Valencia

Pictures: 1) Valencia at night, 2) the science museum complex, 3) Lieselotte in part of the complex, 4) me at the complex (no, that's not a pool, just a shallow body of water), 5) green screen shadows of Lies (on left) and me, 6) in the museum, 7) on the beach, 8) Lies and me on beach, 9) sunset over the buildings behind the beach

We arrived in Valencia and took a metro straight to our CSers house. His name was Alex and he is from Russia. He’s a writer and he was busy working on stuff, so after he showed us where we were staying, he left to get back to his work. The place was pretty gross, as there were 4 roommates who were clearly not very neat. Also, the toilet didn’t work right so y had to throw your toilet paper into the trash can instead of the toilet. There were also no sheets or blankets, so I put the sheet I have with me over a mattress on the living room floor and luckily it was so hot we didn’t need much else

That first day we wanted to go to the beach, but after going to an internet café (no wifi at Alex’s), it was cloudy outside, so we decided to go into the city instead. It was about at 25 minute walk to the city center, but it was nice. We passed many stores and so we decided to do a little shopping. We stopped in a couple chain stores and a big department store. I was looking for a new bathing suit top, and Lies was looking for a new bottom. We didn’t have any luck, but we enjoyed trying things on and talking to the sales women in Spanish. NO ONE speaks English in Spain - even in train stations, stores, restaurants, etc. I don’t know how someone who knew no Spanish would get on - they even spoke more English in France. However, it is good for us because it forces us to practice! When we were leaving the department store I sighed and said, “For a minute, I felt like I was back home.” Lieselotte said, “You’re pretty homesick huh?” I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I guess I’m getting there.

After walking around for a while we stopped at a Starbucks for a little snack and chatted for a while, then started looking for a restaurant. We finally found one which would give you a drink, pizza, and dessert for 9 euros. Well, not only did they give us all this, they also gave us two free alcoholic drinks in the beginning (which Lies drank a little of and I drank none of) and they gave us these delicious fruit juice drinks at the end of our meals (banana/orange). By the end of dinner we had to sit there for 30 minutes trying not to throw up we were so full.

Valencia is beautiful at night - the buildings are so pristine and the architecture is really pretty. We finally got back to Alex’s around 11:15 pm, and we went to bed after using the internet café until 12:15 The next morning we got up and got ready for the beach. It was a beautiful and sunny day. We walked about 15 minutes to the tram and then took the tram the rest of the way to the beach. It was Sunday and the beach was absolutely crazy full! However, it was a really nice beach and the breeze felt wonderful.

We found a patch of sand not too far from the waterline where we set our towel down (well, Lieselotte’s towel actually, since I only have a small bath towel. Now we use mine for our showers and hers for the beach. Lol).

We wanted to go in the water, so I put our valuables in a plastic bag, and dug a hole under our towel. I then buried the bag in the hole, put a small shell on top so we could find it again, and covered it over with our towel. No one saw this either. Pretty smart huh? Yet it was all for naught because Lieselotte didn’t end up getting in past her knees before going back - she said it was too cold and the waves were so big they would have knocked her bottoms off (since they are too loose). I stayed and played in the waves for about 30 minutes. It was so much fun - even though they weren’t “huge” they were still the biggest I’ve been in since in Europe. Most women go topless at the beaches here, and that day it came in handy, since those who were wearing tops kept getting them knocked off.

While in the water I talked to three Spanish girls and I asked them, in Spanish, if the waves were normally this big. The girl said she didn’t know as this was her first time at this beach (she was from Lucia). We chatted a bit more, then I rejoined Lies on the beach. After a while we got hungry, so we walked to a pizza place (it was the cheapest thing around) and got a slice and a drink for 3 euros each.

Back at Alex’s Lies took a nap while I messaged CSers in Alicante (where we are heading now). Once she woke up we took our stuff and moved to a hostel in the center city (Alex had more guests coming and frankly, we probably would have left either way because we are willing to pay for nice showers and toilets lol). The hostel, called Indigo Hostel, was really nice. It had free wifi, computers, nice showers, spacious rooms with lockers, and a kitchen. We planned to stay for 2 nights, but then found out at the last minute that another CSer could take us for the last 2 nights in Valencia (we spent 4 nights there total). We went to a grocery store, but since it was a Sunday night, the only one open was very expensive. We bought the bare essentials, and then picked up doner kebabs for dinner. Before bed we watched ‘Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken’ on you tube (in 9 segments). I was so happy that Lieselotte loved that movie as much as I always have.

The next day we tried to find this tower to climb, but we got really lost and kept making circles (the center city is like Venice - a maze a of little streets and dead ends). Finally, I got a text from our new CS host, Bue, who said we could meet him at 2:30. We rushed back to the hostel to get our things and then met him in a nearby square so he could take us to his place. His friend Frederic was also with him. They were studying abroad in Spain, originally from Copenhagen. We had our own room with a real bed, which we were very excited about, however there were again, no sheets. I guess we are lucky it is summer because top sheets aren’t necessary, even with the windows wide open.

After dropping our stuff off at Bue’s, we went to the train station to book our reservations to Alicante for Wednesday. From there we looked for a movie theater (it was so hot that I was getting a headache). First we found the bull fighting coliseum. A girl from Australia who stayed in our hostel that one night said she’d gone to see a fight (literally having stumbled upon it) and that it was so terrible. She’d cried throughout most of the whole thing over the absolute brutality of it. She described it to us, and Lies and I were glad we weren’t there.

Finally, my nose led us to the theater (I smelled the popcorn, which is not a typical smell in Europe). However, none of the movies were in English or had English subtitles. Of course.

Instead we went to McDonald’s where I got an ice cream and Lies got fries and we enjoyed the air conditioner. Afterward we walked back to Bue’s and made dinner (pasta with meat, onions, tomatoes and tomato sauce). However, before we got inside, we went into the building and took the elevator to the 5th floor where he lives. When we got there I said, “Did it stop on the wrong floor? The lock is on the wrong side of the door.“ We were so confused, and then we went one floor down, but again, the door didn’t look right. That is when we realized that we were in the wrong half of the building. We laughed about that for a while.

Bue and Frederic went to a party, but we got to use one of their computers to watch a movie that night. We watched “Revolutionary Road” as Lies hadn’t seen it yet and it is one of the 3 movies I had on me that I bought in Greece.

On Monday we walked about 50 minutes to the giant Science Center. This is a huge complex that has an IMAX theater, a hands-on science museum, and a large aquarium. It is hard to describe in words, but it reminded me a lot of the Sydney opera house (from what I’ve seen in pictures). It had a really cool vibe. Lies and I each paid a little over 9 euros for entrance to an IMAX movie (Under the Sea narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet) and the science museum. The museum reminded me a lot of Discovery Place and was really neat. We had fun taking pictures of our shadows on the green screen.

From there we walked about 30 minutes to the beach. As we arrived on the beach, around 7:20 pm, there were huge piles of wood all over the place, as though they were about to light hundreds of bonfires. There were people everywhere and there was also a big stage setting up for a band. We asked someone what was going on, and they said it was the festival of San Juan (I.e. it was a celebration that happens once a year for the summer solstice). We were lucky to be there in that case!

We chilled on the beach, watched people making the fires, and were enjoying ourselves until these two inebriated guys came up and started talking to us. We pretended we didn’t know Spanish or English, and they eventually moved on to another group of girls who for some reason were giving them the time of day. I wanted Lies to take a picture of me on top of the life guard stand, so I got up there, but in doing so I drew the attention of the drunk guys back to us. They started saying things to us again, and Lieselotte thought maybe if she tried to be nice and speak Spanish to them, they’d leave us alone. She asked in Spanish what all the fires were for and things like this, but when she stopped talking to them, they came toward her, and the tan one kept saying in Spanish “kiss me, kiss me.” He was grabbing her arm and hair at some points and she was walking away from him saying “No.” Finally we sat down on our towel again, and they came back again, and squatted down next to us. The other guy was trying to talk to me, but I pretended like I didn’t know what he was saying. “No hablo Espanol, No hablo Ingles.” Thus, he pretty much left me alone. However, the tan guy was still bothering Lieselotte and saying “why won’t you kiss me?” She said (in Spanish) because I have a boyfriend, and he said, “Well he’s not here is he?” She was like, “Yes he is! He’s getting food.” The guy just laughed and was moving in trying to kiss her. I was getting pissed (her blonde hair always gets her into trouble), and she was screaming for him to leave her alone, so I reached over and sort of pushed him off of her. Lieselotte said his face was really mad and she thought he was going to hit me or something, so she tried to pacify him, and they went away. After that we left, even though the fires had just started. Lieselotte said, “I can’t believe you tried to stand up to him for me when you’re so little.” I’m still pretty sure I could’ve taken him if it came down to it. Haha

Coming back the traffic was really bad, so we were happy we were on public transit. This was last night, and when we got back to Bue’s, he had a bunch of friends over for dinner. They eventually left for the beach party, and we made hamburgers for dinner and started watching “The Reader” (clearly we like Kate Winslet). We stopped half way through and went to bed.

We are now on a train on the way to Alicante where we will stay with a CSer named Rahul. We are excited because I’ve heard really good things about it and the beach is supposed to be very nice there as well. OH, and one morning in Valencia we went to an outdoor market where I got a new bathing suit top and Lies got a new bottom for only 5 euros each. So perfect!