, the classroom was really hot (but no smell this time) and the coffee really got to me, so I think I’ve had enough cafe bombons for now.  Oh, I also figured out there was A/C in the classroom and turned it on with only 2 minutes left for class.  At least we know for the next time. 

After class we attempted using the University’s gym.  It is a pretty decent gym for weightlifting.  Of course, you have to have energy to lift and we didn’t.  It is just hard to work out when you are already sweating just from walking to the gym.  A pool would have been better.  They university is in the process of building a new pool, and Roger may be able to use it later in the month.

We rode the bus home and decided to eat out.  We walked around and found a Mediterranean place called Kepab Turco (imagine that, another Kepab joint).  The restaurant was really nice and airconditioned!!  I actually got goose bumps.  The food was awesome and we ate way too much.  We were pretty full after that and walked our way down to the pier.  We wanted to check out this really huge yacht, but couldn’t find a way to get back to it.  It is probably surrounded by guards anyway…

Martes in Alicante

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’.