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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Liz and I enjoying the fountains on our walk |
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| City of Arts and Sciences on a cloudy afternoon |
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| 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.
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| 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!
