John's Valencia Experience- Parte Dos

Risking his life for a photo.

Being the morning person that he is, John made sure we were up and out of the piso by 9am and on our way to explore more of the city. Since he had the chance to see the modern parts of the city yesterday, I decided today to take him on my “historic tour” of the old city. By this point, I have a whole walking route mapped out, and can point out the places of note. I am a pretty good tour guide if I say so myself- I even know random little informational tidbits and have dates and facts all memorized by now. It’s too bad I can’t do this for tips! We took the bus downtown to the Plaza de La Reina, and began our day there. It was nice and hot, per usual Valencian style, so the first thing we did was go inside the Cathedral. This is the main point of the old city center, and so we paid the 2 euros to climb the 300+ stairs to the top of the church’s tower, El Miguelete. This was the 4^th time I’ve done this in my life, and I know more times are to come. The views at the top are spectacular though, and I definitely wanted John to have that vantage point of my beloved city. Next, we swung by the classic horchata place for a drink, and then we explored the Plaza de La Virgen and the surrounding buildings. We got to see the River Turia fountain, the old Islamic entrance to the church, and the old Roman ruins underneath the plaza too. Once I felt John had a real feel for the look and architecture of the central part of the city, we headed over to the Torres de Serrano. Unfortunately, the towers are randomly closed on Mondays, so we only got an exterior view. We then kept walking through the narrow streets (with me leading the way, be proud) and walked over towards the quarter of the city with the old wool market (Llonja de La Seda) and the Mercado Central. We passed by a church called Iglesia de San Juan, in honor of John, and he also got to see giant paella pots for sale. We didn’t end up going inside La Llonja, just had a quick peek, and then we arrived at the market. I figured John would love it, especially given that he enjoys trying random foods. I was right. Once he’d had his fill of taking photographs and buying unique fruit, we headed over to the business and shopping centre of the city, or the Plaza de La Ayuntamiento. This is a beautiful part of town full of tall buildings with gorgeous architecture. The fountains and palm trees all around don’t hurt either!

Walking around the old city center

Me in Plaza de La Virgen, love that place!

Mercado Central Valencia

Plaza de La Ayuntamiento- Government Center

We decided to stop for lunch on one of the pedestrian streets at a Thai place called Lemongrass. I convinced John to abstain from Spanish food for one meal because pad-thai is just so good! After that, we walked across the street to the Plaza De Toros. Since the Oktoberfest event was going on still, we were able to go in and walk around, which isn’t usually the case on a day with no bullfights. He was lucky to get to see the inside part, and I of course forced him to pose next to the matador statue outside too. It was still early afternoon at this point, and we weren’t really sure what else to do. We tried to go to the Museo Taurino, but that also was closed. Since it was getting really hot, we headed back towards the Cathedral and took a few more photos. Then, unfortunately, we had to take the expensive metro ride back to the Valencia airport. Air Europa had texted me saying John’s luggage was finally in, but that instead of delivering it he would have to go pick it up himself. It takes about 30 minutes to get there on the metro, so we wasted over an hour of our day getting his luggage. I was just a little mad. Once that annoying task was done, we took his bag back to my piso. We had done a lot of walking and it was really hot, so we just took it easy the rest of the day. Bárbara, Nathan, John, and I ended up going out to dinner at Montaditos, and had a really good time! The little sandwiches they serve were a good way for John to get to try a variety of the Spanish meats. Afterwards we had wine and goat-cheese at the piso and just hung out and chatted. I think after today John had a good idea or “feel” of Valencia, and now we are ready to venture off to Africa tomorrow!

John in the Bullfighting Ring

The Couple- Reunited!

German Oktoberfest in Spain

My card to Barbara for the TOEFL :)

9/15 To start my weekend off, I had another intercambio with my new friend Sandra at Sal y Pimienta. We shared some patatas bravas and talked for about 2 hours, half in English half in Spanish. Luckily for once it was nice outside, without being unbearably hot. While I was there, poor Barbara was busy taking a super-important exam for her entry into a Master’s program in Wisconsin. Being the sweet roomie that I am, I bought her chocolate that morning (since it helps your brain function!) and I wrote her a nice little encouraging card. I know, I’m too kind J Next up, I went downtown to Calle Colón with Marissa and Bárbara to go shopping. It was to celebrate Bárbara’s test being over, so we hit up some good stores and I got a little black dress. It’s so hard to go shopping in Valencia and not buy anything! We all had a lot of fun though; shopping with those ladies was very entertaining! After that, we took the bus back to our piso. There we tried on each other’s dresses as typical girls would, and I decided to wear Bárbara’s orange dress and she wore one of mine.  We listened to some good music and had a few drinks, and then we were ready to go out on a Saturday night! We met up with Josep, Rachel, Ruben, Pablo and an American girl named Nicole at a restaurant in the city center called Montaditos. It’s a cool chain restaurant where you order up from a list of tiny cheap little sandwiches. We all were sitting outside chatting, and I got Nicole’s info since she’s living in Madrid, and I’ll be going there with my friends in about a month.

Oktoberfest in Valencia!

Marian, Marissa, Me, Sandra y Barbara!

After debating what we should do after dinner, half of the group decided to go to the Plaza de Toros. It had been converted into a German beer fest for the week: The Oktoberfest of Spain. The only ones from our group who decided to go were Marissa, Bárbara and I. Once we got there, we met up with some of Bárbara’s other girlfriends Sandra, Chus and Marian. Just like the Hofbrauhaus in Northern Kentucky, we ordered some super tall beer steins, sat down at the long wooden tables, and listen to German polka music- but sung in Spanish. It was a little strange at first, but there were even pretzels so all was good! It was also weird to think I was standing there dancing and drinking on a table on the actual field were the bulls were killed at the fight I went to in July. So, Marissa thought we should go ahead and play the card game “Kings”, and before we knew it these two guys Bárbara had met at her exam that morning had run into us and decided to join. It was all fun and games until the Honduran guy kept inching closer and closer to me and was totally invading my personal space. Basically, I was being hit on to the point where it was really uncomfortable, so we did the typical “girl escape route” and went to the bathroom. After that, we stuck around Bárbara’s friends and I tried my best to hide from that creepy guy. Basically, the evening ended with the security guards telling us that it was time to leave, and my friends yelling at them that they should be allowed to finish their beer first. It was quite hilarious. We all then walked to the El Carmen district, and after a brief stop at another bar, cabbed it home. I wanted to go to bed early because in the morning I was going to pick up my boyfriend at the Valencia airport!! Yay!

Plaza de Ayuntamiento at Night