A couple of days already in Valencia!

Got to Valencia after my 4 hour train ride and the first thing I noticed was it is ridiculously hot! The day I arrived it was 42C, yesterday 42C and to day was 40C…OMFG! Though since being in Italy and now Spain I’m getting use to being sweaty, smelly and sticky all the time, it’s not nice at all but you have no choice. But Valencia is fantastic. First thing I had to do was have a nap, when I woke up I met a bunch of English guys that had just came from a festival (a lot of people I met in Spain had just came from the same festival) and I headed down to the shops with them and stocked up on supplies. Like any European country I have been to there have been so many beggars and people asking for things and Valencia was no different. As we were walking down the street a lady begged us for cigarettes and then a few metres later this hard core looking guy with a shaved head except for some dreadies and he was wearing steel cap boots and carkies demanded cigarettes and then asked us for money! We continued walking and got to the shops and I stocked up as per usual . That night I hung out with the Englishmen sat up on the terrace and had some “drinks”, and then I headed to my boiling hot room with no aircon or windows and just some fans to blow the hot air back on to you.
The next day I spent hanging around the hostel watching MTV as that is the only channel in English with a guy called Angus from Melbourne, and I updated my blog and sent some emails. That night I was up on the terrace with Angus and his friends which were a couple of girls from Canada and a couple of guys from England. Once the terrace closed at 10pm we then headed to the main square of Valencia just to sit around on the steps and have some “drinks” which was fun and it was great for people watching. There were guys walking around selling beer for 1EUR and there were heaps of people roller blading, riding bikes, juggling fire and many other things. We were talking to one Spanish guy that had a dog, he just let it run around it ended up finding a female dog and trying to hump it. The owner of the other dog was not impressed and tried to shoo it away but the male was persistent in the process the Spanish guys dog took a shit and the owner of the bitch stepped in it unknowingly and it was hilarious! At about 2am we decided it was time to head back to the hostel and hit the hay.
Today I did a free walking tour that ran for 2 hours, so I learnt a bit about the history and got to see the really cool and historical buildings. At the end of the tour the guide said straight after the tour he runs a food and drinking tour and as I hadn’t had lunch I decided to jump on board. At each place you got 2 small drinks and a few small tastings of the local cuisine, so I got to try some form of baby squid or octopus in some sauce on crisp bread and then a Spanish omelette on crisp bread. I also tried the traditional Spanish drink called “Sangria” it consists of red wine, sugar, cinnamon, lemonade and fruit and it wasn’t bad considering I hate red wine. Next place we had another drink and some other tastings but the last stop was really good we had Payala which is a traditional rice yellow rice dish which had vegetables, saffron and some other things and it was delicious. We had calamari rings that were soft as they weren’t deep fried and were prepared in some sort of sauce, they were ok a bit weird really.
In the tour I met a whole bunch of aussies that I tagged on to and a guy from California also jumped on board and we had a really good time and even stayed a little bit after the rest of the group had left. I went back to the hostel and hung out with some girls that I had met from Perth the day before inside just watching MTV yet again. Once it had cooled down a bit outside and the sun had start to set we headed up to the terrace on top of the building and the temperature was nice, still hot, but nice. Other people we had met came up to the terrace, and we also recruited people that were sitting around as well to join and the group ended up being around 15 people or so. We sat around listened to music and just talked,10pm rolled around and we were forced back in to the oven they call the hostel . The Perth girls went out clubbing and I stayed and hung out with a couple of guys from the US, I thought it would be a good idea to go down to the square to get in to the cooler air and get some “drinks” so we did. We wound that up yet again around 2am. So far in Valencia I have had so much fun just meeting new group after new group of people, as one group will leave and I’ll just have to make more friends. My time in Valencia is just for relaxing as there isn’t a whole lot of touristy things to do and I’m loving it! All I do is laze around and maybe go out and wander around see a few things then head back to the hostel, rinse and repeat .

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Part of trip: Shiggidy Europe 2009

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