Valencia - The City That Is Always Sleeping

Vale, we went to Valencia this past weekend, a hearty group of 6 American University students.  In this trip I not only flew my first RyanAir flight (scary shit) and slept in my first hostel (nice, but not purple like their marketing campaign declares), I enjoyed the sights of this way old city and philosophized with my fellow comrades on religious views...after a few glasses of vino, of course.

We first arrived in Valencia October 1st around 4 pm, my brother's twenty-fifth birthday actually!, to complete and utter quiet.  It was a little eerie, walking around what we thought was downtown, but actually turned out to be the older section.  All the shops close for their siesta, which I understand that almost everywhere in Spain still enjoys this custom, just not Madrid.

The 6 of us stayed in the Purple Nest Hostel in Valencia, highly rated and recommended on Hostelworld.com (do you think I get  free stuff if I start name dropping businesses and the such?) and checked into our 8 person dorm.  No matter how much planning we did, we knew we were bound to get two roommates into our 8 person dorm, especially on a weekend.

The hostel itself was huge and nothing like what I've always imagined / what my mother warned me about.  It had about 6 floors and our dorm had its own bathroom, although the floor baths were better and I can easily say that this hostel provided me with the best shower I've had in a month.  No offense to Aurelia's house, there's just not hot water or pressure...like ever.

 Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, next to Barcelona and Madrid of course.  Walking around, one would think you'd be in a little town but we climbed up a giant bell tower (and when I say climbed, I mean we used every breath in our body to get ourselves to the top because it was enormous) and we were rewarded with this view.

 It is a little dark, as the sun was setting on a cloudy day, but it was even calmer up here than in the mostly sleeping city.

Plus, what would a trip to Valencia be without Paella?  Valencia createdddd Paella.  Oh dear, I nearly dropped my laptop on the tile floor. No bueno.  Anyway, back to Paella.  Here's a pick with the mostly gone Paella and did everyone know you could get a bottle of wine in Spain for like $10?!

This wasn't an all together thrilling blog post, mainly because Sunday morning I awoke feeling gross (and no...not too much vino mom) which then escalated to include fatigue and fever!  Our flight back was with RyanAir again, and the turbulence made it feel like the plane was actually going to crash.  My friend J literally was freaking out next to me and said that in my attempt to sleep and not move a muscle I barely registered the turbulence (which I noticed but was feeling so sick that I prayed for death ughardgklhag)

Currently reading up on Franco to keep myself enlightened and because I'm taking a class on it!  I think I've finally gotten my classes all sorted out, but we'll see what AU does to mess it up!

<3  GG