Margaret and I started our Semana Santa off with an extremely relaxing weekend in Valencia, one of Spain’s communities that lies on the Mediterranean coast. We left Madrid muy temprano en la manana de Viernes and hopped on a quick flight to Valencia, arriving by lunch time! I even happened to run into two of my Wofford amigas en el aeropuerto! For our long weekend on the coast, Margaret and I stayed at the Hilux Feet Up hostel, which was interesante to say the least! Every room had a different theme, ranging from Asian to Flamenco, but we definitely hit the jackpot with our safari-themed room! We settled in and enjoyed a siesta before taking a long paseo around the old part of the town the rest of the afternoon. We took in lots of sites like La Lonja, Los Torres (towers), and happened upon a beautiful church named after “San Juan del Hospital.” As Margaret and I continued to say for the rest of the weekend, “this is why you paseo.” Recommended by our new mejor amigo Marco, Margaret and I enjoyed mi primero paella at El Forca. Paella originated in Valencia so we knew we couldn’t go wrong with Paella Valencia, which has arroz, pollo, pato y verduras.
Safari-themed room!
Los Torres
Famous for La Ciudad de las Ciencias y los Artes, it was easy to plan out our Saturday! We enjoyed breakfast at the hostel and then made our way over to the aquarium where we saw all sorts of animales, like whales, walruses, dolphins, sea lions, penguins, and even a few sharks! We felt like little kids because of how cool we thought it all was (don’t think we didn’t consider the “spend the night with the sharks” option…) and loved every minute! Deciding we needed a little Mexican food fix, we enjoyed almuerzo mexicano at La Mariacha near the aquarium and kept our fingers crossed that the sun would come out. (I feel like I should confess that Saturday was a bit overcast, but being the determined pale abroad girls we are, Margaret and I still wore our bathing suits and sundresses determined to go to the beach and get a tan after the aquarium.) Realizing it wasn’t our day for sol, we started un otro paseo back towards the old district where our hostel was when the sun finally came out! We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and enjoying el buen tiempo en el Rio parque. We finished our evening with tapas y una copa de vino tinto at Divina and planned nuestro día a la playa for Sunday.
La Ciudad de las Ciencias y los Artes
Marge & I
Morsa (walrus)
We even ran into a protest! Luckily it was more a walk than anything.
Domingo: Finally our beach day! Enjoying an extra hour or two of sleep, we hopped out of bed and onto the bus headed to la playa, ready to bronceador! Realizing it may still be a little early (and that we should give the sun a few extra minutes to warm things up), we stopped for lunch at un café pequeno along the beachfront and then spent the rest of the day laying out. (Foreshadowing: Marco, who works at the hostel, warned us that Valencia is known for el viento a la playa that prevents you from realizing how much sun you’re actually getting.) It was a wonderful afternoon and mi primera visita al mar mediterráneo, which was surprisingly chilly but beautiful. After about 4 horas, mas o menos, on the beach, we proved to be examples A and B of what Marco said, being the slightly sunburned Americanas for the rest of the evening. If being blonde and taller than the majority of Spain wasn’t even to make a girl stand out, raccoon eyes from a bad sunglasses tan definitely does! Sunburned or not, Marge and I had a great girls’ weekend that was the perfect way to start our Semana Santa. Now, she’s off to las Islas Canarias and I’m going back to Madrid to finally see my parents!!!
La playa
Valencia
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