My short break in Alicante.. the Restaurants [1]
[2]
[3] [4]
[5]
Restaurants in Alicante
Spanish attempted to translate their
meals into English. As much as they try, they always get the spelling
wrong; ‘Meat balls
with French fries’ became ‘Meat bolls whit French fried’.
Finding it wrong of me to alert them to these errors, I continued
on my travels, as the smell of fresh paella wafted over to me.
I
had tea that evening at a brilliant little Italian restaurant on
the promenade, a few doors down from the Mexican. Here I happily
tucked in to a bowl of soup, a whole bowl of bread for myself, lasagne
and cannelloni, a slice of chocolate fudge cake and last but not
least, a huge orange full of ice cream, which seems to be a speciality
out here in Spain. It wasn’t
the fact that I was greedy which made me eat so much, it was the fact that I
was starving. Still, I received some disapproving looks from the waiter and left
hurriedly, by now having gathered a small paunch.
The Market Stalls
In the centre of Alicante’s
promenade at night, market stalls stand opposite each other, selling everything
from beads, jewellery, watches, mirrors, ornaments, sunglasses, hats, bags and
toys. I browsed around the stalls, finally buying a beaded bracelet and a cream
bag. There was a pleasant atmosphere here as well, with music playing
from several different stalls and a live band playing on the podium,
which reminded me of one of the giant, animated leaves on the film ‘Bug’s
Life’.
Sadly
I managed to break my bracelet when I attempted to use it as a bobble
and hearing a loud snap, I watched as the beads showered all over
me and burst off in all different directions. Then I heard a loud
yell and turning towards a man strolling in the opposite direction
to me with his wife, I realised with horror that one of those bloody
beads had smacked him right in the eye. Offering my sincerest apologies in
Spanish, which didn’t go too well as I discovered the couple were German,
I hurried along back towards my car. After some time I found myself walking
through an old park in what must have been one of the original parts of Alicante’s
promenade. Here huge, terribly old trees surrounded me. The branches twisted
amongst each other, entwining amongst the leaves. The only thing that I could
compare the trees to would be the tree that the baboon Raffiki lives in, in
the film ‘The Lion King’. It was almost as if walking through some
magical jungle. That was until I came across a bunch of the bloody beads which
at one point had been bracelet, and began skidding on them. Clinging on to
one of the trees, I manoeuvred myself around it, similar to a cat burglar.
This was much to the delight of a young group of teenagers, who pointed and
laughed at my attempt to get away from the beads. My estimations of Spanish
children were beginning to fall considerably.
Finally
returning to my car, I unlocked the door and quickly switched on the air conditioning.
Driving out of the city, I looked back in my rear view mirror to the illuminated
Santa Barbera Castle sitting over the city, the harbour with its millionaire
yacht boats bobbing in the water, and the lights of the promenade trying to
beckon me back. In amongst the old park, I thought I saw something glistening,
and could only hope it wasn’t the beads I had bought. My visit to Alicante
had been enjoyable and relaxing, exactly what I’d wanted, and there had
been plenty to see and do, what with the El Palmeral Park, the harbour, the
restaurants along the promenade, the shopping complexes and the Santa Barbera
Castle. Next time I just won’t use beaded bracelets as hair bobbles,
especially when I come across German aristocrats and their wives.
Gallivanting in Alicante >
Gallivanting in Liverpool >
Gallivanting in the Lake District >