January 31



I walked down to the lobby at 12:37 and saw no one. I knew that it had been a fun night before and they hadn’t left without me. I went up to Diego’s room and started going around to different rooms to rally people. Most everyone was really excited about the idea of going to the beach so they got moving pretty quickly. After talking with everyone we decided to each lunch at 2:00 and leave for the metro station at 2:45.

A group left before us, and we decided we would meet up on the beach later. About 12 of us started walking toward the metro station at just past three. It was a pretty long walk and only knew the general direction of the closest metro station. After crossing a bridge and walking for some time, we decided to stop and ask for directions. We had passed it by a few blocks and backtracked until we found the station. We all started pressing buttons for some time before we finally figured out how to buy a ticket. Only about six of us had bought a ticket so we decided to split up once again and the other six would just take the next train. The worst thing happened to Diego, he had 20 euros eaten by the machine and it didn’t even dispense his ticket.

The metro was pretty cool. It was pretty slow moving but we had the ability to see a lot of cool parts of the city. My favorite area we rode through was the university campus of a technical school here called politecnica. We rode the train for about thirty minutes before getting off at the last stop.

We could see the beach from our stop and met up with the larger group that had split from us originally. The Mediterranean was awesome. It was very calm and had a really cool color blue. The sky was really cool too because as the sun started to set, the sky showed a complete blue scale, from light blue, closest to the sun, all the way to dark blue.

Some of us took a walk over by some beached wooden boats and saw a really cool fountain so we went and checked it out.

The beach side kind of reminded me of being in Miami. There were huge paved walkways with white “south-floridaesque” buildings and tropical palms trees lined the side closest to the street. It was only a short walk and we got back just as the other group we were waiting on got there. We started to kick around the soccer ball but the P90x made me so sore I wasn’t much of anything more than a statue. I withdrew pretty quickly and went and sat on our camp we had set up of shower towels and blankets from our room.

As the sun was going down even further a few of us went to go find a beachside drink and set off toward a cluster of buildings right on the edge of the sand. We stopped at Café Zaragoza and were quickly served by a short, energetic Spanish man that had to have been in his late sixties or early seventies. He was wearing a black suit with a black vest and no tie. We got a pitcher of beer between us all and enjoyed the incredible view. The part of the beach we were on jutted out into the water pretty far and we had basically a 270 degree of the beach all around us. To our left we could see some mountains and a long beach leading up to it. When the sun snuck out from the now partly overcast sky, it hit the mountains perfectly and they really came into view. To our right was what looked like a huge shipyard with cranes and and long docks for receiving huge shipments. It sounds like an eye sore but it was actually really cool looking.

Probably the most relaxing beer I have ever had. We all sat around and talked about how surreal the day had been and really the whole trip. It was only 5:30 but it was thirty minutes away from closing time. The craziest thing we saw was watching the employees close up shop. The had to take all of the patio furniture (about 15 tables each complete with 4 chairs) and lift up all of it into a second story storage area. Our old server was hoisting heavy looking tables over his head and handed them up. I figured there had to be a more efficient way then to go through that process night after night buy I guess its just a restaurant tradition.

We paid and decided to go try and find a place for paella. After walking for about 10 minutes (two or so was headed away from the beach), we found a small little restaurant called La Ola at around 5:30. We went in and thought it was really cool because the owners/families were getting ready for huge meal all together. Dogs were running around which was fine by us because they are so tame here. We saw a deal on a chalkboard that said a salad, paella and a drink was 12 euros and we decided that was our best bet.

Miguel, one of the owners took an especial liking to the five of us. While we waited for the paella to cook, he brought us out some herb bread, olives and small plates of potato chips for us to enjoy with a bottle of wine we had gotten. We sat and talked about how great the day had been thus far and about how excited we were to all finally get the chance to get some good, local paella. The salad was served family style and hit the spot. It had tomatoes, corn, olives and tuna on it. We used the standard issue olive oil as a dressing, which I really liked.

The paella was also served family style. It was by far my favorite part of the night. It was a yellow rice with chunks of red and green pepper, olives, chicken, and green beans. They gave us a huge serving spoon and we dug in. I doused mine in a Louisiana hot sauce they had and loved it; We ate every last bite of everything. While we finished eating, Miguel brought over a little two-month-old puppy that was black and brown and could fit in your palms. We all took turns passing it around and absolutely loved it. At first she was tentative but warmed up to us by the end.

For desert they brought out a fruit tray with huge chunks of fruit on it. A type of melon, the best oranges I have ever tasted, bananas and apples were all served on a huge tray. It was the perfect way to end our delicious meal. We enjoyed another bottle of wine and stayed until about 9:30. The best part is the bill came and it was only 20 euros apiece. We dined and drank like kings and the guy liked us so much he gave us a huge discount. We truly felt like Europeans. We caught the 4 train back home with huge grins on our faces the whole time. We all remarked how happy we were that not only was Valencia a cool city without a beach, but now it had a whole new fun aspect to it.

We were home not too long after 10:30. I skyped Laura and called it a night pretty soon after. Truly the best Sunday I have ever had.

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