Day 2: Already in Love

Ok so yesterday after a shower and a nap, we headed out into downtown Valencia. Thanks to the wonderful Claire Marks, who did this same trip 2 years ago, and wrote me a novel on good things to get started on seeing, we sort of had some idea where to go. We spent most of the time exploring these 3 huge, beautiful plazas. I'm obsessed with all of them and they're just unlike anything in America. We drank zumo de naranja (aka valencia orange juice aka tastes exactly like an orange in liquid heaven format) and horchata which is some traditional milky sweet drink. We also had gelato and ate dinner (the restaurant didn't even open for din until 9) at this place Claire recommended called Pappardella. It was glorious Italian food.

I was so exhausted when we got back that I just passed out from about 11:30 pm until 10 am. We walked to La PLaza de la Reina and ate breakfast at Bertol, my new favorite cafe. Then we got on this thing that is like the lightrail to the beach. Here's the metro card. I think it's so funny! It looks like it's meant for Halloween or something...



It took us a minute to figure it out, but once we did it's like the easiest way to travel. It was about a 10 minute ride to the beach. We walked out to the shore and then decided we wanted to stay the day, so we purchased some towels (obsessed with my new Espana Champions World Cup towel) and rented a little umbrella to stay at. We swam in the Mediterranean and laid out in the sun. Let's talk about how smart I am for a second. I got sunburned and was thinking "wow this is the first time I've been burned by the Spanish sun." FAIL. Like there are multiple suns for the different continents.... I'm in college, no big deal. Here's us under our "sombra," me at the beach, and my new towel:





We ate lunch at a place right on the beach and I wanted my parents to try the traditional paella. What we got was really good and we liked our waiter. I speak Spanish to most people I talk to, although mostly everyone knows English so half the time they speak in English since they can tell my parents are Americans. But with our waiter it was the first time I actually felt like my Spanish was necessary.

After lunch we had our siesta on the beach. 11 hours of sleep and I still took a nap. I could live like this forever. So by the way, the beaches here don't require bathing suit tops. I saw a lot of nipples today. A lot.

I MOVE INTO THE PROGRAM CENTER TOMORROW!!! SO EXCITED!