A night in Alicante

Kloe, Jess and I took the bus to Alicante on Saturday to see Alex, Antonia (and her brother Alex who was visiting) and Betty – fellow erasmuserrrrs. The sun clearly didn’t want to say hey and we had rain and no umbrellas, cue using beach towels to get to Alex’s to get ready for our night. https://instagram.com/p/3WaCB6iBNO/?taken-by=marymandefield

I let Kloe do my make up and had actual eyeshadow on my actual eyelids like an actual girl. Kloe’s a make up wizard so managed to make me look half decent, what a star. I got a bit of apartment envy as the places in Alicante are so much more modern than our granny flats in Ye Olde Murcia… And Alex’s living area is probably bigger than my whole flat, not fair. We headed back to Antonia and Betty’s to pre drink and meet some of their friends. We had cups the size of our faces and more people to pre drink than the room really permitted. A few hours later we headed to Marmarela, a cocktail bar basically on the sea. I blanked out as soon as we arrived like everyone else because those cups really were ridiculously big, so don’t remember much of what it looked like but I know it was preeeetty.

The place felt like a mini festival, was free to get in and the music was actually banging. Me and Kloe head banged for way too long and now have sore necks still 3 days later which is pathetic. The DJ kept looking back at me, if I gave him a thumbs up he seemed satisfied and got back to playing music, weird.

We were all having a really good night until Kloe told me the police were there and drama had begun. I won’t go into detail but things just esculated quickly; a few were covered in blood, I heard a lot of arguing with the police in Spanish and then the ambulance arrived. Drama drama drama. This random ordeal went on until about 7am, then we rejoined at KFC, I ate the batter from other peoples chicken because I’m such a good vegetarian..

https://instagram.com/p/3Um70ozCAw/?taken-by=kloereese

Anyway, apart from the unnecessary police & ambulance drama we had a pretty good night. The Alicante girls are so lovely so I hope I get to see them again at some point in the UK.

https://instagram.com/p/3WN0khTCMb/?taken-by=kloereese

People are starting to leave Spain now because the term is over which makes me emosh, basically, I wish everyone lived in Hertfordshire so I could pop by for pesto pasta and rubbish games of ring of fire.

Mary x

Hiking in Librilla

I’m sure most erasmus students in Murcia have visited the tiny and deserted town of Librilla already but as always I’ve gotta be late to the party (plus I only arrived a month ago). But no ones bothered by the old town church or endless orange and lemon trees, everyone comes for the hike up the hills to see this amazing view of the lagoon. Then to go down to swim in the blue water.

Courtney, Nina and I got the 20 minute train to the town of Librilla yesterday; Courtney kept telling us empty this place was, but she was so wrong on this occasion. People filled the streets, cars beeped us out of the way and everyone and their daughter was out and about dressed in their best church wear. We headed towards the mountains, maybe getting a little bit lost on the way but we were pretty chilled. Eventually we reached the path that we knew was going where we wanted. We passed endless lemon trees; seriously Spain loves their lemons. I picked a few oranges from a tree and they were almost definitely the best oranges I’ve ever tasted, a watch dog barked us away and we carried on up the hill.

Detouring again, expecting to see water and just ending up with views of the town and a whole lot of rocks, we backtracked and finally ended up with a beautiful view. And a load of guys in trucks maybe a hundred meters away shouting ‘guapas’ at us. The descend to the water was definitely a lot more difficult than our ascend for the beaut view (and mini picnic of pizza crackers).

Jumping through long grass and avoiding massive dry bushes was easy in comparison to sliding a few feet onto our bums because of loose rocks. I landed weirdly on my ankle too and imagined dying there, with one yank and one South African in the middle of a quiet town in Spain, how tragic. But I was actually fine (dramatic thoughts). Somehow we made it down, all alive, to the water. I blew up my rubber ring (always totally at one with nature…), we stripped off and swam in the water crazy blue water. The ground is pure clay so it feels gross to go in at first but you get used to it. As it was time to get out I covered myself in clay because I’m all about that baby soft skin.

Getting out of our little lagoon area was actually pretty tough and the best way to do it was to just go go go without stopping even though the hill was mega steep. We were literally grabbing vines and prickly flowers to stop us from sliding all the way down.

I may or may not have braved the barking dog to ‘borrow’ some oranges and lemons on our way back into town. Cue fresh lemonade when we got home. Nina and I were absolutely knackered when we got in and our plans of a late night out were replaced with moaning about our aching muscles and bitching about wacky Eurovision entrants. Over 8 hours of walking and swimming had caught up with us.

Anyhow, such an amazing and surprisingly tiring day.

Mary x

p.s. see all the photos on my flickr hereeeee

Maz in Murcia

Holaaaa,

I think it’s fair to say I had been feeling a bit crap for the few weeks before these holidays; it was January, unbelievably cold, everything seemed more expensive than ever, I’d felt sick, I’d been working hard on a little side project and was drained, I was missing friends (and my dog, probably more than is socially acceptable), the school run was a big stress since the Hebdo incident and for most people the novelty of living in Paris had worn off. Obviously you’ve gotta expect that; you can’t always be amazed by where you’re living, you’d run out of energy. But once the magic wears off and the reality sets in you can’t help but imagine going somewhere else or starting something new. I’ve also realised that I’m a massive whinger. I find faults with everything because I just want it all to be perfect ALL the time. Hmmm unachievable goals eh. So, sorry if I’ve whined to you in the past couple of weeks, I’m over complaining now I promise! 

Anyway, back to Spanish adventures! Murcia kinda went like this… 

 

I ran, shopped, we ate pizza for €4.50, listened to uptown funk more times than I can count, danced on bar tops (apparently…), cooked turkey burgers and wedges, walked into mirrors and got laughed at, ate tapas, danced to Prince, watched Gogglebox, put flowers in my hair, drank beer in 1 litre glasses, danced some more, had drunken walks home, drank too much tequila, borrowed a bride-to-be’s veil, got some free pizza, went to Alicante for the day, climbed a big hill, rescued a caterpillar, walked through giant mushrooms, visited an old castle, taught the Americans our English slang, learnt that Americans have so many different words to us, learnt that northerners have so many different words to us southerners (doofer?!), witnessed a pretty bright rainbow, sang, ignored street sellers, sat on the beach and left just as it was getting sunny, walked along the marina and lusted after luxury yachts, paddled in freezing water, went for a drink with a fellow WGCer, ate more tapas (cute deep fried squid), mocked segway goers, found our long lost left handed Leo friend, came to the conclusion that left handed Leo’s are the best type of people, went to the cheesiest student bars, laughed at it all the next day.

Basically Murcia was a big ‘Dafuq happened last night?!’ few days and I looooved it. Kloe was the bestest host to clumsy (& possibly a bit drunk) old me and her friends are the sweetest, funniest people in the world. I felt like part of their little Erasmus family after 3 days and I was actually gutted to leave. Miss Klo and everyone already. Not fair. 

Also LOL that a few people were confused when I left Murcia. They thought I was just a new erasmus student. Haha, it reminded me of when I convinced a few Beaumont guys I’d actually been there since year 8. Always blending in… 

Mary

x