Aventuras en Elche

“The best adventures are the misadventures.” ~Colleen Erickson



Lost... why not swing?



The weekend after Valencia Nicole, Colleen, Maggie and I decided to go the “renaissance festival” in Elche. Elche is the town just south of Alicante. We arrived an hour early to the train station and engaged in an exciting game of cribbage after learning everyone in our little group knows how to play. We did not have time to finish the game before the train left, but I was losing pretty badly so I did not mind. We boarded the train, sat back and relaxed for our half hour ride. But of course this trip was like every other trip I have taken and there were mishaps along the way. The information flyer that was given to us said to get off at the Carrus stop, the first stop in Elche. However, Carrus is indeed the second stop in Elche. We got off at the first stop, then realizing we were not at Carrus we quickly hopped back on. Needless to say, we got lost at the Carrus stop. It took us 20 minutes to find out we were lost though because we had been navigating with a map that seemed to make sense. We finally asked some locals, who were not actually locals; they were setting up for a different market and were from out of town. Nicole and Maggie found a nice bus driver who told us where to go and we walked in that direction… for a while. After feeling like we were still lost we yet again asked for directions. Finally someone told us to cross the bridge, which in itself was hard to find! I saw it sticking up over the top of some buildings so we headed in that direction, passing an empty carnival set-up on the way.



The last leg of the climb!



After crossing the bridge (which had some amazing views and gave me a little anxiety because it was a suspension bridge) I saw a sign that pointed to the other train station, the one we should have got off on! We walked for what seemed like another half hour passing through what looked like a palm tree farm. Finally we arrived at the train station and asked the guard at the station where the festival was. It was right around the corner. Of course! Aye! Anyways we headed to the direction of the festival and by then it was time for siesta so not many booths were open. We walked for a little bit, then sat down to get some food, finally! (I had been hungry since we got off the train, but I did not want to stop anywhere before we got to the festival)



Finally! The top!



We ventured on down the streets but because it was still siesta there was not much to see. However we did manage to run into our professor who looked pretty embarrassed to see us outside of the classroom. Haha, you think it would be the other way around! After chatting a bit he advised us to head up to the bell tower. So that is precisely what we did, it was not hard to find because of the blue dome that is connected to it. We payed 2 euro and we were able to climb the steep, spiral, claustrophobic staircase all 150 something steps to the top. There were some amazing views and some great photo ops! We decided to start heading back towards the train because it was going on five.



Top of the Tower



On the way all of the booths had opened up. I was able to pick out a few souvenirs. We also tried this fried pumpkin thing, at least that is what I think it was. It was almost like a pumpkin doughnut. Very delicious! It was another recommendation from our professor. When we sat down to eat them a group of performers came down the street singing and dancing. Seeing us off to the side they shouted for us to join them. Maggie wanted a picture with them so she handed her camera to one of the guys and her and Nicole went to join them. Then of course the gentleman with the camera decided to run away with it! However, it was all fun and games and he returned it to Maggie. We watched them perform for a while, juggling and that sort.  I had found a square post thing to stand on to see above the gathering crowd. Colleen came to join me and before we knew it we were all four on this thing like some kind of team building activity. It was pretty hilarious. That pretty much wraps up our day in Elche. Thanks for reading!

Much love!