She's from Kansas so I shouldn't have expected much

This past weekend I went to Valencia and had such a good time!

I wanted to travel this weekend so I started thinking about Valencia since it's so close. I ended up getting three other girls to go with me. Amanda (she's a Kansas Jayhawk and very nice and friendly, but seriously as dumb as a bag of rocks) and I took the train out of Alicante at 5:40 and got into Valencia at ~7:50. Here is where the problems started with that girl. We agreed to make it to the train station at 5:20 and she got there at 5:35. I was freaking out. She didn't have a phone so I couldn't call her. Luckily she showed up just in time. Then I see that she brought a suitcase with clothes to last a week. Awesome. So we got on the train and luckily (I was tired and didn't feel like socializing) we couldn't find seats together.

So we arrived in Valencia and nowhere in the station did they have free maps. Awesome. Luckily I had a picture in my mind of where the hostel was. Seriously, I thank God all the time that I'm good with directions. Otherwise, I don't know what I'd do. So I figured out where we were and we walked about 15 minutes through the misty, spitting rain to the hostel.

After we'd checking in and unpacked, we decided to find some food. We wandered to where we heard some of the good bars and clubs were. Then we found our God send.

And American restaurant!!!!!!!! Tony Roma's. Ever heard of it? Apparently there are chains in the US, and I vaguely remember hearing about it before. But I got a huge, delicious chicken Caesar salad and free refills of Diet Coke from a fountain! I was sooo happy. [Accidentally had meat for the second time on a Friday in Lent :( ] Then we each got dessert. I had some cheesecake ice cream. A perfect way to end the night.

By the time we finished dinner it was midnight, so we headed back to the hostel. Amanda stayed down in the hostel's lounge for a while, and around 1:00am I sat down in bed and read a Spanish gossip magazine. Sadly, I didn't fall asleep for hours. I think it must have been a combo of the two huge glasses of Diet Coke, the caffeine and the copious amounts of liquid. I didn't fall asleep until a little after 4am :( And the hostel was sooo hot. I was on the top bunk and since heat rises, I was sweating all night long. Gross.

We got up the next morning around 9 so we could both shower and eat breakfast before Shannon and Anna got into town. Of course, Amanda laid in bed for a half hour and took about an hour to get ready even though she told me the night before that it's only have her a half hour to get ready. And Shannon and Anna were late getting into town. So we ended up leaving the hostel at 11:30.

There were a few things I wanted to do that day. I wanted to go to the Fine Art Museum, take a walking tour of the city and go to the concert. And this is why I don't like traveling with lots of people. You can't count on them to be on time. So I didn't have time to go to the Museum, and I just made the tour by the skin of my teeth. They rest of the group didn't want to take the city tour because it was a walking tour and it lasted 2 hours. Well, they missed out.

You know what they did instead? They went shopping. I understand that some people just like to shop but the way I see it, it seems like such a waste of time to go shopping in a foreign city. You can go shopping anywhere. I guess if the city's known for fashion that's one thing, but we live so close to Valencia that it's hard to imagine that the clothes in Valencia are that different from the clothes in the malls in Alicante.

I learned so much on my walking tour. And it was free. Can't beat that. He accepted tips though so I guess it cost 5 euros, but it was worth it. We hit the major monuments of the city, and luckily they weren't too far from each other. It was in English too. It was a Scottish kid who had just graduated college. And I met two girls from California who go to Gonzaga and have been at the Gonzaga sister school in Florence since September. SEPTEMBER! They leave around Easter. That's so long to study abroad. They've pretty much traveled everywhere and now is their spring break. There were also three kids from Australia who were pretty cool.

This tour is where I learned about the Holy Grail and the guerrilla warfare. I also learned about the dictatorship in Spain prior to 1975, the Franco period. General Franco was given assistance from Hitler and Mussolini. I didn't know that Spain had a dictator too. And he was in power for a lot longer. Spain didn't get it's constitution until 1975 and it was all because of the wonderful King Juan Carlos I. Franco took Juan Carlos (who was still a prince back then) as his apprentice and taught him how to continue the dictatorship and then when Franco died, Juan Carlos turned around and put things right! The Spanish really respect their King for this and many other reasons.

On the tour I also tried my first cup of horchata, a cold Spanish drink. They have it in Mexico too, but it's a bit different. In Spain it's made from tigernuts, water, and a ton of sugar while in Mexico it's made with rice, vanilla, cinnamon, and water. Both types end up being a milky drink. But horchata originated in Valencia, created by the Muslims many, many years ago. The drink was good but I couldn't drink too much at a time since it was so sweet.

From there, our tour guide took us to something really special. It only happens around this time of year in Valencia. Every Saturday they shoot off fireworks in the town square at 2pm. The point of the fireworks is not to see the lights, but to hear the sounds. It was deafening. But the plaza was PACKED! And there were even people in every nearby balcony. It was awesome.

From there, we walked around a little more and he explained more about Las Fallas. He said it's more of a Valencian neighborhood festival as opposed to a tourist attraction. The neighborhoods compete and basically have long block parties. But he did tell us that Valencia is the 3rd larges city in Spain with 800,000 people but during Las Fallas, the population swells to 3 million! Lots of people from neighboring towns come to visit. So he told me to expect it to be ridiculously crowded next week, when I come back. Great.

After that I met up with Anna, Shannon, and Amanda and we got some Mongolian stir fry for lunch, which was really good. Then we headed back to the hostel because Amanda wanted to change into her "emo" outfit for the concert. After changing clothes many time, her final outfit was no where near "emo." Pink lipstick, a pretty faded jean shirt, black high heal boots, and a flower in your hair (even if it was black) does not make you "emo." I can't even get over how dumb she is.

Let me tell you how dumb she is. She told me the night before at dinner that she dropped all of her classes here because they would transfer back to Kansas University as classes she's "already taken." I add the quotes because she "took" them at a community college and got good grades but apparently hardly went to class. So she got credit for Spanish classes but knows no Spanish. She can't even remember to use gracias, instead of thank you. And she was supposed to leave mid March but she doesn't want to. But technically her passport only allows her to spend 90 days abroad without a visa. So if she stays past the first week of April, which she will, she'll be here illegally and runs the risk of being deported. So not only is she in Spain, taking a semester off of school, but she won't be here legally! Thankfully, her parents had a little sense and "cut her off." So now she's paying for everything on her own, but she still can't help but go shopping every week and stay in expensive hotels when she travels as opposed to hostels. Again, she's very nice, but so stupid.

Anyway, we left the hostel at 5:45 when the concert started at 6. They just can't be on time. Whatever, I didn't really care about seeing the opening band anyway. So we quickly stopped for buñuelos, which are clumps of fried dough sprinkled with sugar. We thought they'd be good, like churros, but no, they were nasty. Don't try them.

There were a lot of people when we got to the show but it wasn't even close to starting. The opening band didn't even start until about 7:45. They sang in Spanish so it was hard to understand. And it was raining. And our feet were starting to hurt. So when the second band came on we decided to take a break and walked across the street to the mall and get something to eat. We found a cheap pizza place and got to rest our feet. Then we left Amanda there because she wanted to get a cheap pair of shoes since her feet were hurting (no kidding), but we wanted to head back since My Chemical Romance (the main band) was gonna be on soon.

Amanda took for-freaking-ever! We sent up a place to meet, and she got there just as the show was starting. By then, the tarp covered group was covered with pools of filthy, opaque rain water. It makes me shudder to just think about it. I was so careful at avoiding the large puddles. But we ended up a little far back from the stage but pretty centrally located. The band was great! And they played a good mix of old music too so I was able to recognize some of it.

But let me tell you this. It's kinda sad going to a concert where most of the audience doesn't speak the same language as the band. I mean how must the band feel when then ask you to "make some noise" or "put your hands in the air" or even just to sing along and not many people do it. I felt like an interpreter/ambassador. I had to set the example. I didn't like it and it made me feel bad for the band.

After the show ended, we headed back to the bus to go back to our hotel. Well it didn't take the same route home.....

So we missed our stop and figured it out mid-route (what would have been maybe 3/4 a mile from the hostel) and thought maybe the bus would circle around so we stayed on. Nope. The driver got to the end and asked us where we needed to go and I told him. He said he didn't go any further and I asked if there would be another bus going in the other direction nearby and he didn't really give me an answer. So we got off the bus and talked about what to do for a while. Walking would have taken at least two hours. And now, don't fret. It was only midnight. That's early in Spain. And the street was not some scary dark street. It was a normal, well lit street. Just far away.

All the while, Amanda (of course it would be her) was whimpery and suggested a cab. About 10 cabs passed while we (Anna, Shannon, and I) were discussing what to do. After we finally decided to get a cab, none passed. How convenient. We waited for like 20 minutes and no available cabs. Amanda decided it would be a good idea to go and ask someone. This coming from the girl who can't speak Spanish. We told her no, she was not allowed to walk off and find a strange Spanish man and ask him for help. I have a hard time believing she's 22. I can't even say she sometimes acts like a 15 year old because that would be offensive to my sister and her friends, who sometime have more common sense than her.

Luckily, a cop car passed us and I flagged them down and asked them if they had the number for a taxi. He asked if we were American.... How could you tell? But he gave me the number and I called and asked for a taxi. So we sat at the bus stop to wait. Half hour passes. A couple dozen taxis that are not ours pass. But not ours. So finally we decided we weren't waiting anymore. We'd get the next taxi that passed. None passed after that. It was ridiculous. I was really positive about the whole thing until this point. Finally, after another fifteen minutes a taxi showed it. The good thing was that the trip only ended up being 2 euros per person. If we'd taken a taxi right from the show we would have saved time and money. Oh well. Que sera, sera. (Whatever will be, will be)

When we got back, I went to bed and the others followed soon after... expect Amanda. We told her we were leaving the next morning at 9:30.

I woke up early the next morning (8am) so I could wake Amanda up in time. (She's a child.) I took a shower and got back and woke her up again and she told me she really wanted to sleep. Well great, I literally could have slept another 45 minutes. She said she'd just meet up with us later. But she promised to check out by 11 and said she'd call at 11. I told Shannon and Anna that I'd bet money that she wouldn't call until at least 11:45.

So Shannon, Anna, and I had breakfast and walked to the train station so they could buy their tickets back to Alicante for later in the day. Guess what happens when you procrastinate. The late cheap tickets get sold out. SO they had to leave an hour and a half earlier and pay more. Sucks for you, and I guess sucks for me too (mentioned later).

From there we headed to the museum campus. Anna had already been to the oceanarium a different weekend so she walked around and went to the science museum. Shannon and I headed to see all the fishies. It was so cool! It's the biggest oceanarium in all of Europe! Here's where I lost out on the fact that they had earlier train tickets. Shannon's uber extroverted so she'd never consider walking around some culture place (oceanarium, museum) alone. So we had to go at a somewhat fast pace through every exhibit. Excellent. I mean, I guess I didn't miss much. I just like to stroll. But she left at about 2 and I got to see the rest of the oceanarium by myself and it was so awesome!! I went through an underwater tunnel and sharks swam literally feet above my head. I could see their teeth! It was amazing! I also saw some cool jellyfish and orcas and all kinds of stuff.

(Oh yeah, when we were getting our tickets for the oceanarium, Amanda called. Can you guess what time it was? 11:45 on the nose! I'm good.)

SO I left the oceanarium and headed to the science museum but my feet were really hurting by then so I didn't get to see too many cool things. Apparently the cool stuff was on the top floor and I didn't make it all the way up there.

Amanda called me and we met by the train station and grabbed some lunch at a sandwich place. Can I tell you something? Amanda didn't want to eat on the second floor of the restaurant because she couldn't carry her huge bag up the stairs. For real? So I had to carry it up for her because there were no table anywhere else. What 22 year old girl can't carry a suitcase up a flight of stairs? Pathetic. But again, she's a Jayhawk....
We had an easy train ride back to Alicante. It was a really good weekend. But needless to say, I won't be traveling with Amanda again.

** UPDATE: I forgot to add that I saw peacocks in a mating dance. The female wasn't having any of it.