sarahs_voyage (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sarahs_voyage) wrote,@ 2007-07-02 16:35:00 |
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Spanish Sunshine - Tue 19th - Fri 22nd June 07
So having finished up in Granada, we hoped on a train to Almeria for a few days of Spanish sunshine by the cost. We were hoping to stay in San Jose, a lovely sounding little seaside town in the Cabo de Gata, a nature park famed for its remoteness and stark beauty. After some stuffing around we decided to stay in nearby Almeria instead. We knew there Were buses from there to San Jose, however we couldn't find what time they were for love nore money, nore could we get hold of the alleged hostel in San Jose to sort out accommodation, plus our train to Madrid was leaving Almeria at 7.15 in the morning, so we probably would have had to spend the night in Almeria anyway ...
San Jose was lovely, just what I was hoping for. Almeria was, well, not. On the plus side, the hotel was lovely. We had our own room with air con, our own big bathroom with a bath mat, big white fluffy towels and even a bath tub! Its amazing what'll impress you after you've been roughing it a bit in hostels for a few days :)
We basically saw everything there was to see in Almeria in like, an afternoon. The palace on the hill was pretty but still mostly a ruin, although the view of the town and coast was fantastic, even if you had to hold on tight to avoid being swept off the parapets! (argh, heights and strong winds, not a good combination as far as I'm concerned). And there was some animal park with lots of deer etc which was saw from the walls of the aforementioned palace. Plus the guide book had a few warning about 'don't go here, don't go here alone, don't go here with valuables' etc . . .
The upshot of all this is we decided to head to Madrid a day early, any only spend two nights in Almeria instead of 3. After rather a tasty breakfast on the beach we caught a bus to San Jose, which was everything I was hoping for, minus the black sand :) A cute, relaxed seaside town with lots of sunshine, a pretty quite beach and several places to get ice-cream and food :) One weird thing was the sand, which is black and yellow, giving it a strange grayish tinge. After a day on the beach having sand blown in your hair it really Does look like you've been rolling in the dirt (ew). I was picking grit out of my ears for about the next three days. We did have some of the Best seafood of the whole trip for dinner that night. Trying to find a place that would feed us as 6.30 was a bit challenging (yes I know the Spanish don't usually start thinking about dinner till at least 8pm, however we had to be on the last bus at 8 . . .), and ended up at a touristy italianesq place and had some fantastic calamari - sweet and tender and delicious!
The 7 hour train to Madrid the following day was surprisingly OK. We slept for the first couple of hours and trains in Spain are by and largely fast, efficient and clean. There was even some tv screens showing a couple of movies and free headphone, which weren't much good to us at they were English language films dubbed in Spanish :) (he he, in the hotel in Almeria we were watching Jerry Maguire and old episodes of Desperate House wives dubbed in Spanish, mostly for a laugh as much as anything else. Oh and did you know you can get one litre cartons of Sangria from the supermarket for only 65cents (euros). Bargain! Tastes much better than it sounds I assure you :) ).
Where was I? Oh yes, train to Madrid. A good way of seeing the country side, which largely consisted of endless, endless fiends and hill sides of gnarled, grayish green olive trees as far as the eye could see. Still now sight of the water source supplying all those fountains in the south, but I guess they must be some where. A few games of Flux, some chatting, a picnic of baguette, juicy sliced tomatoes and tasty liquid Camembert dip (delicious! and unfortunately not available outside Spain) and we were in Madrid b4 we knew it :)
Almeria's not somewhere I really want to go back to, but if you were looking for some where quite for some sunshine I'd recommend San Jose - I think easy jet fly to Almeria and you can get a bus from the Train Station to San Jose (the time table is available from the Almeria tourist information office).
So having finished up in Granada, we hoped on a train to Almeria for a few days of Spanish sunshine by the cost. We were hoping to stay in San Jose, a lovely sounding little seaside town in the Cabo de Gata, a nature park famed for its remoteness and stark beauty. After some stuffing around we decided to stay in nearby Almeria instead. We knew there Were buses from there to San Jose, however we couldn't find what time they were for love nore money, nore could we get hold of the alleged hostel in San Jose to sort out accommodation, plus our train to Madrid was leaving Almeria at 7.15 in the morning, so we probably would have had to spend the night in Almeria anyway ...
San Jose was lovely, just what I was hoping for. Almeria was, well, not. On the plus side, the hotel was lovely. We had our own room with air con, our own big bathroom with a bath mat, big white fluffy towels and even a bath tub! Its amazing what'll impress you after you've been roughing it a bit in hostels for a few days :)
We basically saw everything there was to see in Almeria in like, an afternoon. The palace on the hill was pretty but still mostly a ruin, although the view of the town and coast was fantastic, even if you had to hold on tight to avoid being swept off the parapets! (argh, heights and strong winds, not a good combination as far as I'm concerned). And there was some animal park with lots of deer etc which was saw from the walls of the aforementioned palace. Plus the guide book had a few warning about 'don't go here, don't go here alone, don't go here with valuables' etc . . .
The upshot of all this is we decided to head to Madrid a day early, any only spend two nights in Almeria instead of 3. After rather a tasty breakfast on the beach we caught a bus to San Jose, which was everything I was hoping for, minus the black sand :) A cute, relaxed seaside town with lots of sunshine, a pretty quite beach and several places to get ice-cream and food :) One weird thing was the sand, which is black and yellow, giving it a strange grayish tinge. After a day on the beach having sand blown in your hair it really Does look like you've been rolling in the dirt (ew). I was picking grit out of my ears for about the next three days. We did have some of the Best seafood of the whole trip for dinner that night. Trying to find a place that would feed us as 6.30 was a bit challenging (yes I know the Spanish don't usually start thinking about dinner till at least 8pm, however we had to be on the last bus at 8 . . .), and ended up at a touristy italianesq place and had some fantastic calamari - sweet and tender and delicious!
The 7 hour train to Madrid the following day was surprisingly OK. We slept for the first couple of hours and trains in Spain are by and largely fast, efficient and clean. There was even some tv screens showing a couple of movies and free headphone, which weren't much good to us at they were English language films dubbed in Spanish :) (he he, in the hotel in Almeria we were watching Jerry Maguire and old episodes of Desperate House wives dubbed in Spanish, mostly for a laugh as much as anything else. Oh and did you know you can get one litre cartons of Sangria from the supermarket for only 65cents (euros). Bargain! Tastes much better than it sounds I assure you :) ).
Where was I? Oh yes, train to Madrid. A good way of seeing the country side, which largely consisted of endless, endless fiends and hill sides of gnarled, grayish green olive trees as far as the eye could see. Still now sight of the water source supplying all those fountains in the south, but I guess they must be some where. A few games of Flux, some chatting, a picnic of baguette, juicy sliced tomatoes and tasty liquid Camembert dip (delicious! and unfortunately not available outside Spain) and we were in Madrid b4 we knew it :)
Almeria's not somewhere I really want to go back to, but if you were looking for some where quite for some sunshine I'd recommend San Jose - I think easy jet fly to Almeria and you can get a bus from the Train Station to San Jose (the time table is available from the Almeria tourist information office).
