Adios, Alicante!

First, a brief aside. Something happened yesterday that I did not think would ever come to pass. Someone other than my good friend Traci Sedlock cut my hair! Traci’s been cutting my hair for at least the past 10 years, probably longer. It had been over two months since my last visit with her at the end of September, and I looked pretty shaggy. So I found a pelequeria por hombres and got a corte de pelo. The guy did a pretty good job. Not as good as Traci, of course, but at least I look a little better now.

Phase One of this retirement adventure ends tomorrow. Leslie and I leave Alicante on Friday, Dec. 9, spend one night in Valencia, then catch a plane for Malta at noon on Saturday, Dec. 10. We will spend Christmas in a 400-year-old house built by the Grand Masters and once part of a convent. It’s in Senglea, or L-Isla in Maltese, and is across the bay from the capital of Valleta. More on that when we get there.

We have mixed emotions about leaving Spain and Alicante. We like the area and we’ve gotten accustomed to everyday life here — as it would be if we were to live here long-term. But we need to experience other options, so off we go. But first…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Alicante, with decorations in the main streets, like this one that runs past city hall (below).

It seems a little strange, but many of the signs in store windows say “Merry Christmas” in English! The city hall building, however, is decked out with holiday greetings in both Castilian Spanish (left) — a phrase you are no doubt familiar with — and Valencian (right), which, in case you can’t read it, says, “Bon Nadal.”

 

 

And they’ve opened an ice skating rink in the plaza right across from city hall. It was in the low 60s when I shot this brief video, and everybody’s having fun:

Plus, at a number of locations on city streets, vendors have opened temporary churrerias, where you can get traditional pastry items such as churros con chocolate and bunelos. Every time I pass one, I think of my dear friend and former coworker Yvette Pina, who always brought churros to work on potluck days.

Tuesday was Constitution Day, a national holiday marking the approval of Spain’s 1978 constitution by 88 percent of voters in a referendum. That’s when this country became a constitutional monarchy and a democracy. There was a parade through our neighborhood, with yet another brass band, yet another Catholic float carried by lots of people (this one has a pope on top, I think) and some very tall cartoonish figures that I believe are called fogueres. You can see them in the short Constitution Day videos I have attached below for your viewing pleasure. The celebration seemed to focus heavily on children, and included people young and old in traditional Spanish dress. This procession ended at the Co-Cathedral San Nicolas. Enjoy!

So it’s Adios, Alicante! The next post will be from the island nation of Malta.