A Day at the Beach...Again, Part 2

While I was writing yesterday’s post about my day at the beach with friends, I quickly began to realize that the whole thing was evolving into an ode to my newfound volleyball skills.  Hence the ‘Part 1.’  I contemplated saving ‘Part 2’ for a random day far down the road, just as a surprise to all of you (I need to keep things interesting, you know), but decided that I’d just finish up my telling of Saturday’s fun in the sun today.  

We packed a picnic lunch and headed down to the Playa de San Juan around noon to celebrate the birthday of Daniela, a new friend.  We spread out our beach towels, dropped my supply of Fanta Limon into the communal cooler, and hit the v-ball court.  After the now-famous “Epiphany Inducing Volleyball Game of 2011,” I took my first dip in the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea.  The water was pretty fria but it felt great after playing in the sun on a near-90 degree day.

After a walk along the shore, I settled down with some of the girls and we commenced another great English/Spanish/Charades conversation (I have these often).  The day just continued like this; laying in the sun, eating our picnic lunches, and planning a dinner date for that same evening.  When we all said goodbye around 5, I was extremely excited to be a part of this new group.

After another excellent win by Borja’s basketall team, we met back up with a smaller group of my new friends from the morning for dinner and drinks.  We ate at a restaurant in downtown Alicante where you order from a list of 100 baby submarine sandwiches and a sampling of different appetizers.  Each little sandwich, or montaditos, cost between 1 and 2 euro a piece and everyone ordered at least three or four.  I got three: chorizo with brie, ham with something like a salsa, and tortilla (potato frittata) with aioli.  The chorizo was my favorite but all three were stupendous.  I also had my first clara which was an unexpectedly delicious combination of light beer and 7 UP.  Like I said, unexpectedly delicious.

We then headed to El Coco Loco (it looks like a cave inside...no kidding) for some cocktails and candy.  We talked and talked for a couple of hours and my face was aching from laughing and smiling before the night was over.  We made plans for another beach day sometime this week after Borja’s exams are over.  There’s always something to celebrate here in Spain!  We said our goodbyes with besos like old friends and I look forward to meeting back up with these friends again soon!

On a completely unrelated topic, I went to a Spanish supermarket for the first time and I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back again because of what I found:

After I showed this to Borja and asked if I should be nervous about hungry Spaniards, he said, “Yeah, when I told them you were coming they didn’t say ‘Oh, cool,’ they said ‘Mmmm, delicious.’”  I’m sleeping with one eye open from now on.

Thanks for reading, and hope they don't make soup out of me,

Alicia