If you ever go to Spain, go to Valencia. It was an explosive town with energy and life. It is located in the south and the weather is awesome. It was sunny and in the upper 70´s the entire weekend. Valencia is the third biggest city in Spain with over 700,000 people. The weekend we chose was the best time to go because there was one of the biggest festivals in Spain. I am so exhausted from the trip, last night I went to bed at 8 o´clock.
We all met up on Thursday night and took the night bus to Valencia. The tickets cost 40 euros total so it wasn´t too expensive. The bus ride was really boring and we stopped around 4 times, we have a good sense of humor though so the bus ride wasn´t too bad. It was 7 hours later and little sleep when we were ready to hit this city at 6 am. We got a hot coffee, and some of the others got some delicious churros that many vendors were selling all over the city.
We packed light because we only booked a hostel for friday night so we had to pull a famous all nighter in the city. We took some pictures and found these massive sculptures all over the city. The festival going on that weekend was called las fallas "las fayas" and basically the city creates like a hundred of these sweet scupltures of modern day stuff and they burn them down! The scultures are colorful and huge, some the size of a big house. They are made of a foam and painted to look really nice. We weren´t there during the burning, which is this week... but the festival was getting huge and everyday they had a firework show and massive crownds filled the streets eating churros and enjoying the booming music.
The streets were really busy and the metro was impossible to use due to the human traffic. There were bull fights going on and many concerts and other events. The bull fights were to expensive but we made it to a soccer game. The tickets were only 10 euros and we were honestly at the top row of the entire statium. It was an interesting game and soccer games are a must see when you visit europe.
Our hostel was really nice and only 14 euros a night per person. If we would have stayed during this week, it was raised to 30 euros a night. We got the lady at the cluttered front desk to allow us to leave our luggage there over saturday night so we could be free of our belongings.
Valencia is on the Med. sea and the beach was so nice, white sand and a great view. We chilled out for an afternoon at the beach but it took a good hour to get there from the center of the city. You could see the insustrial harbor and tons of hotels from the beach. Valencia is in the south and it is known for being dirtier and cheaper but I really liked it.
During the night on Saturday we went to this park by "the river" which dried up so now it is a park, and watched these awesome fireworks. We were really close and lots of people were eating corn on the cob that was kind of charcoaled. WE then hit the city center ready for an amazing night. All the streets were closed and we were one of thousands roaming around looking for some cheap live music. We saw one concert and danced for a while and then moved on. In the city there were tons of north african immigrants playing huge drums and providing quite a lively show. We rocked out a while and tried to push our way thru the crowds to new parts. We then saw by our hostel that these people on maybe the 8th floor sitting on their balcony providing a concert for an entire plaza. It was so funny, I mean who needs a stage when you have a tiny 8 x 5 foot deck to play for a crowd of hundreds.
We also went to a market when we were there. Most produce in Spain comes from the Valencia region and it was awesome. All the strawberries are ripe now and I bought a huge package for 1 euro. It was even cheap if I convereted the price to dollars. Along with strawberries this market had everything under the sun. Fresh fruit veggies and tons of good seafood and meat. We saw them butchering numerous pigs and we even saw an entire stand devoted to horse meat, it was hilarious.
We didn´t buy much there, but it was really fun to see all the produce stuff and the varieties. In MN we don´t have much for fruits so it was cool to see. We decided to all buy some baked goods from this cool bakery that had just sold fresh Napolitanas. These are like rolls with chocolate baked into them and covered in chocolate sprinkles and a sweet sugar sauce. We saw they had just pulled them fresh out of the oven and had to buy them. It was one of the best foods here I have had. It was warm soft and full of freshly melted chocolate. The market was a really cool place and it would be cool to have that much variety when buying produce.
Valencia has a different type of style to it, and they have muslim influence in their architecture. Each building has a top patio where tables and clothes lines are place. It is kind of dry there and just the view of the city was awesome. We climbed a huge church tower and saw the hazy skyline covered with rooftop patios and we could see the huge crowns rushing thru the narrow streets filled with beggers and african street performers.
Valencia also had a news program interviewing people and my friend Emanuel and Tef were interviewed about the city, it was so funny. We for sure look like tourists lol. We roamed around the entire city and saw so much cool stuff. We partied all night on Saturday and ended up finding a shopping cart lose in the street. I of course being the advernture person started pushing this around and eventually got my friends to hop in. We were running around on main street in a shopping cart in the thrid biggest city in Spain. It was so funny, we did have a few accidents but it was the highlitght of the trip, yes a shopping cart how easy.
This trip was amazing and fun. I was so tired because our bus left at 11 am and we were running without sleep for 24 hours. We got home at 6 pm on Sunday and today I still feel a little off.
I like the south of Spain more than the North I believe. The people are nicer and it is cheaper. Also, Valencia had a cool appeal to it that there isn´t here. I highly recommend this city over many others. When you think of Spain with bull fights, soccer, warm weather and paella this is the city. On the bus ride home I was thinking about all the fun I have had here and I really am going to miss this place. I have 2 weeks off for easter now and I will begin an even longer travel, but I am a pro at not sleeping and walking all day so as the ausies here "say no worries mate".
