We left Granada in the afternoon to drive to Alicante, where we would play next. We weren’t sure if we were going to eat lunch on the way, so to be safe, we quickly grabbed some food from a café and brought it on the bus. The sandwiches we ordered were not the best. Even though I speak some Spanish, I still never really knew what I was ordering. The bus ride was a little under 2 hours to Alicante. Of course, we got there a little early so we stopped at a coffee shop and had some café con leche. When we are arrived at the gym, we had to warm-up upstairs because there was arrhythmic gymnastics taking up the entire gym floor. (pic) That was fun to watch. Alicante was a 2nd division team and we were able to beat them 2 of the 3 sets. It was nice to go away with a win. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of Alicante, but I have heard that it is a really nice city. After the match, we wasted no time and drove straight to Benidorm. It was nice knowing that we would finally be staying at the same hotel for 3 nights in a row, on the beach! When we arrived at our hotel in Benidorm, I think we were all a little surprised at how huge and gorgeous the hotel was! By the time we got there, we were all starving, and the buffet had already ended, so we got “cold plates.” Which consisted of about 4 pieces of meat, a slice of cheese, some salad mixture, and of course the notorious bread role. We thought there was more to come, but nope, that was our meal. So we ended up stealing a bunch more cold plates and filling up on the salami and ham, yummy. After that, I know that Erika and Tim were eager to get to the bar, and we went down there for a little bit, but we didn’t last long.

Day 8

Friday morning we got up and headed to the buffet. It was amazing. It was nice to have a variety of food and as much food available that our hearts desired. After breakfast, we left to go practice as a team before our match against Benidorm. They are in the highest level of pro in Spain, so we went into the match knowing that we would probably get beat. Practice went well, it was nice to actually be able to practice since we hadn’t since Madrid. When the girls from Benidorm arrived, we started the game right away. This was our toughest match, so not everyone dressed.  After watching the girls warm-up, we quickly learned that they could hit the ball! Benidorm was a very solid team, and beat us in all 4 sets. There were 2 Americans on the team, Jo Fielder (who was injured) and Erin Moore, who is a very solid player! After the match we went back to the hotel and had some free time before we were to play that night against Valencia. (Of course it was sunny all week before we get to Benidorm, and when we get there, its cloudy all weekend, go Figure.)

Erin and I decided to go check out the water, so we walked down to the beach and got a few pictures. Despite the fact that is wasn’t nice out, it was still beautiful! Benidorm is very much a tourist city, so we stopped at some vendors and bought some cheesy souvenirs.  We left that night to go play Valencia, a primera level team, who will be moving up a division because they are one of the top teams in their division. When we got to the city and were driving through, there was a celebration going on downtown with fireworks, and huge floats. I guess that every year people compete to build the best float. And afterwards they have a big celebration and burn all of them. Driving through Valencia, I could tell it was a really lively city. Surprisingly we played well against Valencia and were able to beat them in 4 of the 5 sets. After the game, Kelly talked with the team and hopefully will be playing their next year!!  That night we went back to the hotel and met up with some of the guys on the Benidorm team who wanted to go out. About 5 of us went with the guys to a bar nearby, Cortes. When we got there, it was pretty empty and nothing too excited was going on. However, the night livened and we all started dancing! By the time we left, it was after 5:00am!!

Day 9

Those of us that were out late the night before, slept in till 2:00pm and barely made it to the buffet. The girls, who didn’t go out, got up early in the morning and went into the city to shop!! Later that night we went to watch the Benidrom girls play against Avila, who we had played earlier that week. We knew it would be a great game because both teams were very solid. We had our bets on Benidorm. During warm ups, the girls were hitting the crap out of the ball. Benidorm beat Avila in 3 sets, and proved to be a better team. After the game a few of us stayed to watch the guys match. We only watched the first set. It was fun watching the guys play, who we had hung out with the previous night. After the set, we took a cab back and just missed food at the hotel. We decided Chinese sounded really good so we walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant. When we got their, it actually felt like we were in the US. The Chinese spoke better English than Spanish. The food was sooooo good, just like a Chinese restaurant in the states. After great food, we went back to the hotel and got ready for our big night out!! WAHOO. We met in the bar at the hotel. Of course Erikka bought a round of Sangrias, a famous Spanish drink. Then we walked over to Cortes, for another late night. It was fun because everyone went out; guys and girls from the Benidorm teams, the Americans on Avila, some of the guys we met in Madrid, Tim, and everyone else. Once we got there and started dancing, the night flew by. Almost everyone lasted until the bar closed at 6:00. I can honestly say that everyone had a great time! It was an awesome night to end our trip in Benidrom, the next day we would be leaving to go back to Madrid )-: