what a weekend...

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in postings but, as you know, I was in Valencia for the weekend. I guess I'll give you the run-down of my weekend. I apologize ahead of time because this might be a long one.

Our bus was scheduled to leave at 7am from this bus station across the street from our residencia. I had to get up around 6am so I really wanted to go to bed early the night before. I didn't lay down as early as I wanted but I did get to bed at like 11:30pm...not too bad. I usually listen to my Mp3 player to wind down before I sleep, so I did that for a little bit. I was totally ready to doze off so I turned it off and got myself comfy. The second I am ready to fall asleep the kind people in the room above us decided it would be a good idea to be ridiculously loud for an hour or two. I couldn't tell you exactly what was going on up there. All I know is they were speaking, more like screaming, a foreign language, while doing something that was reminiscent of tap-dancing. Come 2am... I wanted to tap dance on their heads! :)

I was quite the grumpy gills when my alarm went off a few hours later. I scrambled to get ready/finish packing up my stuff. We all met, relatively on time, to walk over to the station together. I'm really glad we decided to take a bus to Valencia; it was super convenient and cheap. It left at 7am on the dot and arrived 4 hours and 15 minutes later. Leaving early turned out to be a good idea as well. The bus was empty so there was plenty of room to sprawl out in a row. Due to the tap-dancing schenanigans the previous night I was able to sleep almost the entire ride.

I woke up about a half hour before we got to Valencia. We took (I think) a major highway almost the entire way. Part of it was along the coast and the latter part of the trip went through this valley-like area. The last half hour of the trip I saw some of the most gorgeous scenery I have encountered in my life. Driving on the road, there were miles of Valencian orange fields on either side of you. In the distance of these fields were these gorgeous, red-toned mountains. Being the idiot that I am, I totally didn't take a picture, but trust me, it was gorgeous.

We got the bus station that was located in the center of town. We immediately hailed some cabs to take us to the hotel that we had booked online. We arrived at the hotel and opened the cab doors to the harmonious sound of construction. Carly had done the booking online and was completely unaware that the hotel was underconstruction. So we walked in and went to the front desk to check-in; or so we thought. When Carly booked the hotel online she reserved a room that was described as a "family" room, or a room that could fit 4. When we said our names and tried to check in they started saying that we couldn't do it. They kept saying over and over, "You don't have two kids." They said that you needed to be a couple and have two kids to stay in this room. Hah, good one. Then they tried to say we had to book rooms for two...aka we're going to get more money from you. They only spoke spanish so we had no way to argue back with them. These people totally took advantage of the fact that we were tourists and didn't speak the language. Incredibly angry, we all walked out of the hotel to find another place to stay. You don't want to give us a 4 person room? Ok then, we'll be staying somewhere else.

Not a great way to start off the trip. We ended up walking around Valencia with all of our bags for 2 hours. We were on the outskirts of the city so there weren't hotels left and right. We found a hostel, but again, the owners tried to rip us off. After three failed attempts at finding a place to stay, we found an internet cafe, and looked online for places near us. We found a Holiday Inn, in the worst possible location, that would only cost 30Euro a person for the two night stay. Beggars can't be choosers, and it was getting dark, so we took it. Learning from the previous hotel incident, me and Carly went in as though we were the only ones staying in the two person bedroom. Thankfully, we got the room and snuck everyone in without a problem.

We get to our room, swing open the door, and find, yet again, two small twin beds pushed together. Is this common practice in Spain?! Is everything miniature for a reason? All we really could do was laugh. At least we had a place to stay and at least we would be warm...only because there would be 4 people sharing that bed. One thing I never thought I would miss when I'm here: T.V. I have my regular shows that I watch every week but other than that I rarely watch TV when I'm at school. BUT I MISS IT SO MUCH! What I wouldn't give to just be able to turn on the TV and hear something in English. Anyway, there was a TV in this room. Great, right? Wrong. Every program was either totally in German or had German subtitles. German in Spain? I don't even try to make sense of these things anymore. At least I got to watch some good ole American MTV...in German.

None of us had eaten that entire day, so as soon as we got the room we decided to go get something to eat. Our hotel was located in EAST GUAM so we had to trek approx. 15 minutes to get to a place that had food. After about 20 minutes of walking, we saw arguably the most magnificient site I have viewed here thus far: The Golden McDonald's Arches!!!! Never have I been so excited to see a McDonalds in my entire life. I don't even really like fast food that much but my mouth started salivating like Pavlov's pooch. I ordered a Quarter Pounder with a large soda and large fries. Don't judge me.

It started raining while we were in this wonderful American establishment so we decided to walk around the mall for a bit. I bought a dress to wear for my birthday dinner. Then we went back to the room to take a siesta. After that we all took showers and spiffed up to go out for the night. Having no idea where to go, we just had the cab drivers take us to the city center, and we would figure it out from there. Valencia is absolutely GORGEOUS! I actually prefer it to Barcelona. It has more of a Spanish feeling to it, whereas Barcelona almost feels like New York City in some parts. We eventually found this cute little restaurant called "The Ginger Loft". This place was owned by a guy named Santiago and his partner Mark. Both of them spoke English which was wonderful. We spent about 3 hours at this place just eating and chatting with eachother. Santiago even spent about an hour with us telling us all about Valencia, his life travels, etc. So, I'm sure my Dad is wondering what I ordered. I got a potato and corn chowder with chicken quesadillas. Santiago also gave us a free glass of Sangria because of the wait for our food. I don't really like Sangria at all, but this glass was the best I've had thus far. A bunch of the group wanted to go out, but I wanted to call it a night after dinner. It was 2:30 am already and I had just started feeling better the day prior, so I didn't want to push it. I had I gone out to a club I probably wouldn't have made it back to the hotel until 4 or 5 am.

The next day we woke up and had the free breakfast at the hotel. After that, we looked for attractions to see in Valencia that were inside because it was raining incredibly hard. The weather was HORRIBLE the entire day. We ended up choosing "El Museo de las Ciencias". It was pretty much a bigger and better MOST museum from back home. Hands down the best museum I have been to...and we only saw one floor. My favorite exhibit? The Marvel Superheroes exhibit. They had all the superheroes life-size and you could play games that tested your "super hero skills". It was just a great time. After the museum we trekked the mile or two back to our hotel. We rested for a little bit then made plans for the evening. We went to another restaurant where I had Pasta y Jamon (Ham). After that we went to this bar called La Bolseria. We got in free (it's good to be a girl at times) and got coupon for a free drink (scratch that, all the time). I had a really good time at this place because it was an actual Spanish bar. A lot of the places we go to back in Barcelona are filled with American study abroad students so you really don't get the Spanish experience. We all wanted another early night (3am) so the girls headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

The next day we woke up, checked out, and headed to the bus station a few hours early. Exhausted, we pulled back into Barcelona around 7pm local time. Right as we got back to the room Carly realized that she didn't have her iphone. We hurried back to the station to try and look for it. No luck. We think that someone pick-pocketed her on the bus right before we got off in Barcelona. It wasn't a great evening at all.

So, the first trip...not all that great. I loved Valencia itself but things just didn't go very well hotel wise, weather wise, etc. Everyone was very stressed and frustrated from the hotel situation at the very beginning, and that kind of set the tone for the weekend. Everyone I've talked to has said that the first trip you take never really goes all that well. We just have to learn from this one I guess! I have one trip under my belt and I think the next one will go better. But don't get me wrong, Valencia was great, and I would definitely like to visit again.

I'll post some pictures from this weekend in another entry!
I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!