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Published: August 15th 2005
My man Marty
Even came to pick me up from the airport!Marty, Mr Electronic Superstar, has been given the opportunity to be a member of the Swiss America’s Cup Team, Alinghi, working from Valencia until mid 2007.
So where do ya think the first place in Spain was going to be that I would visit?
Friday off work, and out to Gatwick I go. A very uneventful plane ride later, I land at the sunny little airport to find Marty awaiting my arrival, having taken time out of his busy schedule. Off we toddled to the Tryp Oceanic, the hotel that Alinghi were housing him in. Very nice place, with great views of some of the newer, very cool, buildings.
Marty shot back to work while I set off on my own to explore the city. Few photos and a good wander later, we met up back at the hotel to begin our night out.
We started the night off at Marty’s team-mates flat-warming. Very nice, very new, apartment. Big ass plasma TV, fooseball table, darts, free booze. Very comfy.
Had a good start there, met some cool people, headed off into town with a couple fo them. Thankfully Anna-Maria was Spanish, so she was on point as we tackled
Aquarium
This was part of the view from Martys hotel room. the cabs and clubs. Spanish is definitely the language of Spain, and none of us speak it unfortunately.
Well, apart from “deux cervesas por favour”!
She took us to some great places, had a good old shimmy down, then the girls had to go home. Pointing us in the direction of another club, they grabbed a taxi and left me and Marty to it. Club was amazing, with floor to ceiling fish tanks, filled with foot long sharks. Very cool.
Stumbled home about 6am (clubs open all night, yeaha!!) Bumped into Marty’s team doctor in the lobby (funny shit) and stumbled into bed.
Awoke at 1pm to pop over to the supermarket to get breakfast. Good nutritional stuff found its way into the basket, Tomato Juice, Humous, Crackers, Tobasco Sauce, Red Bull, Vodka.
Hhmmm, seems to be the makings of a Bloody Mary in here!
A few of those bad boys chucked down, followed by Red Bull and Vodkas, and all we were good for was sitting on the roof soaking up the rays, talking shit. But that was great, SUNSHINE!!! Id almost forgotten what it felt like. We made it into town for dinner in the Old Town,
IMAX
Part of the view from Martys hotel. but got sick of walking in circles looking for a good Spanish Restaurant and ended up having Chinese instead. (I know, all the way to Spain to eat Chinese!) Headed home for a catch up sleep before hitting town, but slept through until 3am and decided to reserve energy for Sunday.
Sunday we headed into town. Somehow Id managed to fluke arriving during ‘Las Fallas’, a festival celebrated every year in Valencia to mark St. Joseph's Day, the Patron Saint of Carpenters. For a week or more, everyone in town gets together for suburb street partys, letting off fireworks and generally partying. The St. Joseph bonfires began sometime in the 18th century and gradually developed into one of Spain's largest fiestas. To honor the carpenters, enormously elaborate figures are constructed from wood and paper mâché and then burned on the last day of the fiesta. Teams of artists, craftsmen and carpenters spend an entire year to build the statues that range from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars. Some of these things were almost 20m high! As part of the celebrations, every day at 2pm, there is an enormous fireworks display in a square in the
Cool supermarket
This was the building across from Martys hotel. Old Town. As its during the day, its more about noise and smoke than colourful displays. This display reaches 120-130 decibles (that’s almost as load as a jumbo taking off!!) and goes for about 15 minutes.
After the show, we spent the day wandering in the old city, going from pub to pub, sitting in the sun, watching the senorita’s go by.
Good times, Ill be back for more for sure.
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