Alicante to Granada, Spain
Who would have ever though I'd be A traveling brewer? Not many people who knew me early in life, that's for sure!
That all changed when I decided that no one gives a crap and that you can literally do whatever you want in life. Stop fearing what others think, or what you could possible accomplish if you put all your energy in to it. You literally are what you put your energy in to, for me it was beer over the last 3 years, a lot of time and energy, blood, sweat, and tears. I know my skilled trade now and am taking my knowledge around the world to share with other brewers, all on the way to starting my own brewery somewhere in the world.
I arrived in Spain January 21st with my brewing friend Anthony and are roaming Spain until Feb. 21st, which I'll then continue my travels to Italy, Germany, Ireland, and England. After I'll be heading down to South America and then South East Asia. Make sure to check out all the blog posts through the time.
Alicante to Granada
After visiting Barcelona and falling in love with Valencia, we had to make our way down the Mediterranean coast to visit Alicante via Train. The train right was awesome as we sat on the train for a good 3.5 hours, of which I slept 1.5 hours of it until I started listening to one of my many Audiobooks, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and seeing the gorgeous Spanish country side. We arrive in Alicante around 4pm and check in to Hostel X, where we stayed for only two nights. I was told it was a very pretty, and party centric, city and wanted to just get a little feel for the city before departing Spain.
We stay in a 8 bed room with 2-3 other people there, one of them being a girl from the Netherlands named Jet (Yet) who (I don't believe in coincidences anymore) ended up staying at the White Nest Hostel in Granada where I am now writing this blog post, as well as the Purple Nest Hostel in Valencia where she became friends with Josh and Chris, two Americans I met and befriended while in Valencia. She was the one who showed them around Valencia and to some spots that they ended up showing us to. She was an awesome girl with an adventurous spirit. We didn't go out (that late) the first night, just to a restaurant who is sort of like a chain in Spain called "100 Montaditos"where they have 100 small sandwiches/menu items all for, mostly, 1 Euro. We then head to an Irish pub for one more drink before going back to the hostel to play some cards.
We get back to the hostel around 11pm and the nights still young so Henry, the 25 year old hostel worker from the UK, and his 35 year old Belgian bike rider guy friend pull out some cards and we all play a few card games. There was also a Czech 60 something year old who didn't speak very good English at all downstairs playing with us too. We had to kick him out of our games because it was taking too long sadly.
We then get kicked out from downstairs and had to sit on the stairway finishing our beer (1 liter for 1.5 Euros!) and talking about eachothers lives until 2am.
The next day we wake up and decide to go roam around the city for a couple hours. We walk down to the Sea and all around the city where we randomly arrive at the Cathedral De Alicante,
where they were actually having a live sermon going on when Anthony and I walked in.
After getting back to the hostel we notice Jet was still there (she was leaving that day to go back up to Valencia and visit our friends Josh and Chris) and decide to go up to the terrace and do some yoga. This was my first time doing yoga since leaving to Spain. She tried but didn't like it and had to leave anyways. She leaves and Anthony goes to take a nap while I continue to do a little crossfit workout up there, overlooking part of Alicante.
I then take a little Siesta before deciding to go downstairs and start drinking. I pound 1.5 of those 1 liter cheap beers to get the night started for the infamous Alicante night life.
Henry decides he wants to drink too and started challenging me to tons of drinking contests and the game of "odds." I end up wining most the drinking contests (my inner frat star came out) but end up getting wayyyyyy to drunk and couldn't make it out that night. To top that day off, I didn't eat anything the whole entire day. I woke up in my bunk bed the next day. Thank god!
We had to get right up and hit the train station the next morning.
First time we have had to take a bus so far. As we had our packs on our back, one foot out the door, one of the Argentinian workers said she found me passed out on the floor of the second floor and woke me up and I said "What a hell of a night." Awesome thing to hear all groggy as we were heading out the door!
The bus ride from Alicante to Granada costed 37 euros each and has been, by far, the most expensive travel expense since being in Spain. The bus takes roughly 7 hours to arrive somewhere only about 200km away. We make 5 different stops and 3 of those we had to wait 30 minutes at the train station...
We finally arrive in Granada at 6pm where we had 2.4 miles to walk, with our heavy packs, to the White Nest Hostel. Right outside the bus station an Argentinian kid, maybe 22 years old, strikes up a conversation with us and we walk and talk for a good half hour, learning about his life from the Mendoza region in Argentina. That was quite the good omen to run in to him first thing in Granada as he was sort of in the same boat as us, wonderers. We say our goodbye and continue the long trek to the hostel. We were pretty amazed by the small alley ways and big city feel of Granada.
We check in and shower up before we head out to town and grab some tapas and cerveza. We head to a small spot, randomly, after being recommended by the receptionist at the hostel, called The Rancheria. Omens. Anthony and I had 3 good size tapas and three small beers for 9.5 Euros. Can't beat that. We then wander the streets and end up right across the small street to grab some sangria before heading back to the hostel, picking up a 2 buck chuck and splitting it.
The next morning we wanted to take a tour of the city so we get up at 9:40am to make the 10:15 tour. We ended up not liking the tour so much so we ditched the group and went and had some churros and chocolate. That was so good but the best thing we had was the orange juice, best I've ever had. We head back to the hostel to regroup before going out and wondering around a different part of the city. We end up around the top of the city looking for the old gypsy caves. We didn't find any sadly. On our adventure home we go through all the small alley ways, making our way down the hill. Guess who we run in to randomly... Our tour guide and the group, in a small alley way... Of course... Omens. We laugh it off, head back to the hostal and take another siesta before going out with our new Russian friend we met, Alex.
We go back to The Rancheria to pre-game before going out to the bars. We make it to the bars and meet some friends and had some BOMB beer! We pounded 3 pints of an 11% Triple IPA Anthony and I both loved before moving over to the night club a half mile away. We have two small cheap beers at the night club before drunk, pissed off Ty comes out and decide to walk home. I pick up a big road soda and drink it on the way home. I made it home safe and start to listen to music in the hostel lobby. Anthony arrives like 5 minutes later. We head upstairs to pass out and wake up the next day.
Definitely still a little tipsy the next morning. We go out and walk around the city some more before heading to the hostel to get some work done (write this blog) and plan for going out (possibly) tonight.
We are leaving to head east to Seville next, where I have a brew lined up.
Thanks for reading folks! It means the world to me! Please leave a comment about what you liked most about this blog post and what you would like to see different, more, and share via Facebook and with friends.
Until next time my friends!
Cheers!
Ty Stevenson
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