The next morning we woke up early so we could do some research on Valencia. Without a Rick Steves guidebook by our side we were lost, but thankfully he had a suggested walking tour of Valencia on his website for us to follow. We started at Plaza de la Reina, where there is the 13-century Cathedral which happened to have a “Kansas Cafeteria” right next to it haha). The town was very peaceful at 9am so when we went into the cathedral we had it practically to ourselves. From there we passed through Plaza de la Virgen with the Turia fountain in the middle, passed through a pretty park with lots of citrus trees, came to the Tower of Serranos where the official start of Las Fallas (a Valencian festival) is proclaimed, wandered through the Mercado Centrale to pick up some fresh bananas for a snack, and then took a bus to Ciudad de las Artes de las Ciencas (museum of arts and sciences). This museum complex is crazy modern and looks like it belongs in 2025. The sun was incredibly bright so the combination of white buildings and reflecting pools made for a squinty afternoon. The temperature was around 70 degrees so once again my black trench and black shirt was a poor choice for staying cool.
After wandering around the complex we picked up the same bus we came on to head back to our hostel. What we didn’t realize is that this particular bus line was crazy long so even though our trip to the museum only took 7 minutes, the trip back took 40 minutes but I guess it was a cheap bus tour of the city. During the time we had been at the museum masses of people had filled the streets near our hostel. We had no idea what was going on and just kept hearing what sounded like firecrackers exploding. Later we learned that every Saturday leaded up to the Las Fallas festival there was a celebration in the streets with fireworks. Normally I’d be excited about a festival but this time it made trekking across town with baggage a little more of a challenge.
From Valencia we took a 3.5 hour train north to Barcelona. The seats were assigned on this train and I was placed in an area of 4 seats with an Italian, a Croatian, and a Spanish/American all studying business in Barcelona. They were a chatty bunch and were eager to hear about life in Kansas/American, studying in Florence, our thoughts on Italy vs. Spain. We sought their advice on what to see and do both in Barcelona and around Europe. I also mentioned my Croatian heritage and asked for travel advice for my trip there with my parents and Aunt Connie in May. He was full of advice but unfortunately I couldn’t really understand a word of it…oops.
My friend Cassie studied in Spain in Fall 2007 so I had already sought her advice on what to do in Barcelona. She sent me an amazing travel itinerary to follow that made the trip incredibly easy. I showed the information she created for me to the group of guys and they were incredibly impressed at the detail and accuracy of her advice. They asked if they could give it to their friends that came to visit so we exchanged emails and I sent them a copy (sorry hope your work isn’t copyrighted Cassie!).
Thetrain in general was a beautiful ride. The tracks were right next to the coast so we got to watch the Mediterranean Sea to our right and the Spanish countryside to our left. The sea was the most incredible shade of deep blue-green and the sky was as clear as can be.
By the time we reached Barcelona and took the metro to our stop it was night time. Erika and I headed to our hostel off La Rambla where we waited for Melanie to come and meet up with us. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived Erika noticed her wallet was missing from her purse. We were warned by everyone that La Rambla is filled with pickpockets but still they managed to get to her. She’s more careful than all of us with her money and valuables (I’m still really really careful I promise) so it was a shock that it happened to her. Thankfully she had her credit cards, plane ticket, and passport in her money belt but unfortunately she lost a lot of cash. In addition to the pickpocket bummer our hostel was less than luxury. We had signed up for a private 3 person room but apparently those don’t exist in this hostel and ended up in a 8 person dorm. We contemplated switching hostels but decided to “rough it” and stay where we were. A cardboard-like breakfast was included so I guess that was a bonus.
By the time Mel arrived we were starving and went out seeking large quantities of food for cheap and fast. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant…don’t judge us. The food reenergized us and from there we took a metro to see Font Magica which is a music, colored lights, and water spectacle kind of similar to the Bellagio fountains in Vegas. It was highly recommended by both Cassie and the guys on the train. On the metro we ran into another group of Americans headed for the same fountains. There was one guy that looked vaguely familiar and I came to find that he went to my high school graduating a year after me (Conner Finn) and is the brother of one of Jeff’s good friends from high school. SMALL WORLD. He’s currently studying in the Netherlands for the semester so the fact that he was in the same country, on the same metro train, headed for the same destination, and later found was staying at the same hostel absolutely amazed me.
As we exited the metro we could see the display from a distance. The walk over to the fountains took some time so we just figured we would catch the next show since they started every 30 minutes. Sadly we came to realize this was the last show of the night and had missed it. It was a big letdown but we didn’t dwell on it.
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