Valencia, being on the Mediterranean coast and a 10euro roundtrip flight away from Madrid, seemed like the perfect place to reunite with some of my fave people: Kara, my bestie from Gonzaga, and Lindsey, my bestie from my super tightly knit all-girl's high school. So we booked a hostel for two nights and spent the weekend exploring, visiting the huge beautiful "Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias" (we visited the Science museum, 6.38euros, over the famous Aquarium, 21euros, because we only had 2 hours), going to the beach, exploring, and eating more oranges than I have ever eaten in my life.
Valencia is known internationally for two things: paella and oranges.
Below is a picture of Kara with her paella de carne. There is no picture of me with paella because, of the six people eating at the restaurant, I was the only one to not order paella. (I'm sorry but the BBQ pizza just sounded soooo goooood.) But yes, paella is delicious.
"Agua de Valencia" is not, in fact, water. (Big surprise, I know.) Instead it is orange juice with champagne, vodka and sugar (though I guess some versions just have champagne and OJ?) But if you get fresh squeezed Valencian oranges, as displayed below, it is seriously the best drink ever. Mostly because you can taste the perfect amount of pulp... ahhhhh, heaven.
Saturday we decided to take an excursion to a city, Cullera, about 30 minutes by train outside of Valencia (5.80euro roundtrip) which I was told by the tourist information lady had a great beach, Playa del Faro. She was not wrong. It wasn't super busy (hot enough for us but not true summer weather just yet) and there were NO international tourists. Also. It is normal for women not to wear their bikini tops at the beach. Us prudish Americans did... for the most part ;)
There are plenty of historical sites in Valencia that I'm afraid we did a poor job of tracking down, but what I really needed after all the craziness of museum trips and running around from city to city and classes was a mini vacation with some of my best friends. And Valencia was perfect- the beaches of Alicante are apparently even better, but really, when you are hanging out and catching rays, the company is the most important part, isn't it? ;)
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