Trip with Spanish Civil War Class to ALCOY, Spain

I am taking a class about the Spanish Civil War at my University in Spain. The other day we took a trip to Alcoy (which is about an hour South of Alicante, where I live) to see the bomb shelters where the people stayed during the Spanish Civil War to escape the bombs. It was really interesting because they have turned it into a museum. We walked through and read (in Spanish and Valencian) about the history of the bomb shelter, what people had to do, the lack of air, space, and how they would stand in the darkness, with a bunch of strangers, in silence, just listening to the bombs dropping outside. The province of Alicante was one of the last to be converted during the war, so it was hit last, and there were many bombs dropped in lots of places around the city. There was a map of the city that had pictures of bombs based on how many and where they had been dropped.

The absolute best thing about visiting Alcoy was that it is in the mountains!! We stepped off the bus (and I was not expecting this) and I almost screamed because I was so excited about being in the mountains. Another girl from my program is from Boulder and she exclaimed, “If you just close your eyes, it almost smells like Boulder!” And it was true. The crisp mountain air is definitely something that I have been missing. I was in heaven for the entire time we were there, and the mountains looked GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to get back to Colorado and go snowboarding with my family and friends (and drive my car….).