Well today was a slow day. We slept in after finding the ocean yesterday which was quite pretty as there are some mountains here. But windy as heck. Still looking for apartments, I found a beautiful place in the next largest town: Crevillente of 28k population. The owner is a first time rental as it’s her family home, and had a huge 3 bedroom 2 bathroom with fireplace two balconies and AC! Jorge told her our ages as we are legitimate. She said she’d think about it. Oh well. But on paper the town looked promising as an alternative for more apts, since I’ve found only two apartments in Albatera now. : 1 bedroom for $900 or a 3 bedroom 2 bath for $500… With no AC or Heat, and on 2 floor. I’m… getting desperate. But still no bus confirmation. Hence we decided to drive in person to Crevillente and find a stop and see for ourselves, and also see the town as it’s 10 min to my town Albatera. Well, the stop was a stop. A bench. No schedule anywhere. The local on the bench didn’t know if there was a bus to my town or not. “Yo no se” Damn. We walked a-ways and found the building where the lady’s apartment was and her heavy wooden outside door had double bars on it from street. Double? .But it was next to nice park. But something about the town didn’t agree with me. It didn’t look Spanish in anyway, and well, not as safe shall we say. I threw that town out. So we decided to go.

However, Pedro the agent has 4 apartments ready in Elche for tomorrow lined up. So we will go to the bus station then and get the real scoop on bus verses  train verses hitchhiking.  So we meandered back to Albatera, and walked around it. The bus stop there(road stop) had no sign just a gas station,  was a 15- 20 minutes walk to school. Ok  I thought,  I can manage IF there is a real bus. The other streets in town had some pretty authentic stone buildings more reminiscent of Spain.  I like that. Of course several stone buildings are falling down but maybe there’s a “1 Euro Buy this” special to fix up something down the road for me.
So we sat for a beer and tapa. I feel good here, even though it’s only got a few little restaurants, 1 pharmacy, and a lotto store, its not quite out of a Clint Eastwood movie yet. It appears to be full of families but lots elders, so  It’s like home to me. As the sun went down, at 8 pm the stores all opened as well as a few restaurants. So it’s not totally dead! We meandered into a lottería store as the big lotto for Xmas is  being sold. “El Gordo.” For a measly $20. But the pot is 4 million euros. I can manage that. So since I may have found my own apartment in Albatera, I may not be paying a commission to Pedro. Unless I get a bill in my phone as well. I’m waiting now to see if the three bedroom with no heat and air will be available. I’ll negotiate to put some AC in the place. I need that, otherwise no one will visit me. And I don’t want to sleep on sweaty furniture. Well, Friday I will meet the teacher’s for the first time!!! Wish me luck…