I realized I failed to write about a hiking experience I did a few months ago. One of the reasons I love Alicante is the geographical diversity of the province. Yes, the beach is great but I also love the backdrop of the mountains and the opportunities to participate in outdoor activities. The last weekend in March, my friends, Casey, Sara, Allison and I decided to venture about an hour north of Alicante (by Tram) to climb a trail our friend Cristina had told us about. We were surprised when we arrived that we were actually climbing a cliff located right on the edge of the beach called "Ilfach" in the town of Calp (pronounced Cal-pae). Here is a picture of it:
Apparently after the tunnel it was "muy peligroso" (very dangerous)
The day was perfect: sunny, nice breeze and about 60 degrees. It was also Sara's 21st birthday and it was fun to celebrate with a picnic on top of the summit.
Although we were about 3o minutes late back to Alicante for Sara's b-day dinner, the day was fun, but pretty uneventful. This past Sunday, after riding in the limo Saturday night, we decided to go again. This time is was supposed to be me, Casey, Sara and Lindsay. However, Casey didn't wake up on time, which leads into my next story. If you haven't read the previous post, it is necessary to understand what I am about to write. After arriving home around 5:30 AM, I didn't end up falling asleep until around 6 and woke up at 9:15 to meet everyone at the train station. I was feeling the effects of the previous night/morning but surprisingly I wasn't that tired. I was the first one to be at Renfe and I was 5 minutes late. Upon arriving I call Sara to find out she woke up late but she's on her way. She told me to go ahead to the Tram station which is another 5-8 minute walk and purchase our tickets, that way we wouldn't waste time doing that and we could catch the 10:11 AM Tram. It was important we caught this one because it only comes every half hour and it takes a while to get to Calp. My phone is on the verge of death due to the fact I forgot to charge it the night before and I'm trying to call Lindsay to tell her that I will call her when we are on the Tram. She was getting on at the next stop. After just barely making on to the first Tram, Sara and I were ecstatic. We literally ran onto the Tram, threw our hands up and high-fived. At the next stop which is Mercado, we were supposed to meet Lindsay. Unfortunately, our phones didn't work underground so we couldn't call her to tell her we were on the Tram. At the stop, Sara stood in the doors while I jumped out to look for Lindsay. I spotted her on the escalator about half way up and screamed, "Lindsay RUN!!" She starts taking off down the stairs, trying to squeeze through some people and the Tram doors start closing, with Sara in them. She jumps out but starts banging on the doors to try and let us in. It worked! And we got back on the Tram. Everyone was staring at us like who are these girls? And the US Embassy probably hated us for how American we were acting.
The tram ride was nice and relaxing and we didn't have a "layover" in Benidorm like before. When we got to Calp, it was raining and we were in tank tops and shorts. Luckily there is a small cafe right next to the Tram station that we hung out in for about an hour and waited for the rain to leave. As we were sitting there, discussing life and crazy things that have happened to us in Alicante, including things to do with Carpe Diem and rooftops :) (Sorry Sar, had to throw that in there so I can remember all the stories), we legit got "SHHHH-ed" by the bartender! Yes we were talking and maybe laughing a little too loud but seriously? You couldn't say, "hey keep it down or you guys are being a little loud." No, he Shh-ed us at least three more times. After the third time and it being really awkward, we decided to venture down to the rock. There is a bus you can take but the rain had let up and we felt like being outdoors. So many inside, hilarious jokes happened this day that I will only share a few of them. Basically that was our walk to the rock: Sara and Lindsay discussing living the Spanish lifestyle when they returned home, including sipping wine during la comida (lunch) and me telling them about how I delivered a baby in Ecuador. We finally reached the bottom of the cliff and began the assent. Although it was a bit misty and cloudy out, the views were just as breathtaking as the first time. This was Lindsay's first time and even with a hurt foot, she was enjoying the hike. After the tunnel is where things got interesting/terrifying. About 3/4 of the way up, Sara notice's a baby seagull. After "oooo-ing" and "ahhh-ing" for a good 5 minutes we continued. All of a sudden a seagull dove at me! I hit the ground so fast and Sara and Lindsay were like, "What?! Oh my gosh what happened?" I was like, "That seagull legit just dive bombed me." They started cracking up, and basically telling me to stop being dramatic. No more than 2 minutes later I hear behind me, "Holy crap!" One had just dove at them. We decided to go back down to safe ground which was like 20 feet below us. When I looked up I saw literally an army of seagulls flying around the cliff and swooping down at people. I was like oh hell no I am not about to climb to the top like this. We decided that we would settle, sadly, for not reaching the summit because we were not about to get our eyes or brains pecked out. Just then a man came by us and we were like, "are you going to the top?" He gave us a confused look, "Yea, why not?" Umm sir, have you seen the killer seagulls?! He laughed and said they are "harmless" and that we could follow him to the top if we wanted. Well Sara thought that this sounded like the best idea since sliced bread so we continued our journey. And continued to literally get attacked by seagulls. At one point I had to stop, take off my back pack and carry it over my head. For a visual, imagine this sandaled-Norweigen man scrambling up these steep rocks, Sara pretty close behind him and Lindsay and I about 15 feet behind her screaming, trying to yell for her to wait up. Sara goes, "I don't want to lose him! Sir, SIR can you please wait for us? My friends are a little scared." This dude had to be thinking, "Oh my gosh, what did i get myself into." We FINALLY reached the top and the seagulls seemed to be laying off. I was starving and exhausted so I whipped out my bocadillo. Just then two seagulls swooped down at all of us. Sara shrieked, "Hilary can we PLEASE go?!" Mouth full of turkey, cheese and bread I couldn't help but laugh as we scampered down the mountain. And the seagulls were mad. We tried to get down as fast as we could when we hear Lindsay scream, "GUYS! One just shit on me!" I yelled back, "Well keep going because we can't do anything now!" Sara and I are dying laughing while also trying to dodge seagull attacks as we finally make it to what we think is a safe-place. Lindsay emerges from the brush with seagull poo all over her shirt. I felt so bad for her but it was also extremely hilarious. I gave her some kleenexes I had in my backpack and she finally ended up taking off her shirt. We decided to deal with how we were going to get her another shirt after we got out of this dangerous territory. The climb down was better as the seagulls didn't see us as a threat to their young anymore. But we approached a nest and all of a sudden the mother started shrieking! "She's sounding the alarm!" we screamed and while Lindsay and I are trying to get out of there as fast as we can, Sara stops to take a PICTURE of the babies! I'm surprised she didn't die. After making it back to the tunnel, we decided to sit inside and eat our sandwiches to avoid any more possible attacks.
We almost made it down the mountain when it started raining. The day had been so unusual and crazy that all we could do was laugh and we jogged to the bus stop to try and get out of the storm. The bus brought us back to the Tram station where we had to wait 45 for our Tram to get back to Alicante. Where do we go? Oh yes, the café that shhhh-ed us and probably hates Americans. We sat in there and watched "Forrest Gump" (in Spanish of course) and treated ourselves to a glass of wine. Luckily I had brought my beach towel with me because I thought we would swim if it was nice out and I gave it to Lindsay to wrap up in. It also was my Hello Kitty one from Japan so she didn't stick out at all. After trying to stay quiet for 45+ minutes, we caught the tram back home and relived our entire adventure of the day. Despite arriving home around 8:30 and being completely wiped, we ventured over to Lindsay's house to watch "Vickie Cristina Barcelona" which is a fantastic movie. It features Scarlett Johansen, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. It was cool to understand the context of the film since we had visited Barcelona in February. Also, the picture below is one of the few I took on our 2nd hike up Ilfach because I was too scared to get my camera out in the middle of seagull attacks.
Me, Lindsay and Sara before the attack of the seagulls
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