Murcia -> Alicante

Inês's room :D

I stayed in the house all morning and start pedaling direction Elche (City of Mabel, a friend who studied in Porto last year). Tomaz cycled with me for some time, till he showed me the road direct to Elche.

Casa Azul, the outside and principles :)
Tomaz showing the way

The street was not that beautiful but I could cycle really fast, and when i arrived Elche I phoned Mabel who told me she was in Alicante (30 km away) so I cycled there to met her and her brother in the center.

We went for a beer and long talk and at night i met Javi (another friend from Porto) and we had dinner at his place and stayed there for the night.

me and Mabel taking a beer

Murcia

After a great night of sleep, I met (almost) all the people who lives in Casa Azul for breakfast.

Then I went with Tomaz (a polish cyclist, traveling for a long time) to the local market to skip food... we found lots of food and then we were cooking in the fire for lots of hours... we made a special international cuisine: "Italian" paella cooked by a portuguese and a polish (really tasty!!)

We stay around fire till late and then, when everyone went partying I stayed with Isa and Tomaz doing another bleach t-shirt workshop they were really amazing people traveling by bike together for a while now... We talked a lot and I got some tips from them about traveling cheap :D

Villaricos -> Lorca -> Murcia

The beach where i camped last night had a small sand street where some (few) cars and by the morning i cycled along it for a bit, some parts were less than a meter from the sea water!
Further, I started cycling for the interior and stopped in a lot of coffee in the way to drink "café bonbon", coffee with condensed milk, and ask for directions. When I was finally sure I was in the correct direction, I cycled to Lorca and caught the train to makesure i arrived Murcia still in day light, so i could find Kisko, a friend of Coco (Sevilla)...

I phoned him but another person answered and I stayed cycling along Murcia waiting for a return call for hours...

I stopped in a garden next to some people who were juggling and using a mono-cycle :), and, around 23:30, I phoned Kisko again, who had forgotten to return the call! He told me he wasn't in Murcia any more as the police had evicted the social center La Fabrika de Hielo the week before but phoned a friend to host me anyway :). That was when a surreal moment happend when i phoned Inês, Kisko's friend, and noticed she was one of the persons next to me juggling for almost 2 hours!! I joined them and we stayed there talking, drinking and playing till the police appeared in the park and everyone (unless us) started running away like crazy!! (another surreal moment we laugh a lot about)...

We then went home, Inês lives in a wonderful squatted house some km away from the center called Casa Azul.

Cabo de Gata -> Villaricos

The great place where i camped last night, with "window" to the sea :p

I waked up early and cycled till the top of Cabo de Gata to see the sun rise. There I found a pedestrian road down to the other side of the hill and I stopped in the first small beach.

view from the top of Cabo de Gata
Sun rising over the sea ;)
inside the mediterranean ;)

The sun was beautiful and warm, so I tried to swim a little in the warm (if I compared it to Porto's sea water) Mediterranean sea. I spend some time doing yoga naked in the beach completely alone with the sun watching me :).

Near that beach I met a nice german girl, and her dog, who confirm me I was going in the correct direction.

Following that street, next to the sea, was really nice, calm and beautiful but also a bit hilly...

Lots of plastic greenhouses, Almeria is one of the few places with so many greenhouses, so many plastic, it can even the seen from the space!!!

By the way i found a really beautiful camp full of flowers and took a picture as tribute to one of the persons who inspired me in this trip, Josie Dew a cyclist and writer.

I passed some villages where lots of foreigners (rich ones) live and, finally, camped in a beach next to Villaricos where i cooked some sweet potatoes in the fire, really tasty :p..

Granada -> Almeria -> Cabo de Gata

View from the train window ;)

I left the house early to catch the train. In the mountain around Granada was a lot snow and the train got a bit late, because of that they return me the ticket value!

first view of the mediterranean sea in this trip :D

After arriving in Almeria, already in the spanish coast with the Mediterranean, I cycled next to the coast looking for a national street, N-341, that would conduct me to Murcia. When I finally found that road, and after cycling about 20 km without an exit, there was a huge sign warning the street is now a highway, where bicycle are forbidden!!

path i followed next to N-341

I didn't want to return back (and, as I don't have a Spain map yet, I didn't know any other way), so I saw a small terrain street (I couldn't see where was it going) and followed it :D... that street ended almost in a cliff that i had to go down with the material and the bike on my back :p...

the end of the "street" i follow (looks like a cliff, but it was possible to get down, slowly and carrying the bike by hand)

Luckily, I found a nice street along the sea and follow it in the right direction, without certain where was I going I camped in a high hill near the coast called Cabo de Gata where I could see a beautiful sun set over the sea :D

Cabo de Gata

Sun set from the top of Cabo de Gata

Granada

As the weather was still really bad, and i didn't wake up early enough, I decided to stay one day more and catch the train early tomorrow.

I stayed almost all day at home with Susana, we did a small “workshop” of stencils “painted” in t-shirts with bleach... Really nice I remembered I brought all my stencils with me :D

One stencil in Su's shirt

In the afternoon Jorge (Argentina) visited us again and at night I meet two other two friends of Su, Martin (Slovakia) and Alice (Belgium) who dinner with us ;).

Granada

A small street in Albayzin neighborhoods
Still bad weather, I walked back to Albayzin to take some pictures. There were many clouds today and the view for Sierra Nevada was not so clean. Then I tried to find the cuevas of Sacramonte again, I couldn't find the path we did yesterday but find another one.

Alhambra and the snowed mountains behind
A cueva in Sacramonte

Later, I meet Victoria later and it start snowing in Granada (Susana told me that it's not common, was the first time she saw snow falling :p) we walked back home and stayed there talking and listening music ;)

Nilo trying to sleep in a funny way :p

street art in Granada

Granada

Another rainy day in Granada...

Stayed at home or near for most of the day... at night tried to go to the CSO 15 Gatos (an old CSOA that now is a squatted house) for a party... but there was no sound comming out so i just walk randomly for some hours in Granada bny night ;)

CSO 15 Gatos

Granada

The day was much colder than the sunny days before, I stayed most of the day at home, where lots of people appeared and we watched a brazilian movie together :)

At night we went to Sacramonte, an old part of the city in the mountain where lots of people live in cuevas, old mountain caves...really nice and a great spot to watch the enormous full moon :)

Then we went to a reggae party till late...a bit of spanish fiesta to "relax" a bit :p...

Granada

I tried to update the blog all morning...

In the afternoon I meet Victoria again and went to Mirador San Nicolás, a GREAT spot with view over all city and Sierra Nevada, completely white :D, all the photos i took were damaged so I must return there again...it's an incredible view :)...

Then we walk randomly by the city streets observing graffitis and street art.. :)

At night i went with all my house mates to eat Tapas y cerveja, and we had a great night talking :)

the only not damaged photo of the day :(
Susana, Paloma, me, Nerea andLeire

Granada

I walked a bit by the city center and then meet Victoria again to visit Granada by noon...

street art in Granada

We went to the El Albayzin, an old part of the city with really narrow street, from the 16th century and La Alhambra, an arabic palace/castle in the top of a mountain with beautiful gardens and lots of water :)...

the archaeological museum

Another tourism day...A nice afternoon with great company...most of the photos were damaged (I'm realizing the XD card of the camera is broken badly :s)...