ALicante - not such a pit after all

Well im here...i am having problems uploading photos and getting this damn spanish keyboard to use the spacebar but you should be able to see my photos for this trip at photos.yahoo.com/hipponax1973.

For those of you who have read that i was going to madrid on my flight this is not you losing your minds as Bill gates sucks your souls dryon the internet but as you can see in the files below you can indeed see this written by myself.

However thanks to British rail Imiseed myflightinyet anotherJOhnCleesemanner.Atfirst livid, I just thought "sod it ill go to anywhere on the next easy jet flight.

a la faulty towers the excuse this time at the train station was as follows.

"Im sorry sir, were not allowed to keep bikes in the station as they pose a security risk"
"What?" was my exasperated reply as I then found i was going to have to take my bike 4 miles away in the sleeting rain and cycle it back in again. (By the way sarah dont worry about bashing the car - its insured and now that someone has taken a swipe at the rear wheel arch in tescos ijust dont care and they can go all Black and Decker on its ass for all its worth. (NB Sarah this doesnt however give you licence to go ramraiding at H&M)

Anyway to cut a long story short and after coming back and issuing such sounds that made babies cry and motherscover the eyes and ears of their off sprìng in my tirade against the bureaucracy of British Rail, which, by the way cant afford to f*ck over its customers all the time. (For everyone´s information a man could insult my family and kill my dog and I would barely bat an eyelid, but were he to use the words "I cant sir, its against HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS.." redmist would descend over my eyes and noone would even be safe in a room full of marsh mallows....

Ahem again

i came back and got the later train to Bristol Airport. PLease note that every conductor, train manager, bus driver and even traffic policeman tried their hardest to put any obstacle in front of my safe passage of the bike to the airport, but finally I arrived at Bristol, dismantled Shergar (which my trusty steed will forthwith be known) boxed him and switched flights to alicante.

Easy jet in the end are a fantastic airline to be with and the flight was lovely uneventful and full of English trash:)

When we landed it was about 25 degrees and after putting the bike back together in thew arrivals lounge (bike temp was about 4 degrees as in cargo hold and looked like the delorean in back to the future with steam coming off it (imagine red faced jamie cursing as pedals wont quite go back on the right way around and pumping a tire in such humidity makes one look quite simply like a hooligan....)

but i desist

I was advised by a nice essx rep man that the town was only about 4 km down the road and i thought...fine i know its night time, he says its a quiet road everything will be fine..

EIGHTEEN kilometres later on a dual carriageway inhabited only by lorry drivers on smack, i was getting a little worried but headed towards the lights of alicante..first of all past the sewage works and then past no less than 40 odd prostitutes south of the town (apparently the russians have moved in cash, property and pros).

THe town centre was deserted of brits and in fact I found a lovely little harbour like the marina in swansea with bars stil open with locals.

Accommodation you say? Well i tried every place in the Lonely PLanet guide (weighs about 600 grammes, I could use it to rob a jewellers if I run out of cash) but to no avail as the locals are on holiday...I eventually made it back towards the airport and got a room for 59 euros at the Hotel Ibis who found a cancellation and felt sorry for me sat on the pavement getting far too much abuse from russian hookers.

Air condition,,shower, beer, crap american tv, asleep......

TODAY - 6km ride in alicante town at 10 a.m. (which goes against my idea of getting up at 6.30 a.m. every day to escape the heat but i did only get to bed at 3.45 a.m.) THere are some photos at the website address above including a couple of black and white ones (I think that the spanish were destined to only be shot in B&W...it brings out the latin looks a lot more....

More tomorrow - i havent decided how much further to cycle today and may get train to valencia or madrid, or Murcia (google it) as over night

Total miles so far :22
TOtal idiots so far :22
Total flat tires so far :0

Adios amicos

Jamie xx