This weekend was the ISA (group I am studying with) trip to Valencia. I realized only the day before the trip that it was only a one night trip so that was disappointing but we had to make the best of it! We took a 4.5 hour bus ride from Barcelona to Valencia early early morning on Friday. Surprisingly quite a fun ride. The majority of our group was running of just an hour or two of sleep or some none at all. For me I understand the value of sleep. I do it often and quite enjoy it so I was having a good bus ride. My friend Alex and I kept ourselves entertained by dubbing over the spanish movie we were watching. So much fun. The movie was made from a classic spanish comic that was very slapstick and had a really odd plot. So we had no idea what was going on, but we had a good story line of our own. We soon found there was a sequel and plan on renting it as soon as we can.
Once we got to Valencia we got treated to a lunch of classic spanish paella. It is like a rice chicken (or seafood) vegetables dish that is all mixed together with spices. I believe it came from when the chefs used to throw together all of the extra food at the end of the week to make one dish. It was pretty good. After that we had a quick bus tour of Valencia then headed to the old part of town for a walking tour. There we saw old churches and marketplaces and some cute streets. After that we checked into our hotel. Always nice to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel, plus they give you breakfast as well and it was delicious. I'm pretty sure most hotels in Europe do this. I hear hostels do too but usually its just something like toast and coffee.
That night we headed out early to see the town and night life. Even though usually anything worth going to see doesn't start until later, we didn't feel like wasting time just chilling in the hotel. Also at this point I became the nap nazi again (despite the fact if I was at home I would of been napping for sure). We grabbed a kebab and started aimlessly walking around town looking for a place to go. The town was kind of dead so we ended up finding an Irish bar and settling down there. We met some other ISA Valencia kids and talked to them for a bit but ended up calling it a pretty early night.
But not too early. We did enjoy a few Paulaner beers. Had to get them due to the name and they were actually quite delicious. It was a german beer. Then Justin, Alex and I decided to wander a little on our way home. We were a good 30-45 minute walk from our hotel but we ended up walking the way back. (I also had a dead iphone at this point so we did it all on our own!). The walk was actually really nice, and we got to walk along this park that used to be a river that they drained to make a park that runs through the city. Then we found a club we thought we would check out until we realized it was a 30 and up club and to the dirtiest stares from everyone as we walked up to it. Good times.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Oceanografic. One of the nicest aquariums in Spain. It was really cool and they even had an exhibit on Hawaii that made me a little nostalgic for that! They also had a really cool dolphin show which was fun. After we walked around the area outside the aquarium and got lunch, then headed back to the busses for the long ride home. Super sort trip but it was cool getting to see another part of Spain!
Since we have been back the weather has been absolutely amazing!!! (besides the fact it is currently raining outside, probably a sign I should be doing homework) I went to the beach yesterday for a run, which I haven't done in way too long but I was amazing and I am sore now so feeling good! I just paid for the Morocco trip today (amazing how money flies) and printed the boarding passes for Rome and Dublin! Its going to be an amazing next couple of weeks. So stay close to the blog and you can hear all about them!
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