Alicante - I'm in love with you

In December, it's that time again - I'm flying to Alicante for the third time this year. Alicante is the perfect place to unwind, for adventures, or simply for a beach vacation.

Why Alicante and how did it come about?

I'm 20 years old and my goal is to discover the world, which is sometimes a hindrance due to my profession, but I have used the opportunities to visit Alicante, which I never regretted. It started spontaneously. A long weekend was coming up. A friend and I wanted to get away from Germany. That's when the idea came to fly to Alicante for the long weekend. Done and done. The flights and accommodation were quickly booked. Then the time came and we took off. At the airport, we had a few beers and boarded the plane.

Arrival in Alicante/ The first night:

Arriving at Elche-Alicante Airport, we got into the booked taxi. We arrived at our accommodation at midnight, and after receiving the keys, we went to the 24-hour convenience store and got some drinks, food, and small items. What caught our attention immediately was the impressive castle "Castillo de Santa Barbara". Adventurous as young people are, we immediately climbed up. The ascent was sometimes very steep, but the effort was rewarded. We arrived at a viewpoint and enjoyed the nighttime view of the city. The flickering lights, the gently rustling sea, partying people, and the view of the harbor were incredible. At that moment, I knew that I had fallen in love with this city.

After a few beers and hikes around the castle, we returned to our accommodation. At the highest point of the castle, where the cannons were located, we unfortunately could not go up any further at this time of night as it was closed. So, we planned to visit the top of the castle the next day.

The next day:

After waking up and having breakfast, we walked through the city towards the beach. Taking a dip in the Mediterranean was still on our to-do list. We arrived at the beach after walking through the beautiful promenade and lay down. The beach was not too crowded, so we had some peace and quiet. Then we went into the relatively warm sea. There can't be a more beautiful sight. We swam in the sea and had a fascinating view of the beach and the castle behind it. It was so breathtaking that you forget everything around you.

After replenishing ourselves with a pizza, we continued towards the castle. This time we climbed from the other side - the beach side.

It was steep again in some places, but halfway up we were rewarded with an incredible view. Being on the other side of the castle, we had a different view. We had another view of the sea and could see the other side of the city and the surrounding towns. We took a break midway and sat on some large rocks, enjoying everything around us. It was very hot. Pure sunshine at about 27°C and a pleasant breeze made everything perfect. With a few more beers that we drank there, we talked about everything and enjoyed the wonderful view, including the smaller mountain range "Serra Grossa". Then we continued to climb and walked through paths that were not really paths. Eventually, we reached the top and passed through the gate that led us to the top of the castle. From here, we had an even better view of the city. Of course, we took many photos and sat on the edge of the wall, which was interrupted by cannons.

This time, we could see more in daylight than the previous night (which is logical). In the distance, we recognized an incredibly beautiful landscape surrounded by mountains, natural greenery, and several small lakes. It was early afternoon, so we planned to return by sunset. On the way back, we walked through the city a bit. What put us in a positive mood was that we didn't hear a single German word. Alicante is not the number one destination in Spain for Germans. So, we could stroll through the city without being surrounded by mass tourism. Coincidentally, we saw a tapas bar and had tapas and beer there. We had planned to do this anyway because what would be a shame if you went on vacation in Spain and didn't eat tapas?

Then we headed back to the accommodation as we wanted to prepare for our evening adventure. When we arrived at the accommodation, we charged our phones and the portable speaker, took showers, and discussed our next steps, which didn't go as well because we wanted to be spontaneous. Just like the actual trip to Alicante. We didn't even research what there is to do in Alicante beforehand because we wanted to discover the city on our own. And that's exactly what we did. In the evening, as it gradually started to get dark, we set off to the castle to watch the fascinating sunset. It turned out to be a fantastic decision. We had an incredibly beautiful view of the setting sun gradually disappearing into the landscape of the interior of the country.

We stayed at the top until the entrance gates closed. Then we went down and walked around the castle to discover new paths. Shortly after, we met some partying teenagers. The first attempts at communication in English failed because they only spoke Spanish. So, we had to speak Spanish to communicate. This went smoothly. The teenagers took us to the party district located in the old town. Being from Hamburg, I know the Hamburg "Kiez" and had certain expectations. But the "Kiez of Alicante," as I call the party district, exceeded everything. No stress, no drunken revelers, no dealers approaching everyone who's alive, but only good vibes, partying, and fun! What surprised me a lot was that we could enter almost all clubs for free. And we did. The clubs were very close to each other. The district consisted of several narrow and winding streets, so sometimes it was a bit crowded. But it wasn't a problem because we could talk to everyone, whether we knew them or not. We partied and had an incredibly fun time until the early morning hours. After that, we grabbed a small meal and headed towards the harbor. There, we let the evening fade away peacefully before making our way back to the accommodation.

Saying goodbye:

The final day arrived and we headed to the beach to find a café on the beautiful promenade for breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the beach again to soak up some more sun.

The wonderful view of the sea and the Castillo de Santa Barbara led both of us to the thought: we absolutely have to come back! The weekend wasn't enough for us. After taking a short walk at the harbor, we said goodbye as we then got on the bus to the airport. In the end, all that remained was "Adiós Alicante, nos vemos en Julio!"