Have any of you travelers ever taken a chance on going to visit a place you've never been to meet someone you didn't really know that well?
Well, that's exactly what I did on my first visit here: Alicante, Spain.
As the story goes, I had been vacationing in Mojácar, Spain the previous summer. It was my first ever visit to Spain, and I made a new acquaintance quite randomly my very first night there. I must have been drawn in by her beautiful, luxurious, curly locks, because it is not usual for me to approach people I don't know at all and strike up a conversation. Or it could have been the general warmness of the Spanish people that allowed me to drop my guard a little. Yeah, I think it was both. Spanish people are definitely warm and inviting!
It started out as a simple getting-to-know-you conversation, filled of course with my attempts to pull out the few Spanish phrases and questions I could remember from years ago. ¿Cómo te llamas? Esther, what a lovely name! ¿De donde eres? Yecla, sounds interesting! ¿Cuántos años tienes? Oh boy, I'm not so sure I'm doing too well here. Haha!
I think, mercifully for Esther, that this lasted only an hour or so. But I remember it as a fun memory anyways, one that turned into a months long getting-to-know-you WhatsApp conversation, which in turn, became this, my second retreat to the sun in the first three weeks of the year, after my crazy short but awesome weekend in Gran Canaria.
This was my winter goal, after all, to dodge the Norwegian winter as much as possible. I was even leaving my company ski trip early for this adventure.
Mostly excited, but not quite sure what I was getting myself into, I set off for Alicante and arried in the wee hours of the morning on January 19th!
Day 19
Country count: 2
Trips to Spain: 2
Scale of uncertainty: 99/100
Okay, maybe that scale of unceratainty rating is a little unfair. I actually had a good feeling about this weekend. The weather report was looking nice, so worst case, I embarrass myself completely and go home sunburned and ashamed. I was willing to take the chance.
The weather turned out as advertised, so it made for a perfect afternoon to explore the crown of Alicante, Castillo de Santa Bárbara. I had been receiving the grand tour of the city, and now it was time for the ascent:
When I visit places like this, there's always three things I want to know: who did it, when did they do it, and why did they do it?
Standing on Mount Benacantil at 166m, the castle dates back to the 9th century, at which time the region was under Muslim control. Like any castle, it was built as a strategic fortress, but one source I checked postulates that "persistent Viking incursions" may have been one of the factors leading to it's construction. Those damn Vikings!
The current name apparently came about during the 13th century, when Castilian forces captured it during the reign of James II.
It has since gone through a 17th centure French bombardment, an 18th century British occupation, and a period of use serving as a prison, before finally being abandoned and subsequently opened to the public as a tourist attraction in 1963. It was a great hike, and the view from the top over the city in all directions made it well worth the effort.
So how'd things go with Esther, maybe you're wondering? Well, I suppose you'll find out in some future posts. Or perhaps you already got a hint from my previous post about Norwegian waterfalls 😜
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