Rough Landing

Exited that I was finally leaving for my trip, I spent hours researching all the places that I need to go during my first couple of days in Alicante. That being said, printing out fix or six maps did not do my printing job justice. I overplanned, overpacked and overstressed. Needless to say, the combination of all three are not conducive to confidently traversing through an unknown city.

Luckily for me, I was able to buy a cheap ticket to Alicante under a short notice. What I didn't consider was that these cheap tickets meant that I would end up camping out at the Barcelona airport for 12hours before catching my flight to Alicante, which of course, reaches at 11PM.

Any other bustling city, it would be no problem to find a bus that takes you to the city center, like I had planned, and then whereby find the hostel that one needs to stay at. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite how my first night in Alicante went.

First of all, a piece of advice, NEVER pack two 50lb bags and THEN carry two carry-ons weighing 35lbs total. Doing that was probably my worst decision because upon struggling to find a bus at the airport, it all of my strength to put my luggage on the bus and then take it off again when I got off at my stop.

Walking down the, supposed street, where my hostel was located I noticed that one thing that makes up Alicante are its hills. A walk down a hilly area with 135lbs is a no-go especially if your a 5 footer like myself. Once I had walked for about 15 minutes I noticed that the landmarks on the streets were not what it showed on the map. In panic, I asked a Spanish girl where my hostel is. She looked at me, then at my map and spent 10 minutes staring at it only to tell me that she has no idea either!

Upon her instruction, I walked towards a busy street hoping to find a taxi which could take me to the hostel, something that I should have done at the beginning of my journey, only to stand at the street corner looking miserably lost and hopelessly American.

Moral of the story: DO NOT overpack and DO NOT take a bus to an unknown place when you really can't walk more than 5meters without falling over.

However, the story does have a happy ending. I ended up in my bed within another 20mins because some helpful Italians went searching for a taxi for me. And I really was only two blocks away but little did I know!