Valencia

Megan and I decided to go to Valencia this weekend. We had kind of thought about it during the week, but never really made any plans. We looked up some bus times on the internet, but that was about the extent of our planning.

We went to the bus station on Friday just in time to catch the 12pm bus and headed off on the 4 hour drive. About 30 minutes before we got there, I looked at my guidebook to try to figure out a hostel and some sort of plan for the weekend. We hopped in a taxi, took it to the general area of the hostels, and walked around lost for a while trying to figure out where we were. Eventually we found a hostel with vacancy and checked into our room. I honestly cannot imagine coming to Spain and not knowing Spanish... it would be impossible!

We spent the evening exploring a little and eating dinner. We walked by a few of the bars around 11, but apparently that is way too early to go the bars in Spain because NO ONE was out, so we went home with the intention of resting for an hour and heading back out, but ended up falling asleep for the night. (how boring, i know.)

We spent Saturday doing our own walking tour of the city, seeing some of the old buildings and churches, as well as the town hall and the huge post office. Some parts of the city were really pretty and had really nice architecture, but others (such as where our hostel was) were really old and run down. The city in general is much dirtier than Barcelona and there definitely isn't as much to do there. We went to the Mercado Central, similar to the market in Barcelona, where they sell tons of fruits, vegetables, spices, breads, and meat. I've never seen so many dead animals in one place... it's rather sickening. We ate at a little cafe next to the market, grabbed a bit of gelato (the best i've ever had, by the way!), and headed home for a little siesta since EVERYTHING was closed from about 1 or 2-4:30 or 5. After that we explored a few more places and tried to waste some time before dinner. We had dinner at another little cafe... nothing special... but it was cheap. We went to a few bars that night, but definitely felt out of place everywhere. We went to a little Irish pub where they spoke english and were nice to us, but it was a MUCH older crowd and it wasn't fun. We eventually just called it a night and went to bed.

Sunday we slept in and then went to the beach for a couple hours. It was really pretty and really hot. Definitely a much nicer beach than the one here in Barcelona. The sand was much finer and softer, the water was clearer and cleaner, and the floor of the ocean wasn't rocky like Barcelona... quite nice! We caught a taxi from the beach to the bus station, since we had already booked a 4pm return trip.

We were really confused when we got to Barcelona because they brought us to a different bus station than the one we left from and I definitely don't remember them ever warning us about that. Luckily, the place we returned to also happened to be the train station that we left from when we went to Madrid, so we were easily able to find our metro and made it home JUST in time for 9pm dinner.

Overall the weekend was just okay. I definitely prefer Barcelona to Valencia. We were pretty bored most of the time. Elisabeth seemed to think Valencia was this amazing place... maybe we were missing something. At least I'm able to say that I've been there, that I saw a different city, a different way of life, and I'm able to appreciate Barcelona more.

OHHHHH! I forgot the craziest story of the weekend! Saturday afternoon I'm just waking up from my siesta and Megan goes, "KRISTEN! 2 mice just ran out from behind that cabinet and out that door!" I thought she was kidding.... UNTIL we returned home later that afternoon and, just as I was unlocking the door to get back into the room, a mouse came running down the hall and went under our door. It was honestly the grossest thing I've ever seen in my life. I was terrified of being in the room after that. We think they were nesting behind this big cabinet that was in the room because they ran in and out a few times. We found little bitty mouse poops all over our room, INCLUDING on our beds. SICK! I was checking under my blankets every time I returned to make sure there weren't mice. I don't know what I would have done if a mouse came running out of my covers. I'm definitely not the "roughing it" type of person. Staying in a hostel is a big step for me, nevermind having MICE in my room. I've never been so disgusted. I'm so grateful to have such amazing parents that take care of me and spoil me! :)