Pools, Botellons, & Discotecas

The pool at Marissa's Apartment

8/11 Today was more or less a perfect day- and this is why: To start, Bárbara, Whitney and I were invited to go swimming at Marissa & Josep’s apartment! We packed our bocadillos (in true Spaniard fashion), and Bárbara’s Dad drove us over to their place! After preparing some snacks and alcoholic beverages (complete with the little umbrellas) we went down to the luxurious pool at her apartment complex. We spent the afternoon tanning, girl talking, swimming, and sipping on mixed drinks- and it was perfect! I love the beach, but there is something extra refreshing about a pool. Anyways, after that we went back up to Marissa’s apartment and had some more food, and I got to spend time with her super precious puppy named Coco. I was hogging up all of Coco’s attention because I already feel “deprived” of cuddling with my dog on a daily basis. Once we’d had enough sun, we ladies parted ways.

Marissa, Whitney, Myself & Barbara

Coco the Puppy - My Love

Our next event of the day was dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant on the beach- in Spain it’s normal to eat dinner between 9pm – 11pm, and so we had dinner reservations for 11pm (which in the states is unheard of, haha). I went with Marissa, Josep and Bárbara, and there we met Bárbara’s childhood/school friend, an adorable and fashionable Valencian girl named Patri (short for the Spanish named Patricia, but you pronounce it Pa-Tree-See-Uh). We were later joined by two of Josep’s friends named Miguel & Ruben, and then our little group was complete. We had a huge dinner, full of tapas and cerveza of course, but then I started feeling miserable from the heat. August in Valencia is notorious for having almost unbearable heat and humidity, and since no places have AC, it really does get bad quick. I was sweating so much, and the heat was making me have a headache. Unusual for me, I had no appetite because of the heat. There was a moment when I thought I’d have to leave and go home, but luckily Patri got me some water and then when we went outside there was more of a breeze.

Patri, Vicente, Barbara y Yo!

The next step to our great day was to partake in the Spanish activity fondly called Botellon. It’s a bit hard to describe what a botellon is perfectly, but it can be summed up as Spanish Pre-Gaming. Basically, it’s common for young Spaniards to get together before going out to the bars and dance clubs, and mix their own drinks. Because in Valencia it’s much more of an “outdoor culture” (meaning it’s very uncommon to party or drink at a friend’s house, or invite people over to hang out) and almost all socializing happens at a restaurant, café, or park, it’s now common to buy drinks and mixers at a local supermarket to save money, and then mix and make the drinks at some outdoor location. In this case, we began our botellon in the parking lot near the beach. We mixed our drinks in the trunk of the car, and had a great time laughing and chatting. Vicki joined us at that point, and also one of Bárbara’s childhood friends named Vicente. Vicki brought an American along who was visiting her (a Cornell student from New York), and I was just really happy that I was there, in Spain, at a beautiful beach at night, having the chance to relax and talk to all of these different people and hear their varying life stories.  When the police drove by, our group and all the other nearby botellon groups, hid our drinks in the bushes. It’s technically illegal to drink outside, but everyone still does it J Somehow, our group eventually moved down closer to the beach, and we were sitting on a ledge near the sand surrounded by tons of other botellon groups too. It’s just a very fun, free atmosphere and it’s hard to describe how cool it is without actually having been to the beach in Valencia on a Saturday night. As the sangria and other drinks were flowing, my Spanish speaking abilities were getting better, haha. That’s how it always works though right? More drinks, less inhibition, more confidence, better foreign language skills!

?, Patri, Vicki, Vicente, Michelle, Barbara, Jarad - BOTELLON!

Once the botellon times ended (around 2am) our group was headed off to a discoteca! This place is called Las Animas, and I went there a few times with my friends back in 2007- it's pretty "posh" and has all these sofas and beds spread out on the terrace and dance area. Needless to say, I was so excited to be going there again because I know it’s an extremely fun, awesome dance club. It’s located near the port on the beach, and the dance floor is on a huge rooftop. They play all Spanish/reggaeton music, and everyone is always dancing like crazy- which is great because I love the Spanish “style” of dancing so much more than the “American style”! Somehow one of the guys in our group got us on some VIP list, so we got a free drink and didn’t have to pay the cover- awesome! Somehow, we were there drinking, dancing, laughing and having an amazing time until 6:30am!! Highlights of the evening include walking around with Marissa and Bárbara, talking to random guys in hopes of getting free drinks (we never succeeded), and Bárbara lying to these guys saying she was American, and then speaking Spanish with a horrible American accent- it was hysterical.  When we watched the sunrise from the roof of the club, we decided it was probably time to go home. In Spain though, this is the norm. Most clubs aren’t crowded until about 2 or 3am, and they don’t close early like at home. So, with my first late night botellon-discoteca experience this year complete, we headed back to the piso happy, but tired! By the time we went to sleep, it was 7:30am, and we slept in until about 3pm on Sunday (8/12). To top off a fabulous weekend, my roomie and I walked to a nearby “American” restaurant called Tony Roma’s that night on a little "date", and I indulged in a typical American cheeseburger. Sometimes you just really crave a good, fattening American meal after a tough weekend of pools and dancing!

Tony Roma's Valencia- Mmm