Beach Combing

One day as we were winding our way between the crowd in Madrid, nourishing our tired legs and backs from moving places again we had an EPIPHANY! We decided that traveling from place to place was wearing us thin and so we aren´t enjoying places as much as we should. So we decided that staying in one place for 2 weeks or so is much more our style. Once we had this revelation our lives seemed so wonderful and simple. So, here we are on a search for a beach paradise on the Eastern coast of Spain looking for a spot to settle for awhile. We were headed to Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Gibraltar, etc on our way up to Barcelona. But we cut all that out and have set our sights on the Balearian Islands in the Mediterranian.
Getting here was a challenge. First, we aren´t sure if we need to make a reservation for the train, after waiting in lines and customer services we finally have a reservation. BUT, our 1st class railpasses that we were recommended were the best, can´t be used because of the reservation cost and so we end up in 2nd class seats. We literally had the WORST seats on the train! There was a school group, about grade 5ish, seating right in front of us. 3.5 hours of non-stop yelling, kicking seats, putting seats up and down, throwing things with a teacher that sat and listened to his MP3 and would shhhh them once every hour. Tyrn and my teacher heads were about to explode (especially Ty´s). Then they show a movie, but turn OFF the english subtitles, and it is an interesting looking movie to us, but not the kids, they didn´t even notice and continued to terrorize our car. FINALLY, we reach Valencia, where we jump on another train, not really sure where we will end up. But it was wonderful, we had the smell of oranges in the car from the fields of orange trees lining the track, Beethoven was playing on the trains system and mountains were lining our view. Peace at last! Then came the tricky part, going ONLY on information we saw in a bookstore in Madrid we had a name of a hostel, a bus company name and a direction- but that was IT! No address, phone number, or anything else. Somehow we were able to get on the right bus and were practically dropped on the door step of this wonderful hostel. Of absolute no cleverness of our own we somehow managed to find the right place with beds available!
Right now we are in a place called Gandia, just south of Valencia, and it is so fantastic that we are devoting the rest of this blog to bragging about the place we are in right now.
First our very cheap room, low season price, has AN OCEAN VIEW!! Our hostel is right on the beach, literally!
So this morning, we ate breakfast beside the water as the waves crashed in. Last night we walked home from the great pizzaria around the corner in a light warm rain and fell asleep to the sound of waves lapping the shore. Today we are on bicycles, that our hostel provided us for free, and we are cruising around the area. Later today we will go to the local fiesta, check out their medieval market and then take a dip in the sea.




We are hoping to either ride a ferry to Ibiza or Palma de Mallorca to spent our two weeks, OR find a nice place around here. Apparently you can rent apartments or bungalows for awhile, so we are hoping that something works out.

K & T