Valencia Trip

Valencia Trip

Ok this was long overdue. We finally booked our tickets to Valencia. Sadly, folks from IIMA couldn’t join us and we were only two on the journey. We booked it on Avanza Bus. When we reached “Estacion de Autobuses”, which again is seamlessly connected with Metro (infra at Madrid is superb), on first look we felt that we booked tickets on a premium service. All buses were new and looked a bit bigger from outside. Anyways when we got on the bus we had a small disagreement on who gets to sit on the window seat. Finally we decided that we will switch in the middle, something that worked quite well when I traveled with my family and faced similar situation with my sister.

Soon we realized that there was no view outside that we should have fought for. There were miles of barren brown land or pale green farms ready for next crop. Only thing that pinched us was the size of farms. They were huge. I guess that’s because they don’t do any work by hands.

And then we spotted lots and lots of windmills. That was the only exciting thing that happened on the way and I clicked loads of pictures (only to delete a lot of them to create additional space when I ran out of memory).

We had booked our accommodation in ‘Home Backpackers’. Himanshu told us that it’s supposed to be good. We booked 2 beds in a dorm of 6 mixed occupants. That was the cheapest option we had anyways. “Home” looked exciting… prime location, information about everything, huge kitchen but…. this was my first experience with a dorm. I mean look at this. This was my first experience with bunk beds but they are much comfortable than upper bearths of Indian Railways.

Anyways we had some nice roomies. Two girls from US who were doing their masters in Madrid occupied our lower beds but it was fine. I anyways wanted to experience the upper ones. We were later joined by two more people. One swiss guy who told us how expensive Switzerland was, and another gentleman who preferred to sleep off and hated to be disturbed by our conversations. We had a nice conversation with the girls from US. They had 4 more friends one of whom was an Indian American, he had never been to India. At night they were going for Pub Crawl and asked us if we wanted to do it. Ok pub crawl is a concept here where u pay 10 euros and join the gang that goes pubs after pubs and has a drink at every place. I am somehow not comfortable with the idea itself and Keshari does not like pubs, well we settled for mojitos at a bar. It’s a nice Cuban cocktail made with Bacardi white rum, spear mint, sugar, lime and soda. We loved it. But before that in the daytime we took a bus to the beach, the bright sunny day was perfect for enjoying beach. It was a long beach, however crowded. The water wasn’t as clear blue as that I saw at Newport Beach in US but it was nice. I changed into my shorts and jumped into water. Keshari chose to stay back. I must say it feels amazing to swim in sea. I was just lying afloat on the water unavoidably tasting the salty water, moving with the waves trying to throw me back at the shore. Around me some couples were making out, some kids were jumping in water and few guys were playing beach tennis. Most of the people were just lying on the beach. We forgot to carry our towels so we had to rent the chair (or whatever it is called). It was already afternoon so I chose to take a dip again before lying down. Finally, all clad in salty water and sand, I lied on the chair, plugged earphones, played the most suitable song (the man in me, Bob Dylan, The big Lebowski) looking up in the sky. For those who are wondering where the bikini babe talks are, we have gotten over it. The cultural shock is over.

I didn’t see people trying surfing here. But we did see some sea scooters zooming in the water. And it looked awesome. Anyways, I dried up totally by the time sun went down, and then we took a walk on the beach till we found rocks to sit on. Some folks had come all packed with chairs, cooking stuff and fishing rod. And they were discussing fishing like experts. The man who caught a fish really soon looked like an expert. We left beach before it grew dark and that would be 8:30 pm. Days are getting shorter now. 15 days back, twilight used to break at 9:30.

On our way back we stopped at a Donor Kebab (Turkish) shop to pick up a Chicken Kebab for me. Himanshu had asked me to try it so I was there. However at the gate of the shop, we heard a familiar music. It was the music from movie Race. Inside we saw TV playing B4U Music. Well it indeed was a nice surprise. The guy at counter was speaking fluent Spanish and gave us a bland look when we ordered for kebab. Confused, we asked him where he was from. And then he spoke in hindi. He was from Delhi migrated 12 years back. Spotting the chance, keshari also took one vegetable kebab which was not that good. Chicken kebab was good and similar to chicken roll or Mexican Burrito.

At night we went to a decent looking bar to have our Mojitos. It’s awesome but I don’t know why I was told it’s the best here. I mean there can’t be an easier cocktail to prepare, and the whole recipe is out in public. Later we just chose to hang around a bit and witness the crazy nightlife. In our area, every other house was a bar or a pub there. It looked like some sort of a carnival in the middle of the night at 2am. When we got tired, we sat at a square like area just to observe people. Earlier in the day we had found all the shops closed. At 2am, it was as busy and dynamic as if middle of the day. Even McDonalds was open. And people were all gone crazy. Some guys waved at us out of their car as Keshari clicked some snaps of the surroundings (would post when I get them). And a gang of girl was shouting “who let the bit*hes out” after coming out of a pub. We were tired and had a long day again tomorrow so chose to retire at 2:30.

Next day we just walked around the old city of Valencia. It looked pretty europish. This was the first time when I had this feeling in Spain. Sun and sea are so much unlike Europe of Bollywood movies. People are very very friendly out here and every person we asked for help went out of his or her way to assist us. And people know English here.

And then we left to see the aquarium, Oceanografico. The buildings were really breathtaking. It was first visit to any aquarium for both of us. In US, I missed the chance to visit Sea World. In the hindsight I feel good that I missed it there, so that I could enjoy it here. There were huge tanks to house walruses, big dolphins and everything. I especially loved the Shark tank which extended all around us on walls and the ceiling. I could click this seemingly underwater pic because of that.

There was a nice dolphin show performed by lots of dolphins and their trainers. The picture below is just nothing as compared to what they did. Its just that it was easier to take a video than clicking pics at the right moment.

But the absolute winner for me was a tiny little tank which had jelly fishes. Those tiny transparent creatures look so astonishing that it was hard for us to stop admiring and move away from that tank.

Finally we took our snaps in front of the weird looking buildings and walked back to the bus stand through the Ancient River of Turia. Oh didn’t I tell you about it? It’s a dried river that has been converted into a long park cutting the city of Valencia into two halves. And it’s a nice place in the middle of the city where you can relax if you are tired.

Well we didn’t have time for relaxing so we just walked, and walked and kept walking till we realized that it was too long a way to cover on foot. Thankfully we reached the bus station well in time although totally spent and tired. Finally I leave you with the breathtaking pics of the Museum of Science and Arts Complex in which the Aquarium is situated.

~Please ping me for link to the whole picasa album or check my orkut/facebook page

~I am dying to write about how we discovered some of the most innovative microwave recipes, how awesome was the night at a madrid pub/club and how did folks from Brazil and Parague react when I cooked mom's chicken curry at Himanshu's place. Just that without internet at room its difficult.