Finally, almost a month after the trip, I’m going to finish writing about my Christmas break. Here it goes…Part III: Valencia…
After a horrid bus ride from Granada, we were so happy when we reached the Valencia bus station and a siesta at my former Madre’s house (from study abroad) was in sight. I had told my Madre (Vicen) what time we would be there and she said no problem, and that she would be waiting. Well, when we got to her apartment, guess who wasn’t home? After many calls and discussions, basically she had forgotten about us and was out of town. Luckily her neighbor has an extra key to her apartment, so she let us in. We immediately crashed for a few hours. When we woke up, Vicen had returned and after hugs, apologies, lunch (oh spaghetti and tuna, how I’ve missed you…), and general catching up, Allison and I left to wander the city.
Being back in Valencia was surreal. When I left there a year and a half ago, I had convinced myself that I would probably never return to that magical city that had captured my heart…buuuut I was wrong. Everything was just like I remembered. I was pretty impressed with myself for remembering how to get everywhere, even in the confusing barrio of Carmen. We passed through Ayutamiento, el Mercado Central, Plaza de la Reina, went inside the Cathedral, Plaza de la Virgen, and even stopped in to see my old friends at the Fallas workshop I worked in the semester I was there (Marisa and Paco…and they even remembered me!). After walking for a bit, it was time for a snack. We got some ice cream for one of my two favorite heladerías in Valencia, and then took a walk through the Río. Still one of my favorite parts of the city, this huge park is gorgeous, ending at La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. Calatrava’s amazing work in this “City of Arts and Sciences” never ceases to amaze me. While we were exploring, I got a call from my friend and once Spanish intercambio, Javi. Javi wanted to meet up with us for a drink. He came to where we were and, after a bit of confusion of where to find him, we had our reunion. It was awesome to see him again! He was one of my great friends there and we picked up right where we had left off and went to meet another friend, Carlos, and Carlos’ brother for a soda. With Carlos, it was again like nothing had changed. We hung out there for a while, catching up, and then parted ways with the plan to hang out later that night.
Allison and I had made reservations at a paella place called Yuso for the evening. We headed back over to Carmen and wined and dined in style. We had calamares to start off with, as well as a bottle of something suspiciously similar to Cava, and then came the best part…the paella. Paella Valenciana is the one food in the world that I could eat everyday of my life and never tire of. Ugh, I want some more right now. Qué rico!
If paella is the one food I could eat everyday, mojitos from the bar, Laboratorio, are the drinks I could drink everyday. We went to Lab after dinner and drank a few of these delicious drinks. Being back in Lab brought back so many memories of intercambio nights there, Liz’s 21st birthday adventure, and general fun times during study abroad. Later, we went to another bar and had some tequila shots, but instead of lime+salt, we had them with orange+cinnamon…so much better. Javi called me while we were there and said we would meet up at a disco called Bolsería in a bit. We met Javi and Carlos there and hung out for a while. As we were going to go to Carlos’ car so he could drive us home, I spotted a familiar face. I wasn’t sure, so I hesitantly called out, “Héctor??” Héctor, Paúl, and Álvaro were walking right by us with a group of their friends! Javi’s group was one of my two groups of Spanish friends…Héctor’s was the other. We all hugged and dos besos-ed and had a great time running into each other that way. We promised to hang out in the next few days. On the way home, Allison and I got some late night pizza, then went to bed. I was ecstatic to be back in Vicen’s house and in Valencia.
In the morning, we made the long walk to the beach and embraced the fact that it was December 31st and we could have been sunbathing right then, had we brought the right clothes. The weather was perfect. After eating calamares and introducing Allison to Agua de Valencia, we went back to Vicen’s to get ready for New Year’s Eve.
We had no reservations anywhere for the night, but figured we would be okay. We were wrong. Walking all over in heels, all of the restaurants were either full or had ridiculous fix priced menus. Finally we were able to get a table in the (go figure) American restaurant, Foster’s Hollywood. After a nice dinner, we stepped right outside the restaurant into Ayutamiento to await 2012. We had our own little botellón and when midnight came, we ate our 12 uvas (grapes) for good luck. Unfortunately they had seeds in them and eating one every second was harder than I thought it would be…but I got it done.
Though we had grand plans of heading out to discos (Mya!), Allison and I never made it to any. They were all very expensive and crowded. So we finished our botellón, hit up the old favorite, St. Patricks, and then returned home. Though simple, it was one of the best New Year’s Eves I’ve ever had. Usually they are pretty disappointing because of the build up and expectation of fun…but this one was lovely.
Sunday was a super lazy day. Vicen was hungover and spent the day on the couch, so we followed suit. We slept, woke up to eat, slept some more, and then in the evening, went to the circus. Gran Circo Wonderland…my circus friends. The story regarding this circus is way to long to talk about here, but in one sentence…Some of us saw this circus the first week of study abroad and the circus members became some of the strangest friend/acquaintances I’ve ever had. Allison and I got there and right away, I saw the ring-leader (pun intended) of the group. I looked at him and said, “Do you remember me?” and he immediately responded, “American girl!!!” (his favorite catch phrase to say to us Americans when he saw us). I had a few more super awkward reunions with the circus members, then we went to our seat. Minus a terrifying finale (seriously thought I would see a circus member die), the circus was just as cheesy, funny, uncomfortable, and entertaining as I remembered. However, ending the show with a literal “death-defying” act, Allison and I needed some drinks afterwards to calm our nerves. So where else did we go, but to Lab to get more mojitos.
The next day was the “get-everything-done-we-haven’t-yet-because-we-leave-tomorrow” day. We got a caña de chocolate from the bakery Cuenca by my school (still as incredible as I remember), saw the school, climbed the cathedral’s Miguelete (so many stairs), drank some horchata from Santa Catalina (had to drink líqudo because they didn’t have the mixta…Allison didn’t like it), walked to l’oceanográfic, spent a few hours in the aquarium with the sharks, seals, and dolphins, ate ice cream from Glasol (absolute favorite), then went back to Vicen’s to refresh ourselves after an exhausting afternoon.
Later that night, I had my real reunion with Paúl and Héctor. Like Javi and Carlos, seeing them was wonderful, like I had never left. We hung out with them and some of their French friends at an apartment for a bit. Allison was amazed at the number of languages being spoken at once (English, French, Spanish), and I realized what I often take for granted living in Europe.
The next morning we took the bus to Madrid, checked into our hostel (Las Musas…don’t really recommend it), then ate a lot of tapas in La Latina. We then wandered around a bit, not wanting to go to a disco, but still wanting to make our night in Madrid fun. We drank the black vodka and Fanta limón I had given Allison for Christmas, then stopped into some Irish bars (including O’Connell St as usual). We crashed that night, so exhausted from traveling.
Wednesday was Allison’s last full day in Spain. Since we had already done the main tourist stuff the first time around in Madrid, we were happy just relaxing and taking our time doing things. After a morning of our Asian roommates taking about two hours to get ready, very noisily, we finally woke up around noon. Since it was Wednesday, we ate some 1 Euro 100 Monteditos, then walked over to Retiro. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to go out on the boats again. Later we got some more food (bocadillo de calamares…so good), hit up Lidl to get food presents for Allison’s family, walked around Lavapies, ate Allison’s final ración de huevos rotos, and then went back to the hostel.
In the morning, we taxied to Atocha so Allison could catch the shuttle to the airport. After our goodbyes, I took the train back home to Navalmoral.
Having Allison with me for the holidays was incredible. Since I couldn’t go home, I was so happy to be with family. We made some amazing memories and I’m glad I got to be a part of Allison’s true introduction to Europe and Spain. I also got to see new places and reunite with some old ones. Between seeing Erik and Diego in Rome, then Javi, Carlos, Paúl, and Héctor in Valencia, I’ve realized that my last post of my Valencia blog was right. It’s never “adios,” but rather “hasta luego!”
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