vamos a la playa! VALENCIA!

Before we knew it, it was time to leave for our second ten day break. Most people planned to trek around Spain, and we decided to hit Valencia first, then train to Barcelona and then fly to Florence.

Friday morning, we went through the same old Ryan Air routine of training to Milan Centrale and then taking the bus to Bergamo. We got there early again and killed time by wandering around the airport and buying little day diaries (I am HORRIBLE at utilizing mine, which is one reason why this blog post is so difficult to write). The decent into Valencia provided views of the crystal blue waters and white sand beaches and when we finally landed and walked off the plane, we couldn’t wipe the smiles off of our faces. The weather was a whopping 68 degrees and the sun was shining bright- very different from the weather we were used to back in Switzerland. We took our time walking from the runway to the airport terminal attempting to soak it all in, then we grabbed our luggage and hailed a cab to our hostel.

There was a misunderstanding in our booking that left Megan and I to room with random people the first night, which freaked us out a little since we are still travel babies and don’t trust everyone, but we ended up meeting two really nice German girls our age. We spent the first afternoon walking around the area around our hostel, which happened to be the city center, and eating paella for dinner- a rice and meat type of Spanish dish prepared in a large flat pan native to Valencia.

We were eager to go out, but since the nightlife in Valencia doesn’t fire up until after midnight, we decided to grab some beers and hang out in a nearby plaza.  As it turned out, this was a pretty popular thing to do and all types of people our ages sat around on the fountains and the steps laughing, skateboarding, and running around. I saw some guys longboarding around doing bert slides on the smooth marble plaza floor and I couldn’t resist asking if I could borrow a board myself. They loved that I asked and seemed surprised that a silly American girl could actually ride well, which made it fun until I took a fast turn and fell, sucking the cool right out of me. I returned the board and walked shamefully back to my friends who were laughing hysterically. The activities didn't stop there. I guess we were feeling like 5th graders at recess because we tested Jordan to see if he could sprint to one side and back in ten seconds (it took him eleven). When we finally deemed it acceptable, we wandered into different bars until we decided it was time to head home. Of course, we couldn’t do so without first stopping by one of the churro stands on the street that we had been eyeballing ever since we stepped out of the cab.

The next morning, we got up with a mission of getting to the beach before 11. We hopped on a bus and walked through the port to the boardwalk, both of which seemed semi-deserted at the time, but it was evident that the opposite was true in the summer. Starving, we sat down at an outdoor restaurant for breakfast where we had the BEST fresh orange juice on the face of the planet. After paying an awkward "do we tip or do we not" check, we slipped off our shoes and ran onto the beach, anxious to lay out and relax for the first time in weeks. It was a little chilly with the wind blowing, so we did a lot of sweatshirt putting on and taking off while we laid out and read. A few hours later, we checked out some shops along the beach, grabbed another bite to eat and then headed home to meet the boys who we hadn’t seen all day since they opted to sleep in. 

When we got back, we relaxed a little before showering and getting ready for dinner. Kerry and Ian arrived (they were a date later than us since Ian didn’t arrive until Friday afternoon) and we hung out in the hostel a little before walking to a tapas restaurant that the front desk lady recommended. We decided to dine in true Valencian style, so we ordered a plethora of various tapa dishes and pitchers of Sangria and took our time catching up with Ian, (“So what is AMERICA like???”) and stabbing at all of the little plates in front of us. My favorites were the calamari, garlic shrimp, baked cheese and meatball tapas. SO GOOD.

After paying our bill and graciously accepting free shots of limoncello, we headed back to a club we had seen the night before called Gecko. The interior was decorated with large pebbles, brown stucco and green accents—very similar to the Rainforest Café. We made friends with the bartender, which is always a good thing, and talking to people at the bar when one guy offered to buy us a beer. Megan and I were looking at each other in consideration when all of a sudden Meg feels a push on her purse and follows our new friend’s eyes to a guy sitting to her left. She turns to me and says “I think I just got pickpocketed there is no way I have my wallet still”, and we look back at the guy who suddenly is pretending not to speak English anymore. Megan checks her purse immediately and we tell everyone around us to watch out for the two guys who just scattered away, also giving the bartender their descriptions so that security can kick them out. Miraculously, Megan had all of her things and their attempt was failed since we realized so quickly what was going on. It was definitely an eye opener and we learned quickly how common pickpocketing can be. We checked out a small club and soon after the lights came up, signaling that it was churro time! (We rationale our second churro stop by claiming that we had to introduce them to Kerry and Ian…) We stood outside the stand dripping chocolate all over ourselves. Whoops! We were almost home when we made friends with Norwegians our age that were studying in Valencia and walked another block to a random Irish pub with them. We stayed for about a half an hour and had more interesting conversations (about differences in our countries… asking them if they knew anyone with the last name Pincus… etc.) and then walked home when we realized how late (er.. early?) it was getting.

The next morning, we woke up and Kerry, Ian, Megan and I walked over to a place called Pan de Queso, an interesting but delicious little place with bread and cheese ball thingys. The owner told us about a Florida State program that housed students around the block and how he has met a lot of American students from there. Sure enough, two girls come by and he introduces us. Turns out that the girls go to Flagler, and we chat for a little while longer pointing out mutual friends. These are the little reminders of how much smaller the world is when you know people.

Afterwards, we crossed the street and walked into a shop called Passion Bike to rent bikes for the day. The lady at the front desk was extremely friendly and hooked us up with these great bright green bikes and bike locks. For only 9 euro, these bikes were ours for 24 hours! Excited, we took off with the objective of biking to the Center for the Arts and Sciences, a collection of buildings internationally known for their distinct architectural design. We biked through a park and had trouble wiping the smiles from our faces since the sun was shining and everything around us was beautiful… we still talk about this bike ride and how it was truly a moment of bliss.  

When we got to the center, we saw giant plastic balls with people inside floating on the water and watched these human hamsters for a little while, realizing quickly how truly exhausting it would be to try to move around on them. We met some kids from Las Vegas who went to UNLV and then decided it was time to head back. 

We took a different way home, riding through the city neighborhoods and observing the massive amount of preparation that was occurring for the upcoming Las Fallas festival. In the festival, giant cartoon-esque sculptures are displayed all around the city and at the end, all but the winning three are burned to the ground. So as we rode around, we watched these things be unwrapped and assembled with cranes. If you’re wondering what the actually festival was like, refer to Rachael’s blog, since she was there the following weekend and witnessed the craziness unfold in person! 

Our hostel had a very home-y feeling to it, and when we got home from our bike ride, we relaxed and played games in the “living room” before dinner. We took another recommendation from the front desk lady (I really wish I could remember her name so that I could stop calling her “front desk lady”) and when the restaurant she suggested was closed, we walked around for a little while looking for one that could even compare to our meal from the night before. When we finally decided that this wouldn’t be possible, we walked back to the restaurant we knew and loved and ate there again, slightly changing up our orders this time.

After dinner, we walked around and ended up just returning to our hostel to drink our cheap beer that was already in the fridge and hang out for a relaxing night. Jordan and Michael made friends with a guy our age from Germany and we had a great time talking to him and telling him all about Virginia Tech and even showing him Enter Sandman YouTube videos... he couldn’t believe how crazy our football scene is. I’m pretty sure he and Jordan would be best friends if he came and studied at Tech with us. 

The next morning, we checked out of our hostel, stored our luggage in lockers and planned on going on another bike adventure. We rode two blocks before turning around and returning the bikes because our butts were so sore from the day before. I don’t know how hardcore bicyclists do it! Instead, we took the bus to the beach to show Kerry and Ian the amazing view and life changing orange juice. We laid out in the sun and then walked over to the port area to check out the marina. This area was really cool, since it was amped up in 2010- when Valencia hosted the America’s cup race. It was obvious that everything was a few years old, plus it was the off season so there wasn’t much going on, but I loved walking around and checking out the boats. I never thought I’d feel this way, but it actually made me wish I was sitting in the Waterside Marina gazebo in the middle of the summer in the blazing heat.

After retrieving our bags from the lockers and grabbing Burger King, we boarded our train to Barcelona, excited to meet up with everyone that had gone to Lisbon, Seville and San Sebastian and hear about their experiences.