Seattle to Chicago to Madrid to Alicante, with only one delay, and no baggage disappearances - so I guess you could say the trip was as smooth as could be expected. It didn't make the hours in the cramped airplane seat over the Atlantic any less uncomfortable, but let's not dwell.
I'm here now in the Villa Universitaria, the hotel-meets-residence hall attached the CIEE program building on the campus of the University of Alicante. We arrived here by bus from the airport around 4pm local time (subtract 6 hours for EST, 9 hours for PST), and had two hours to descansar - to relax, nap, shower or chat. I crashed into bed for an hour, sort of intending to then get up and shower before we had to meet again at 6pm. That didn't happen, so shower is on my before-bed agenda, which, given the disgusting feeling of travel grime that lingers, is quickly eclipsing blog time, so I'm going to end with
the first cool Alicante experience: dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant called Restaurante La Hacienda del Jamón. You can plug that into Google Translate if you so desire, but the important word is jamón. Ham.
Tons of it. That's the jamón hanging from the ceiling of the restaurante, which smelled delicious, if proving slightly disconcerting for the friendly neighborhood vegetarian. Incidentally, it was the first dish that came out at the restaurant, just little thin slices of this delicious deep pink cured ham.... yum.
More (and hopefully more coherently) tomorrow. We're starting off the day with a walking tour of downtown Alicante, so maybe I'll have some more sights to share.
Buenas noches!
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