Valencia!

My first “independent” travel was to Valencia on Halloween weekend. My friend from the Mexico study abroad trip I took AND from many classes at NKU, Katie, is an auxiliar in Southern Spain, and she was planning a trip to Valencia and asked if I wanted to go. I did! We booked the same hostel (which is NOT a hotel. It’s like a combination between a hotel and a dorm room), but mine was switched due to some over-booking. Anyway, I casually mentioned to my closest contacts (Javi and Cati, Anna María, and Laura) about my trip, and once again, they went above and beyond the call of duty to help me. Javi printed out the train schedule for me, and Laura and Anna were huddled by the computer at school one day, helping me figure out when I should go, which train stations I’d need, etc. I couldn’t help grinning as I watched these wonderful mother hens help me. :-)

I took the 7am train from Montblanc to Tarragona, and then I took a train from Tarragona to Valencia, which was only about 2.5 hours. I was hoping to sleep on the way to Valencia, but a sweet older woman from Granada talked to me almost the entire time. Haha! She had me write down a list of things from the Andalucía (southern) region I should look up on Youtube, and she even gave me some of her homemade donuts to snack on. :-) Katie met me at the train station, and it was so good to see her again! We spent the weekend sight-seeing and catching up, and I think we were both surprised to realize how different our programs are. We have the same title and job, but since we’re in different regions, the details are quite different. I have a LOT more paperwork, training session, projects, and administrative things to do, but I also have a lot more help in figuring it out. Discipline is also a lot more enforced in my schools, making the obedience and listening level better. Katie’s also travelled around Europe this past summer, so she’s a lot more knowledgeable about how to get around using the public transportation systems than I am! The highlight was definitely the aquarium (Oceanográfic), a HUGE place with all sorts of fun creatures to see. We saw a dolphin show as well (dolphins are the 2^nd best animals in the world, next to cats), and that was great! Katie and I also saw the main historic buildings during our stay in Valencia (like the Cathedral, etc.), an art museum, and a really neat ceramic museum that used to be a palace. We tried the famous oranges in the form of orange juice, but the famous “paella” from Valencia looked…gross. :-P We also ate at McDonald’s one evening (my first “American” restaurant since being here), went to the beach, ate churros dipped in chocolate at a fantastic chocolate place called Valor, looked at souvenir shops, walked around the city, had trouble finding bus stops, ate ice cream, took a picture for a bunch of drunk guys (awkward!), climbed some towers, and saw Gulliver Park, which is a park that has a playground shaped like Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels!

It was also my first experience in a hostel. Katie was in the Red Nest, and I was in its sister hostel, the Purple Nest, which was about 5 minutes away. True to its name, the main areas were purple, and the staff was VERY helpful and nice! I stayed in a female-only, 6-bed dorm, and everyone had a locker and a bunk bed. I was on the top bunk, which was okay...but obviously not as convenient. :-) My floor had a bathroom area for girls, a bathroom area for guys, and then a single toilet area for either one. My schedule was quite different from most of the other young people in the hostel, so while everyone was getting ready for parties at night, I was in bed. And when I woke up fairly early to get ready, everyone else was asleep, so I had the whole bathroom to myself! :-) The whole experience wasn’t nearly as bad as I pictured, and hostels are a great (as in cheap!) way to travel in Europe. Some are party hostels and some aren’t, and this one was really good about maintaining order. :-) The girls in my room were nice, and there was always one other girl who went to bed earlier like I did. The weirdest thing that happened was one morning at 6:00. There were only 3 of us sleeping in the room that night (a girl from Germany, a girl from Italy, and me), and we were awakened by someone knocking on the door. I assumed it was another girl who locked herself out, so I pretended to be asleep and waited for someone on a bottom bunk to answer the door. No one did. :-) Finally, I climbed down, opened the door, and a random guy asked for a girl in bed #5. I wasn’t sure which bed was number five, nor did I care, so I whispered “Cama cinco!” but was met with silence. I apologized to the guy, and he apologized for waking me, and then he left. Weird. I went back to bed, and later that morning, the girl from Germany and I talked about what happened. Apparently one of the girls went out with that guy the evening before, but she left the next morning. I guess he didn’t know that. :-) He even slid a note under our door for the girl, but he used the wrong name! Haha. I felt kind of bad for the guy, but there wasn’t anything we could do anyway. However, aside from that situation and the occasional night-owl girls coming in the room in the middle of the night, everything was fine. I love the international feel of hostels. People from all over the world were there!

So with a decent time in a hostel, a fun time in a new city, and a GREAT time connecting with Katie, my trip to Valencia was very refreshing. Laura even noted the change in my face and eyes when I told her about my trip. :-) It definitely made me want to travel more (I’m slowly overcoming my fear and confusion about public transportation!), and Katie and I are hoping to travel somewhere together again sometime!