WHAT JJ WEARS

Hi babes!

As you guys probably already saw on my IG: I visited the Costa Blanca and Valencia a week ago!

 I stayed there for eight days and I also shot some new content (ofcourse) :) Since you guys like my vacation feed so far, I thought it would be fun and interesting to tell you a bit more about all the different places I visited and the stories behind my photos. As I’ve said before: I think everyone can relate that a vacation always has its ups and downs and Instagram mostly only shows the ups ;) Soooo, I hope you have fun reading this brand new kind-of-traveldiary-blogpost!

Day one: Let’s go!

Yayy today was the day we would fly to Valencia! This day we needed to wake up around 5:30 in the morning, so we would arrive on time at Eindhoven Airport. We arrived at 9:15 at the airport, which means we were two and a half hours early :) It’s always kinda stressful, because you don’t know if there will be any traffic jams or other unforeseen difficulties. Buttt everything went fine and even the waiting at the airport didn’t felt that long. After a roughly two-hour flight, we landed at Valencia airport, where it was time to wait for our luggage. When we got our luggage (I’m always so relieved when I see my suitcase coming up ;p), it was time to walk to a minibus from the car rental company, which would bring us to our rental car. We booked an estate car, so we would have enough space during our trips and to make sure all of our suitcases would fit in it :p From Valencia it was an one-and-a-half-hour drive to Denia, the city where our vacation home was situated. After dropping our stuff at the vacation home it was time to do some groceries. Since it was already 17:30 and we didn’t eat that much, some people became ‘hangry’ ;p It’s also kind of a struggle to find everything you need in a different country, so it took quite long. In the end when we found all the groceries we needed, so it was time to cook a quick meal. After having dinner at 19:30 it was finally time to relax in the hot tub and take some first pictures.

Day two: Guadelest

On this first day we decided to visit this cute little town: Guadelest. Mostly because of the castle, but this whole town turned out to be as pretty as the castle itself. There was enough space to park and after we crossed the road we walked through the pretty streets towards the Museo Casa Orduña. From this museum you could enter the castle, which is actually more a fortress. The museum was also a really nice place: there were several rooms you could visit, for example a small library and a kitchen. Since it was around 14:00 when we visited this place it was kinda hot and the climb to the fortress was a bit difficult due to the temperature and the lack of shadows. Once we arrived at the top, the view was amazing with gorgeous mountains and a really blue lake. After we visited the museum and the fortress, it was time to eat something. We chose this place called Cafetería Levante, located at a small square. The food was good and not expensive, although it was a bit crowded. After we finished our meals, other people were desperately waiting to get our table ;p Sooo, the next thing we did was visiting some souvenir shops, which eventually brought us to the Museo Etnológico de Guadalest. It was free to enter this place, so we decided to visit it haha. This place is worth a visit (also because it’s free), but it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to see everything. When we were done visiting this place, it was time to go back to our car and drive home (since it was an one-hour drive). Sooo, I loved Guadelest and I would really recommend visiting this cute town!

Day three: Alicante

Around 11:00 in the morning we stepped into our rental car to head towards Alicante. I was quite excited about visiting this city, since I thought it would be a really nice old town. At first we couldn’t really find the parking garage, but in the end we found the Interparking Plaza del Puerto. From this place we walked towards an elevator, which would bring us to the Santa Bárbara Castle. This looked quite cool, since at first you entered a long tunnel, with the elevator at the end of it. When we arrived at the top of the castle it was really, really, really windy and hard to take any pretty shots ;p The whole castle was quite big with gorgeous views, although there wasn’t much to see inside, like a kitchen, bedrooms, or anything like that. We did have a meal with a gorgeous view at the castle’s restaurant. Up next was strolling through the old streets (Casco Antiguo) of Alicante. We stumbled upon some pretty houses, squares, a church and many more. Some highlights are the Portal de Elche (a small plaza with gorgeous old trees) and the Explanada de España (a pretty promenade). Leaving the old city centre of Alicante behind us, it was time to do some shopping at the Plaza Mar 2. First we decided to drink some coffee/tea and then it was time to visit a few shops. Since it was already 17:00 we decided to drive back to our vacation home to cook a quick meal.

Thennn in the evening around 22:00/22:30 it was finally time to decorate the whole vacation home, because my mom would turn 50 the next day. We send my mom to bed and begun to unpack the streamers, birthday flags, confetti, and the banner with a funny but cute message for her. After like 30 minutes we were done and really happy with the result.

Day four: My mom turns 50!

Yayyy today was the day my mom turned 50, even though she still looks much younger  than 50 (you’re welcome mom, if you read this ;p)! At first we song a birthday song for her and then we made her breakfast. Then it was time for each of us to give her our presents, which my mom really loved. When we were done with giving all the presents it was already almost afternoon (oops!). That afternoon we decided to just stay in Denia and stroll through the streets, since we already reserved a table at a great restaurant in Denia and we would have a boat trip after that. In our family it’s always really important to double check where to have dinner, since I’m lactose intolerant, gluten sensitive and a vegetarian. My younger sister is also a vegetarian and gluten sensitive, so we were really happy when we found a great restaurant: Bar BBQ Fuego. This restaurant offers meat for those who want that, but also soybean burgers and gluten free burger buns :) We all had a great meal here and since we mentioned my mom’s 50th birthday when we reserved a table, the staff came singing and dancing at our table and brought a small cake with them to my mom. This was really so funny and entertaining and we still laugh about this when we think about it.

After dinner, we needed to wait for 1,5 hours or so before we could enter the boat. That’s the reason we decided to take some drinks at a beautiful restaurant close to the marina. We were just in time finishing our drinks and were even a bit late when we entered the boat. Then the boat left the marina and we headed more towards the sea. The waves started to get higher and since the boat wasn’t that big, I was quite scared. Yessss I know I’m kind of a chicken, and I was the only one who felt like this ;p After like 30 minutes I started to get more used to the waves and I enjoyed it a bit more. The best thing was when the skipper dropped the anchor and we just stayed at one place for a while to enjoy the sunset. He also gave us some drinks and snacks, so I was way more relaxed from then on (haha!). Around 21:30 it was time to sail back to the marina and drive back to our vacation home. Once we arrived there it was time to have some more drinks and light some sparklers (fireworks) to end the day.

Day five: Benidoleig, Benidorm + Altea

Today was the day we would visit three different places. We left at 11:30 to head towards our first destination: the caves of Benidoleig. We didn’t expected that much from it to be honest, but we really wanted to visit some caves that didn’t take 1+ hours to drive to. When we arrived at this place it actually looked really cute and the entrance was quite impressive. Then you can walk (without a guide yayyy!) into the caves for about 300 meters and enjoy the high ceilings, fossils, and stalactites/stalagmites. When you reach the end of the cave, you need to go back the same way. Outside is a cute cafe and a shop where we had a drink.

Then it was time to visit Benidorm! We decided to only visit the ‘old part’ of Benidorm, due to a lack of time and since we also don’t really like the overcrowded areas. At first we stumbled upon a cute looking restaurant with seaview: El Quijote. Inside it really looks more like a bar/pub and the interior looks kind of outdated, buttt the food and the atmosphere were really good! After we had some great food, we walked towards the Mirador del Castell only to find out it was closed :( The church that was near this place was also closed and would open at 19:00, so we decided to get back to our car and drive towards Altea.

When we arrived at Altea it was already 18:00 and we were kind of tired and overheated. The old streets of this town were really cute and pretty though, but since everyone was quite done with the day, we decided to drive back to our vacation home after 30 minutes.

Day six: Calpe + Algar Falls

After we had a good sleep and some breakfast/lunch we stepped into the car and headed towards Calpe around 13:00. We found a nice parking garage and when we walked outside we stumbled upon a pretty square ‘Plaça Major’. We stopped here to take some pretty pictures (ofcourse) and then we headed to the next thing we wanted to see: the Spanish steps. This was such a cute place to see and, again, we shot some nice pictures :) We walked around a bit more, visited a church, and found a restaurant where we sat down at a table to enjoy some coffee/tea. Since we also wanted to visit the Algar Falls we decided to leave Calpe. When we arrived here it felt sooo overcrowded and there were people standing at the side of the road to lure you to park your car at their private parking space for 5 euros. The best thing you can do is to not park your car at the first parking space you see, because it’s like a 15 minute walk from there to the Algar Falls. Eventually we parked our car at a parking space that’s within five minutes distance from these falls. When we reached the entrance of the falls the first thing we noticed were people everywhere, they were eating and climbing on the surrounding rocks. In my opinion I think the society totally destroys these falls by letting it become so overcrowded. For us it felt wrong to visit this piece of nature and pay €5 entrance fee per person, so we didn’t enter it and headed back home. On our way home we decided to end the day with a dinner at our favorite restaurant we visited a couple of days ago: Bar BBQ Fuego.

Day seven: Chill day

Today was a day to relax a bit, because it was the last day we would be in Denia. We didn’t plan anything and decided to visit the beach that afternoon. I was really excited, also because we planned to shoot some pretty pictures, but once we arrived there it was sooo windy! It was even hard to lay a beach towel down and it felt just really awkward (haha!). I was also wearing a summery hat, which I constantly needed to keep in place. In the end we didn’t stay there longer than 30 minutes and decided to relax in the hot tub at our vacation home. Ohh by the way: I managed to shoot one pretty picture yayyy!

Day eight: Valencia + flying home

Today was the day we were going to visit Valencia! This city was on my bucket list for a while, so I was really happy when we finally left our vacation home and headed towards Valencia. Since we only had one afternoon to visit this city, we decided to visit the (highly Instagrammable) Science Park. We parked our car in the parking garage nearby and walked towards the L’Umbracle, which is a gorgeous gardened esplanade. After this we decided to visit the science museum, where we also noticed there was a Harry Potter Exhibition. Since we’re all huge Harry Potter fans and there was absolutely no line, we decided to visit this exhibition (we’ve already been there when the exhibition was in The Netherlands, but back then it was sooo crowded). We loved the exhibition and we almost bought some random stuff at the souvenir shop. Then it was time to visit the actual museum, which was okay. There wasn’t that much to see, but you could do some funny things yourself like: measuring your blood pressure, staying balanced at a moving metal plate, or playing a buzz wire game. Before we drove to the airport, we ate some fries at a restaurant and I shot some last photos.

When we arrived at the airport we still had plenty of time to check-in our luggage and eat/drink something. Everything went quite smooth and we were also looking forward to go home. Our plane would leave at 20:40, but when we wanted to board the airplane at 20:10 there still wasn’t a plane. Then we got the message that the flight was delayed……the plane would now leave at 23:05. Just before we could board the plane we also heard a new message that the plane would fly to a different airport: Schiphol. This meant we needed to travel from Schiphol Airport to Eindhoven Airport by taxi in the middle of the night, just to get back to our car which was parked in Eindhoven. All in all, we were finally home at 5:00 in the morning.

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