Takin' On The Jellies

I am going to start off this post with this picture. One, because I love "Finding Nemo" and it is one of my favorite movies and, two, because I kept quoting Finding Nemo throughout my entire snorkeling experience. :)

So Thursday I went snorkeling in Tabarca, which is this small island off of the Alicante coast. I left my house early, leaving lots of time to get to the coast and find it. However, I haven't quite figured out how long the bus takes to get places -- sometimes, it takes 15 minutes, sometimes it takes 45. Well, this was one of the times it decided to take 45. We were supposed to meet at the pier with the group so we could load onto the boat that would drive us over to the island at 4:15... and it was 4:30 and I was still on the bus. Needless to say, I was having a heart attack. Tears in my eyes, practically climbing out the window, the whole shebang. There was this Spanish guy next to me who was watching me freak out -- he couldn't figure out what my problem was. I kept imagining running up to the pier and seeing the boat leaving without me! Finally, I just got close enough that I could see the water, jumped off the bus station and ran as fast as my poor little feet would take me to the pier. People must've thought I was NUTS.

Luckily, I made it in plenty of time, climbed on the boat and settled in. Everyone else was all stretched out, relaxing on their towels, eating ice cream, and I was pouring sweat, chest-heaving. Oh yeah, I'm cute. Anyways, I got settled in for the ride.

In front of the Alicante castle de Santa Barbara.

The view from our boat.

Looking at the Isle of Tabarca!

It was so beautiful and such a great way to relax. My friend and I started talking to some of the people around us, who turned out to be Australians living and working in Denmark but vacationing in Alicante for the weekend. It was a great way to spend the first sunny day in a while! We arrived at the island within an hour or so, and they gave us all of our snorkeling gear. We suited up and hopped in the water!

Looking sexy as per usual in my snorkeling gear.

It was reallyyy cool. I saw lots of fishes and the water was so clear you could see everything! It was almost a little bit scary! As my friend and I were swimming out, we saw a HUGE jellyfish, it must've been a three feet box. I screamed! My friend kept telling me not to freak out, that it wasn't going to attack me, I just couldn't swim into it. It reminded me a little of that time that we went off-roading in Arizona, Auntie Nettie, how things sound really great and adventurous on paper (and totally safe, of course) and then all of a sudden you're jumping out of the airplane and you realize -- wait, I am SCARED of these things. Hahahah.

We also found a hugeeee drop-off, where the ocean suddenly dropped to at least a hundred feet. It was soo terrifying. I don't really know why it was so scary, because, obviously, I am floating on top of the water already and its not like I can fall. It was trippy, though.

My friend and I both bought underwater cameras, so once we get those developed I'll post the pictures!

Afterwards, we had dinner on the boat. (Which was advertised as a cool buffet and in reality was a piece of chicken and two baby potatoes. Oh, boy.) The sun was setting at this point and it was quite beautiful!

Overlooking the island. We snorkeled right by that rock.

Our Australian friends! They were salmon-fisherman or something.

Mediterranean.

The boat drove back as the sun was setting, and we got back to Alicante around 10.

Alicante by night. The castle and the coastline.

I was so exhausted! I came home and went right to sleep.

This weekend was pretty fun, too, I hiked up the castle! More updates about that, later, though! :) Miss you tons, love you more!

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