Spring Break pt 6: Sunshine

It was 5AM when we had to throw ourselves out of bed and get ourselves ready for our flight to Valencia. There was a shuttle bus we had to catch at least 3 hours before our flight. It was strange being up so early since most of our travelling up 'til then was done in the afternoon.

I checked into my first Ryan Air flight and nearly had a heart attack in doing so. They were making everyone check their bags to see if they fit the correct dimensions otherwise you would have to check them in and pay a whole lot. Ryan Air is a bully. We were all freaking out praying our bags would fit. We had them stuffed full and thankfully they didn't weigh them... I can assure you at this point they were no where near 10kg anymore. When it was my turn my bag thankfully slid right through and I was free. So were Ally and Maggie.. Rebecca was staying in France for another week while we headed off for Spain.

Landing in Spain was a complete turn around in terms of weather for us. We had been in cold and rainy / cloudy weather all week it was a nice break to finally see the sun and no clouds! The downside was that we were wearing all our thick warm clothes in order to keep the bags to a minimum. Walking around the streets of Valencia trying to find our hostel in 80 degree weather was not a fun beginning. But once we there we quickly changed into shorts and a tee shirt and were out the door again. It felt so weird to be wearing clothes that wasn't a rain jacket, rain boots, and jeans. I felt so light! :)

Our first stop was to find lunch. We were starving and ended up going across the street to some little cafe. And it was there that we started our Sangaria-every-day trend. With a pitcher of Sangaria between the three of us and the sun shining down (afraid we'd burn!) it was the perfect relaxation from a busy sight-seeing week.

The rest of that first day was spent just wandering the city and not looking at the map once... it was a small city. I hadn't realized that Valencia was so full of shops! We were planning on going to check out the beach the next day.

Dinner that night was unbeatable. We ventured down some cute streets lined with restaurants. We found one restaurant down a side street that looked like it had potential. We decided to splurge a bit and get one tapas to share while we were waiting for the chicken and veggie paella. Now, I've never had paella before, but I was a bit skeptical as to if I'd like it or not. I don't normally like spanish rice and didn't really know what paella was. As it turns out, I took one bite and fell in love. It was incredibly delicious and flavourful. We cleaned the entire pan and were left stuffed with just enough room for gelato on the walk back to the hostel. I'd call it a very good first day in Spain.

Beach Day

The Plan: rent a bike and bike to the sea

What actually happened: We ended up meeting a girl from Australia, Francis, and our lovely Chilean friend, Franco. Turns out Franco heard of a really nice beach to go to near a lagoon... which we were planning on watching the sunset from.

We set out in search of bikes to rent, the 5 of us. Long story short, after almost an hour of waiting around we were still bike-less and losing beach time. So we jumped on the Yellow Bus and took it straight to the National Park where the beach was.

The town we ended up in was really tiny, nothing more than a little store and a couple pubs... and lots of forest. We soon made it to the beach... and it turned out to be nearly deserted. I guess the people in Valencia didn't think it was beach weather yet (most of them were in long pants and sweatshirts in 80 degree weather!!). The day was warm, not a cloud in sight, and the sand felt so nice between my toes. Taking a nap on a beach in Spain was just what I needed to regroup. Spring Break at it's finest. I now can officially say I've swam in the Mediterranean Sea even though it was freezing.

After a while, we headed in search of the lagoon Franco told us about. We walked for what seemed like forever on a path that was partly in the sun and partly in a forest. We came upon a clearing with some kind of pond that we miss took as the lagoon. It was beautiful regardless, and we sat on a bank overlooking the pond and the sea. It soon got too cold for us to stay any longer, and we decided to forgo the plan of watching the sunset.

It was once we got back to the main road, we realized that the lagoon was across the street and we had mistaken the pond we were at for it. The sun was beginning its descent in the sky just as we arrived. So, as we waited for the bus to show up, we accomplished our goal of watching the sunset over the lagoon. Along with watching the crowd of people on the dock taking family photos/ communion pictures. The sunset was beautiful and it felt a bit surreal to be standing in Valencia, Spain watching the sun set over such a peaceful lagoon.













The whole day would have been perfect if the Yellow Bus came just after the sunset. It was getting cooler really quickly after the sun set and we were still waiting for the bus. Panicking, I was convinced we were stuck in the middle of no where for the night, freezing and starving. It wasn't until about 9:40 when Franco saw the bus' headlights coming around the corner and started jumping up and down. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a bus before. We made it back to the hostel to find that they were serving paella and a drink for only 5 euros upstairs. So for the second night in a row, we had paella.... I was content to say the least.

Our stay in Valencia was supposed to be a quick visit in a city we knew nothing about. In the end, the city had this homely feeling, it was busy but quiet. It had character that I wasn't expecting. The streets were so fun to explore and the city was so easy to understand. The beaches were fantastic the weather was better than I could have imagined. Not only did I love the city, but we made a great friend along the way.