Weekend in Valencia!

On Friday night we got into Valencia around 11:30pm. We took all of our luggage to class and left straight from there to the train station. For the majority of the trip it was dark, but the first hour or so was really fun because we could look out the window and see the countryside in Spain. It was so surreal to be on a bus driving through SPAIN. I know I keep saying things like that, but I just can't get over how cool it is to actually BE here! The land is pretty hilly and we passed by a little valley with a small town tucked into it. All the lights in the town were on and it was all nestled into the valley with the hills around it. So beautiful.

Valencia is a lot more tropical than Madrid, since it's on the coast rather than the middle of the country. There are palm trees, a beach, and its super humid. Therefore, my hair looked EXCELLENT the entire time... so great.

We took a cab to our hostel-- my first hostel ever, definitely a landmark in my life! Especially because hostels are kind of known for being dirty... And if you know me I'm a huge clean freak so I had a little bit of a hard time knowing that I was sharing a shower and mattress with ten million people. But overall I was pleasantly surprised with the hostel. We had three sets of bunk beds in our rooom- six in all- and five of us to share. We had one random roommate the second night so when we walked in on Saturday morning there was a Chilean girl sleeping in one of the beds. It was kind of weird but she was nice! Anyway, when we checked in they gave us clean sheets, which made me breathe a little easier, and I brought my own towel from home to shower with. So all in all, not bad. And we were lucky not to have any bedbugs (like two of the other girls from our program... YIKES) or weird encounters with the other people staying at the hostel.

The front door to our hostel

Friday night we walked around the town for a little while, just to get our bearings of where we were staying. We probably should have planned the trip a little more in retrospect, but there's a first time for everything! Luckily our hostel was situated in an amazing part of Valencia- La Plaza de la Reina. I could try to describe it but there's just no words for how beautiful and full of history it was!

We went out to a few bars and afterward Julian and I, one of the boys from the program, went to a kebab restaurant, which basically has the same type of food as greek gyros. I had seen the restaurant earlier and fortunately for us, it was still open! This was the beginning of my ridiculous amount of eating this weekend. We sat in front of this super old building on a little bench- so pretty!

The next day we all woke up bright and early at 8am. I only had four hours of sleep, but I had a lot of energy just from being in a new place. We explored the Plaza and took lots and lots of pictures, got some coffee, then headed to the beach where I played in the water of the Mediterranean Sea. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! It was cloudy on Saturday but warm and nice all day long.

We ended up sprawled out on the beach to nap a little in the sun after eating a super yummy lunch from this tiny takeout restaurant- grilled rotisserie chicken and patatas fritas (Spanish french fries). Late afternoon we took a bus back to the hostel and I napped some more- I was so tired! I was dead to the world for a few hours but felt a lot better when I woke back up! Then we all got ready and headed off to dinner together. Orginally we were going to try to find a paella restaurant, since paella is a traditional Spanish dish and I hadn't eaten it yet, but it started pouring rain. So we ended up in a Italian place just about a block away from our hostel instead. I ordered four cheese risotto- DELICIOUS (again with the food, sorry!). Ever since I've been in Spain I get so hungry at mealtimes but I never feel like I overeat. Who knows what that's about! After dinner we went to a few bars again, like we had the night before, and Julian and I went back to the kebab restaurant... again. If I start to look fat in my pictures, somebody please tell me! Obviously all I did this weekend was eat! I was exhausted by the time we finally went to bed, but I slept like a baby Saturday night.

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up, and checked out of the hostel. But we left our bags in a storage room there, which was really nice since our bus didn't leave that night until 11pm. Sunday was seriously one of the best days I've had in Spain! Me and three other girls- Alex, Lindsey, and Pam- started out the day at a cafe where we had chocolate con churros. Definitely delicious. Churros are kind of a cross between donuts and funnel cake and each of us had a cup of chocolate to dip them in and coffee, of course. Not gluten free, but I couldn't resist!



Before...



And after!

 The four of us ended up sitting outside at that cafe, just talking and relaxing (something that I feel like I'm finally learning how to do here in Spain) for three hours. Lovely. Savoring life. Great conversation with my favorite girls :) Then we walked around and shopped around for a few hours. I bought an owl necklace and owl earrings, and matching earrings for Blanca too since she collects owls. Then we stopped for paella- how we were hungry again I'm not really sure. We went to a place with a great lunch special- sangria, three appetizers to share, paella, and dessert for only 11 euro. YUM! I ordered seafood paella, which was pretty good, but the shrimp in it were WHOLE shrimp. Like eyes, legs, everything. I could picture the shrimp just crawling off my plate and jumping into the ocean, which kind of freaked me out (actually it really freaked me out) but it was still good. Next time I think I'll stick with chicken though...

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the appetizers before we started demolishing them...

Paella! See those shrimp...?



DESSERT!!

After this fabulous meal we sat in the Plaza and people watched for a couple hours. Pam happens to be hilarious so I pretty much spent the whole afternoon in the plaza just laughing and talking. Then we met up with the rest of the group back at the hostel to get our bags then walked to the train station. I got another meal from another kebab place... good God. And then we were on our way.

First travel weekend in Europe=success :)