My Life In Ruins

Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,329, estimated as of 2011, ranking as the... second-largest Valencian city. Including nearby municipalities, Alicante conurbation was populated by 462,281 residents. Population of the metropolitan area was 771,061 as of 2011 estimates, ranking as the eighth-largest metropolitan area of Spain. The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7000 years, with the first tribes of hunter gatherers moving down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron and the pottery wheel.
more

Guardamar del Segura or briefly Guardamar is a municipality of the province of Alicante located at the mouth of the river Segura in southern Valencia , Spain. It is a Mediterranean resort, with a large pine forest abutting an 11-km-long white sand beach. Historically an area of fishermen and... farmers, Guardamar del Segura is the southernmost point where Valenciano is spoken. A Phoenician colony, called Herna by Roman geographer Avienus in his book Ora Maritima was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river, and later Arabs called the place وادالرمل "Guald-al-ramal" , likely the basis for its name today. In Spanish, "guardar" means "safekeeping" and "mar" means "sea", and this is another possible basis for its current name. Guardamar hosts local festivals like Moros i Cristians, L'Encantà, and Fogueres de Sant Joan, which commemorate its history . The local spirit is called Aigua de València . Guardamar is the southernmost Catalan-speaking town, although as of 1991 only 41.
more

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of... Gibraltar; to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres , it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
more