Relaxing in Valencia (and snacking)

Okay so, I knew my family liked to snack, but somehow didn't realize how much they loved to snack until Valencia. Every 5 seconds Julie would make a comment about how we need to buy more snacks! EVEN THOUGH SHE STILL HAD BAGS OF SNACKS!! Yet they "aren't enough"! The first thing we did when we checked into our Airbnb was go to the grocery store to get food for breakfast and SNACKS. Granted, I do love snacks. I'm a snacker and know 100% where I get it from. But I felt like I was being brought to a whole new level of snacking. Or maybe it's just because I've been gone from home for so long I simply forgot. Or maybe it's because our house is always full of snacks so I'd never really thought out it...that's gotta be a factor, because now that I think about it my friends loved coming over to our house to eat our food.

ANYWAYS, Valencia was amazing! Julie and I slept in everyday. And while we were right by the beach, we actually only had 1 true beach day (Julie sunburns easily and can't stand too much heat). We did walk by the beach a lot though, especially in the evening. My dad even got up one morning to watch the sunrise. Julie and I only ever made the sunset.

When we got to Valencia, I experienced an extreme wave of exhaustion. It was like the tiredness from the whole year, showing my family around, and being sick finally caught up to me. I had wanted to be going going going while in Valencia, to be on my feet all the time and seeing things and taking advantage of our time, like I had done everywhere else I'd gone to visit, but I was so glad to take a step back and have a slow vacation with my dad and Julie. My dad repeatedly said he just wanted a "relaxing" vacation, which I had rebelled against, and in the end it was exactly what I wanted and needed.

We still did a lot. We went to the museum of Arts and Sciences, Oceanografic, and Hemispheric.

^My dad and I really liked the jellyfish

^Julie and I were obsessed with the mopey cuttlefish. It's so cute!!

^The 4D experience in Hemispheric. We were disappointed in the underwater one we went to, so we bought another set of tickets to see the Dinosaur one (Julie REALLY wanted to see it too, of course).

We also went into old town Valencia and walked around. It was weirdly empty...probably because it was so hot and people were sheltering themselves from the heat. Julie and my dad got their second round of churros con chocolate there. They liked it, but said the chocolate at San Guines in Madrid was better, more dynamic. I also had them try the Valencian horchata, made from Tiger Nuts, called "Orxata" or "Horchata de Chufa". It's too sweet for me and Julie, but my dad liked it!

Now there were a two things that Julie REALLY liked doing while in Valencia. One was stealing my drinks!! Evidence below (she said she didn't want a smoothie, then drank my whole smoothie so I had to get another, and then drank some of that one too!! You can see the double cups...)

The second things Julie REALLY liked was an unlikely discovery...before coming to Europe, I asked her if she wanted to try any alcoholic drinks since it was Europe and okay, and she gave me a firm NO. And yet...during our first meal in Valencia, she did number 1 (stole my drink) and found out she LOVES Tinto de Verano! Tinto de Verano is a like a cheap version of Sangria. Many places will give you Tinto de Verano if you ask for Sangria and they don't have Sangria. It's basically wine and soda. It pretty much tastes like juice, so it was a pretty good introduction to alcohol. She ended up also liking Sangria by the end of the trip! For our last meal, Julie and I split a jar of Sangria. A JAR. 1 LITER. WE HAD EQUAL AMOUNTS. I think my dad was slightly worried about her. She was so giggly - it was hilarious! I mean, you can see below that she was pretty happy with her drink.

The photo above also pictures the BEST paella I had in Spain. I'd been to Valencia before and had paella...but wow, this beat the 2 other times I'd had paella. I made a reservation for us at Casa Carmela for lunch and it was so worth it (also didn't realize paella was a lunch food until my second trip to Valencia haha). Valencia is the birthplace for paella, so of course we had to go and I wanted to take my family to a good place! We got the classic paella, filled with legumes, veggies, rabbit (RIP Kiwi), chicken, snails, rice and spices! Wow.

Our second favorite meal was at an Italian place called "Viva Napoli". It was super popular and we didn't make a reservation so we went right when it opened and it was already busy! Thankfully we got seated. It was so hard to choose what to eat! We ended up getting lasagna, margarita pizza, and fried pizza (who knows what fried pizza is? We didn't, so we had to try)! We LOVED it all! The lasagna was the favorite of Julie and me, whereas my dad was all over that margarita pizza. Honestly...nothing can compare to NAP pizza anymore -- it's ruined me. We all really liked the fried pizza too...it was just different. It was almost sweet...with a cream, but not creamy thing on the inside with meat and maybe veggies? It's so hard to describe and I'm not a food critic, so I included a photo below.

Every evening, my dad and I watched the World Cup, which was really fun! We just watched at the Airbnb. Julie was NOT interested haha.

I ended up having to leave very early in the morning as I had to take a bus to Barcelona to catch my flight home. I prebooked a taxi on "mytaxi", which I highly recommend to anyone going to Spain. My dad and I were nervous about it since we'd never used it before, but it worked out great! So, with 1 suitcase, a duffle bag, my backpack and purse in tow, I left Valencia to start my journey home. My dad and Julie later headed off to London for a couple days before returning back to Ashland. I however, headed back home early (I was interviewing for an internship that I didn't get...but by that time the tickets were booked, but at least I'd already been to London).

I made it safe and sound to the airport in Barcelona as the bus dropped me off there directly. I sadly lost my sweater there, as I was dragging my heavy bags around and was walking back and forth across the airport and just somehow...it slipped off my arm and no one told me. I'm still a bit sad about it since I'd never lost an item like that at this point in my life -- especially traveling! But I was a bit flustered since I couldn't figure out where to check in because although I was taking Iberia, I didn't know they had partnered with another airline for the actual flight! Anyone ever heard of Level? No? Me neither.

The flight home was not very interesting. I weirdly didn't sleep much even though I normally do. It was okay, though, because I watched a TON of movies and I would get into LAX at 8pm, so I needed to be awake at some point so I could just crash in bed when I got to Brad's place to try and readjust to PCT.

I got into LAX on the 4th of July. Which is why my flight was so cheap. I am so happy I flew in then, though. In the shuttle on the way back to. Brad's place, we were on the highway when the fireworks started. The view was amazing. All across the city we could see fireworks going off. We were surrounded by them. It was like a panorama of fireworks. It was beautiful. Honestly, probably even better than sitting on a lawn and watching them. It was certainly a great welcome home to the United States.