My friend Mala has a friend who wanted to go to Tomatina. This friend, Marisa, booked a six person apartment in Valencia, Spain with her lifelong family friend, Jeremy. Jeremy lives in London. Marisa brought her boyfriend, Jeremy brought his friend Lloyd, and Mala brought me. So, there are six of us -- three boys and three girls -- in this pretty nice three-bedroom, two bath apartment north of old town Valencia for a week.
Except that Mala and I aren't going to stay here the whole week. We're gonna go to Barcelona on Thursday after Tomatina on Wednesday. Then we head back home on Sunday. Just in time to kick back for Labor Day. Yeah, planned that.
So, Spain. Valencia. It's on the Mediterranean and is like the Florida of Spain (geographically). Actually, now that I look at it, it's probably more like the North Carolina of Spain. Forget it; stupid analogy. They use the Euro here, although you may have heard about some of their problemos with that on the news. Nothing to notice here on the ground, of course.
This town is ok. Not hecka nice. Kinda dingy. But the old town has lots of restaurants and bars. Even though the restaurants don't open for dinner until at least 6pm, and the bars don't start to fill up until 11pm. Or so I've been told. We didn't make it that long on our first day; it was all we could do to stay awake until 10.30.
But today is our second day, Monday, and we're mildly refreshed. We went to the aquarium which is a huge complex of weird buildings. There were some fish there, as you might imagine. A few penguins. Sharks. It wasn't the greatest place ever, but we had a good time.
It's about a billion degrees here. And humid. Not deathly so, but I'm certainly not used to it. I keep trying to complain about the heat, but my muscle memory starts to say, "it's so goddamn cold" and I have to correct myself every time to say "hot". San Francisco in August isn't really wonderful. I'm not sure which I prefer, really.
This group of people is funny. I love British people. They really get my humor. And vice versa. The six of us are having a great time together so far. It makes this mildly sub-par city totally worth hanging out in. But I'm glad we're going to Barcelona after -- I think that will be a more world-class city. I'll let you know.
In summary: Spain. Vacation is awesome. Valencia isn't the nicest, but whatever. Throwing tomatoes at people on Wednesday. It's hot here. British people are funny. That is all.
4 comments:
Please bring Mala back in one piece.
What will you give me for her?
You travel so much! I aspire to be like you as I grow older. I'm already 22 but my list of travel destinations is small, however, I have the inclination and monetary means to travel more in the future! So, I will be doing that. I'm interested to know what kind of foods people eat in Spain! You should post pics and review some restaurants!
Angie jogging around the world again... Well, so glad you are having fun even in dingytown. Stay away from poisoned food....NO FOOD POISONING!! Stay safe. :)
Post a Comment