¡Bienvenido a España!

My journey to Spain started on a lovely Ryanair flight. The budget airline cost Rachel and I less than $100 total, so we thought we would give it a try. There are no assigned seats on their planes; first come, first served. We get some decent seats, but they don't allow passengers to sit in certain rows at the front during take off and landing because of weight issues. Not sure why this is, but they had to keep telling people not to sit in those seats. One couple didn't speak English, and the flight attendant was so rude to them! She rolled her eyes and made hand gestures in front of the entire plane. All of the attendants were so unprofessional. Not to mention they will sell just about anything on the flights to make money including gifts, scratch cards, calling cards, and...smokeless cigarettes that you can smoke on the plane! I had never heard that before, but it was a little disconcerting. The landing was really rough (not to mention the rest of the flight). We bounced on the runway. On the way back, the attendants weren't much better. They kept the lights on full the entire flight even though it was a night flight because they "needed to see." I have never been on a night flight that didn't dim the lights. It was very frustrating, a little scary, and a bit annoying, but we did make it back to London in one piece.

We arrived at our hostel in Valencia and met Liz there who was on spring break. We shared a dorm with eight Italian guys, and I know that sounds bad, but they were really nice! We hung out that night on the terrace of the hostel, and then went to bed because we got there pretty late. The next morning, we wandered around the city trying to find a grocery store. Even asking people didn't help because they would talk so fast that we couldn't keep up with what they were saying! Eventually we found one and then went to the beach.

It was overcast for quite a while before it became sunny, but it was still nice weather. Idiots that we are, none of us put on sunscreen for a bit...bad choice. I'm now the shade of a lobster. But, the bright side is that the beach was gorgeous, and I went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! It was chilly, but I warmed up to the water and had a blast on the beach for about 6 hours. We left, and I didn't look too burnt. Unfortunately for me, it showed up later. Now, I'm in lots of pain with no one to blame but myself...and the sun. That night we went out to eat. The Spanish do not eat until 9 or 10 PM, so we had to wait a bit before going to dinner. Once we finally picked a place to eat, the server was horrible. She rolled her eyes at us and failed to mention that almost everything on their menu couldn't be ordered. But, I did have some tapas and sangria, although I didn't think it was really that great.

The next day, we decided to see a little bit of Valencia which really doesn't have a lot to it. The Cathedral was very pretty. It was in the main area of the historic town on the Plaza de la Virgen which I thought was appropriate. I'm not sure how old the Cathedral is, but it looked beautiful. There was a confirmation taking place, so there were a lot of little girls in white puffy dresses! They were so cute. And another celebration as well where there was a procession of girls and boys dressed in older clothing. I'm not sure what was going on, but the outfits were amazing. Later that day when we ate lunch on the square, a wedding was getting out and the people were bombing the couple with confetti and rice! Then, there were firecrackers all over the square...my first reaction was to duck and cover, but it was a part of the wedding.

We saw the bull ring in Valencia, but the bull fights don't take place until next weekend, so that was disappointing. Other than that, we went to a park and sat there for a bit. We went to McDonald's and had Toblerone McFlurries...that was exciting! There isn't much to do in Valencia besides the beach, and we were fried from the day before, so we just wandered around. Eventually, it was time for us to leave. We got Liz on the right bus to the bus station as it started raining. Rachel and I left for the airport early because it was raining and all of the stores were closed even though it was a Saturday. Rachel and I chilled in the airport for a while before getting back on bumpy Ryanair.

It was a relaxing trip which was great and I spent less than $200 on the entire weekend. I'm so glad that I had a chance to visit Spain! Until next time, adios!