American Friends Arrive to Valencia!

Our mass amount of tapas at Taberna de Jaen

10/13 The long awaited moment of my American friends flying over to visit me had finally arrived! I left the empty apartment with what I thought was enough time to meet the girls at the airport right when they got off the plane. I kind of forgot how my metro stop only has a train that goes to the airport every 25 minutes, and I missed the first one by about 30 seconds. Even though I was a little late, everything still went smoothly. I ran up to the girls in the subway section of the airport and gave big hugs to Liz and Julia. The first thing they said to me was that I looked tan and like I had lost weight. Never a bad thing to hear! After the brief struggles of buying metro tickets before the train leaves, we navigated their big roll suitcases on the metro, towards my “Facultats” stop. We wheeled their bags over the cobblestone streets (making quite the nose) and after three trips up in our super tiny apartment elevator, the three of us and the luggage made it safely into the piso. Surprisingly, the girls weren’t too tired or jet-lagged, and so wanted to squeeze in all we could on this beautiful Saturday afternoon. Our first stop? Food of course! I decided to take them over to Taberna de Jaen (the notorious location where Bárbara dressed up like a bull, remember?) I was so excited to introduce them to their first tapas that I went a little overboard and we ended up ordering an obscene amount of food. I think we got strips of ham, a cheese plate, calamari, two servings of bravas, bocadillos for each person, olives, and a pitcher of sangria. Amazingly, we downed most of it! It was surreal to me though, having these friends from Kentucky suddenly transported into my own personal little world in Valencia. It was a strange feeling seeing them there.  I was so happy though to share the customs, culture, and city I love with some eager to learn friends!

Walkway that runs along what used to be the river Turia

From the restaurant, we walked up a main street, passing the soccer stadium, and headed towards the river (it’s not actually a river though, remember). We went down the steps and strolled up the old river Turia enjoying the fountains, gardens, and parks along the way. We also made a brief stop at the children's playground that is modeled after the "Gulliver's Travels" story. It is a playset made out of a huge plastic man laying down, and it looks like the kids climbing on it are the "tiny people" from the classic story. During out walk we caught up on each other’s lives, and just enjoyed the nice scenic Valencian stroll. After about 45 more minutes of walking, we arrived to the City of Arts Sciences / Ciudad de Los Artes y Las Ciencias. The girls were very impressed with it of course, but how could you not be? The architecture and overall size of the place is awesome. We explored around and took lots of photos, and then swung by the mall to get a drink and chill. At this point, clouds started rolling in. I was a little sad, but luckily we still managed to get some good CAC photos anyways.

Liz and I enjoying the fountains on our walk

City of Arts and Sciences on a cloudy afternoon

Authentic Valencian Paella- yum!

We were pretty tired at this point, so we hailed a cab and I had them drop us off at the fancy beachside hotel Las Arenas. I wanted the girls to see the Playa Marlvarrosa beach area of the city of course! We walked along the scenic beach walk and then headed down to the sand. We got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset over the ocean, and both girls dipped their toes in the Mediterranean for the first time. Around 8pm, we decided to begin the hunt for a good paella place for dinner. We strolled up and down the walk, and finally selected an Italian place called La Divina Comedia. We shared a pitcher of sangria, and the girls had their first paella valenciana (yay rabbit meat). The ocean breeze was great and it was a perfect temperature- not humid and sweaty like it is in the summer. We went shopping at the little places on the walkway, and then we sat down a bench looking out at the stars and the water, and had some quality girl talk. I wanted us to take the tranvia back to my apartment, but our feet were sore so we cabbed it back.

Julia and Liz- their first time touching the Mediterranean!

At the piso, we freshened up and changed, and headed back out. The girls wanted to check out the bar scene- but nothing too crazy (no discotecas just yet!). We headed over to the street Polo y Peyrolón and strategically walked around so that we could get free drinks and entry passes from all the promoter people. We got some sangria at a little place on the tiny street, and then we basically just bar hopped around that area. We got lots of free drinks, but didn’t get in much dancing. We stayed at this one place with really loud music for a while, and then it hit the girls that they had been awake for a really long time. The 6 hour time difference can get to you! So, around 1am we headed back to the piso, and off to sleep. Buenas noches!