Alicante & Valencia, Spain: Suitcase and Car Troubles

To be honest, this is going to be a short one. It was my final stop on my Spring Festival holiday and I was joined by Karl, who had been on many adventures with me down the years.

We mainly chose these destinations as the cheapest flights we could get out of the UK at the time were to the south of Spain. With a quick check of the football fixtures, we were able to get to two football games over the weekend. With the exception of the fixtures, we left without much of a plan.

First stop was Alicante. The last time I had seen Karl was when we visited North Korea and I really didn't expect our next trip together to be to the seaside town full of British retirees.

The flight seemed no different than any other I had taken in my 29 years. I checked-in, handed over my checked luggage, made my way through security and immigration before boarding the plane. Karl and I weren't sitting near each other due to it being a short-haul cheap airline, so once on board, I put my earphones in and fell asleep. Once in the air, Karl tracked me down and asked if everything was alright with my case. I mean why wouldn't it be? The problem was that the airline had more cases than they had accounted for and were trying to track down the owners of the cases before departing. My name was announced on the tannoy and I was asked to identify my luggage, it's just that I missed all the drama as I was asleep. 

It turns out that as I hadn't claimed my luggage they had taken it off the aircraft. This was the second time in only a few weeks that my case hadn't arrived at my destination. I have never experienced such a balls up. How did they have extra cases? Why didn't they look up my seat number when looking for me? Why did they take my case off the plane when I'm sat on the bastard thing? 

Don't fly Ryanair.

In Alicante, we spent the day enjoying the sunshine. Karl's first idea was to head down the beach and dip our toes in the water. I wasn't too keen on this as I only had one pair of socks to my name and would have preferred not to have gotten them sandy, but life is for living, I suppose.

Afterwards, we headed up to the Castell de la Santa Bàrbara.

In the evening we made our way over to Elche to take in the first game of the weekend. Despite being a second division game there was still a good crowd of almost 10,000. The game finished 2-0 prevailing over the visitors, Extremadura UD. 

The following day we drove to Valencia. We parked up, dropped our bags off at the AirBnB, and sank beers as we made our way to the famous home stadium of Valencia CF, the Mestalla. 

It's a magnificent stadium which is so steep that it makes finding your seat fairly nerve-wracking.

In truth, the game wasn't the best. An eventless 0-0 draw, but a positive feeling can still be gained from the experience. 

We spent the rest of our time exploring the city and local bars.

When it was time to leave Valencia we encountered a problem. The trip was going far too well for Karl and I. Usually our trips are filled with mishaps which are often down to our own thoughtless behaviour. So far, we'd only had to contend with a missing case which arrived 24 hours late. Our latest problem was that the battery on the car was dead. We tried to call the SOS number for the rental company, but there was no answer. With a tight schedule and flights to catch there was little else we could do but bump start the car. Down the narrow back streets, Karl and I pushed the VW Golf. When we got it rolling Karl jumped in and I was left with the arduous task of getting up to an adequate speed. Karl lifted the clutch and we had power. Unfortunately, I didn't. That was the most exercise I'd done in about 2 months and was exhausted. 

And that was that. Austria, Macedonia, England and Spain all finished in a few weeks. I have a few days in Beijing to relax before starting work again, but those days will be filled with laundry, fighting jet-lag, and teacher training, so probably not all that relaxing.

Only 154 days until the summer holidays...

Barcelona: It Didn't Take Long for Bedford to Become Boring

It took a mere two weeks of being home to become boring, so I needed a new adventure. Plans were discussed, flights and a hotel were booked and before I knew it I was off to Catalonia with Karl and Bof, two friends from university. It was a great excuse to meet up with Bof having not seen him for 18 months. It was less exciting to see Karl on the other hand, if anything I've seen him too much in recent times.

The first afternoon and evening was spent in the many bars around the Las Rambla region in Barcelona's city centre. I'd like to say that we sampled the local beers of Catalonia, but it was mainly just San Miguel. We drank a lot of them, so maybe that's a positive review? Although, I've been known to drink a cocktail of Tesco Value vodka and lemonade. If anyone from the San Miguel marketing team is reading this and they want a quote, the Tefl-on Don says "San Miguel's alright".

Tuesday was a stunning day, we spent the afternoon taking in the sights of the city from a rooftop bus. It's the best way to see a city that boasts churches as its main attractions. Take a picture from the bus and move on. We did stop and have a look at the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona's famous unfinished Catholic church. Apparently construction started in 1882. What the hell have they been doing for 133 years? I'll tell you what they haven't been doing - working! Stop sleeping in the afternoon, get off your arse and get it finished. It's no wonder that their economy is in the pan. Then they have the audacity to try and charge me a €15 entry fee. For what? To have a look around a building site? No thanks.

Lazy builders still haven't finished the Sagrada Familia

The bus tour took us to the other sites of Barcelona including the Columbus Monument, The Olympic Stadium, and around the foothills of Mount Tibidabo where we went hiking. We were at the end of this path, and we came to a clearing, and there was a lake, very secluded, and there were tall trees all around. It was dead silent. Gorgeous. And across the lake I saw, a beautiful woman, bathing herself. She was crying...

The Columbus Monument - Christopher Columbus pointing towards America (apparently he's pointing in the wrong direction!)

The evening rolled around and it was time for the main event - Camp Nou. A visit to Barcelona isn't worthwhile without taking in the "tiki-taka" playing style of FC Barcelona.

We arrived at the ground in plenty of time, in hope to pay a visit to the club museum and take in the pre-game atmosphere. Unfortunately neither happened. The queue for the museum was enormous and atmosphere - what atmosphere? Where were the local fans? The majority of people there were tourist fans such as myself. Barcelona is a gigantic club that has attracted a worldwide fan base, but they've traded in their essence. It's resulted in the commercialisation of literally everything. Before the game you must pick up an FC Barcelona toasted sandwich maker, and an FC Barcelona toothbrush. How did I ever get by without them? And I know this is a very hypocritical summary as I was a tourist fan, and an Arsenal supporter, a club notoriously known for doing the exact same thing. But it's a grind a have with modern football.

Into the stadium and it is awe inspiring. The sheer magnitude of it is rather incomprehensible. Despite the capacity being 99,354 it is not that steep, but rather wide. The view is good even from the top and it's the perfect setting for an evening game. Then the teams are announced and it's exactly what I've been hoping for - Neymar, Suarez, and Messi all start. I feel truly privileged that Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp once wore the red of the Arsenal, but when you hear the names that have represented Barcelona you certainly feel envious of the magnitude of the club. Players like Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Cruyff, Maradona, Xavi, Iniesta...and Hleb, the way the front three play together the fans should be honoured that they get to watch the most exciting front line in world football right now.

The show that the current XI put on that evening was majestic. Barcelona destroyed mid-table Getafe and were 5-0 to the good by half time. The team play so well and pass the ball effortlessly. It finished 6-0 and I left a little disappointed that there was only one goal in the second half. Only one of very few disappointments with going to see Barcelona play.

The crowd was subdued. Maybe this was because it was a Tuesday night game, or because it wasn't a sell out, or maybe it was to do with the thousands of tourists at the game. Of the 65,356 people there there were around 200 fans that made noise throughout.

The next stadium I go to will struggle to follow the Camp Nou.

Back to Bedford and back to work. I wonder how long it will be before I'm planning the next trip...