Valencia

sorry for the long long gap in time, but unfortunately school and weekend trips have been fully occupying my time, since I usually have about an average of 2 papers per week, various worksheets, and then we always take trips on the weekends, so these days I barely have time to even get the next week's trip planned, but hopefully I'll get my older day trips up so I don't forget them as well! This weekend I'm in Valencia to celebrate Las Fallas. So I'll start there.

I am currently in a bocatta eating a 6 euro salad and using their Wifi. So begins Las Fallas.

I left Caceres at 6 and arrived at the Madrid bus station at 10, and then waited around for 3 hours for my bus to leave from Madrid to get to Valencia. Didn't sleep at the bus station as I wasn't sure if I'd wake back up, but I did sleep a little on the 4 hour bus ride to Valencia resulting in my neck and legs hurting since nothing is spain is big enough for me to comfortably use.

I got into Valencia about 5:15 or so, ate a sandwich, found a place to sit and waited. I had my feet up on the row of benches and a security guard came by and said "Sientate bien" and at first I was just, "como?" and the said, "feet on the floor" (in spanish of course) and I was just taken aback since I've never seen a security guard that polices the chairs.

Upon arriving in Valencia, I went into the nearest cafe in the bus station, ate my donuts that I bought in Madrid, and fell asleep on a table for about an hour or so. When I woke up, I didn't feel like going back to sleep so I decided to leave for the streets of Valencia. I had a map, but as the streets are never labeled I had to ask where I was and started walking. It seemed nice, but then I got to the main area in town and the Botellon's from the night before where just starting to wind down, this was about 7 or so. Granted, the streets were completely trashed, broken glass, 2 liters of coke, tobacco, the streets were slimy and slippery from all the 'refuse' and it reeks of urine. I mean, just walking through the streets I witnessed at least 3 guys peeing in a corner, and then happily walking off sure that no one noticed. Ever so sneaky.

I found my way through the crowds to the hostal and figured I couldn't check in till 12 so I just scouted the area. On the way back from the hostal after finding it's location and using their -clean! *gasp*- bathrooms the Botellon was mostly dispersed and the cleaning crews were moving in. First came the street sweepers to get the big stuff, then came the golf carts with brushes, hoses, and vacuums to pick up more trash, and then came the guys with fire hoses spraying down the streets, and then came the golfcarts that had high pressure nozzles that sprayed and scrubbed the area around them. Even then, it was still a little gross, but so much better. It was kind of fun to watch actually....

I then just started wandering, and began encountering drunk people on their way home. Most of them just passed, but a good number would stop and try to talk to me about something, like asking for a lighter and then asking why I don't smoke and how weird that is. One particularly chatty group of Spaniards outside of a Churro stand I talked with for 20 minutes or so... I swear the one girl was very drunk, but when I asked the sober guy he was just like "She's not dunk, she's just crazy. Spanish women are different than those in the US, am I right?" (spanish) I didn't mind talking to the guy since he could kind of form decent sentences in english, and seemed totally in control, while the girl had chocolate smeared around her mouth and was very umm...happy? I don't know, but regardless, the guy asked if I wanted to go get coffee tomorrow at 4, so he gave me his phone number and then I left. We'll see if I actually go or not, perhaps if I have nothing else to do tomorrow at 4.

That brings me about to here, which is where my battery is about dead, and I've been nursing the remains of my soda for the past 20 minutes. I may come back here if I need the wifi, but until then I'm out of time.