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Published: February 17th 2010
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I am going to try to write this quickly, but with many details soooooo, let us begin:
Thursday we took an overnight bus (10 hours) to Alicante. We arrived early in the morning (got to watch the sun rise on the ocean), got some cafe con leche at a cafe and walked along the beach to our hostel. We took a much needed siesta and shower and then met up with our friend we met during our London Heathrow adventure since she's studying in Alicante. Had some delicious Doner Kabab (they have a giant meat chunk that rotates all day and they slice some off for sandwiches with rice and a scrumptious sauce) and walked around the city. That night we met up with a group of girls that had also come down from San Sebby and watched the beginning parades of Carnavales (a mix between Halloween and mardi gras to party hardy before Lent begins). We changed hostels the next morning to find that right across the hall were 6 fellow San Seb USAC students that we didn't know had come! That night we all got dressed up and roamed the streets for the fiesta-it was amazing! I have never
seen so many people dressed up in costumes-they take their costumes SERIOUSLY. I have also never seen so many males dressed as females... so that was fun. We got back to our hostel pretty late and got a few hours of sleep, but had to walk to the bus station around 7am to catch our bus to Valencia. The walk to the bus station that morning was hilarious-people were still out in costumes and as we turned the corner to the bus station (which we expected to be empty at that hour) was full of people dressed up and waiting to be bussed out.
We arrived in Valencia around 10:30am and walked around the city until we found our hostel (the best hostel ever!) which was located in teh old town. Sadly our room wasn't going to be ready for a while, so we did what we could manage to freshen up and went on a free wlaking tour of the city at noon. Valencia is BEAUTIFUL-I absolutely fell in love. The buildings are amazing and there is so much history behind everything. After the tour ended, we were starving to say the least so we ate un menu del
dia (popular at lunch time: a 2 course meal with dessert for around 9-12 euros) at an outdoor cafe outside of the cathedral. The sun was shining (which confused my extremely pale winter skin) and the ambiance was so peaceful and enjoyable... until an accordion player started playing RIGHT behind our table.
We then took another much needed siesta and shower and went out with our amigas de San Seb for a light dinner. Since it was a Sunday night, not much was going on. We met up with some other girls from our program and told Valentine's Day stories (the good, the bad, the ugly) until we couldn't stay awake much longer.
In the morning we woke up early to check out and go the the biggest aquarium in Europe! It was fun, but Monteray Bay Aquarium is better I'd have to say. After we went to La Pepica which is one of the oldest paella restaurants in Valencia (which happens to be the birthplace of this wonderful dish). It's right on the beach and Dali and Hemingway have eaten there (not together of course). We ordered a giant pan of seafood paella which was a little slice of
heaven if I may say so.
We had an adventure taking the metro back to the old town, but alas, arrived safely! We then wondered around in the rain, stopping here and there at cafes to pass the time until our bus back to San Sebastian left at 11pm. Arrived back in good ol' San Seb about 6:30 Tuesday morning and slept until 2pm =) The youngest host sister is visiting and we're having a bday celebration for her tonight. I have a final for my 305 composition class tomorrow... I've been putting that off... and just had my first music class called "De Elvis a Rap" which I know I'm going to love, it seems really fun and it's half USAC kids, half locals.
So there's my little summary of the past week/weekend. Off to study (or procrastinate more, which is more likely).
Besos!
Lauren
P.S. I'm having trouble adding captions to the photos, sorry!
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