December 7-9
Puente (4 day weekend!)
Our original plan for the long weekend was to go to Salamanca on Thursday, but when our Couchsurfing.com connection fell through we found another option. And we are so glad we did!
Friday morning started with a hangover, so I was really nervous about the 2 hour bus ride to Zaragoza. Luckily, my friend Jen and I both fell asleep and it felt like we were there in no time. In Zaragoza, we met a new friend of Jen's and off we went to Valencia (3 hours away).
On the way we stopped for lunch in Calamocha, where the serrano ham is known for being some of the best. We tried serrano ham on fresh bread with a smattering of tomato. It was a thickly cut and delicious!
When we arrived in Valencia we toured some sights by car with our personal driver/tour guide explaining our itinerary for the day. Needless to say, we had an incredible host and had a very Spanish kind of weekend.
We walked along the beach, enjoyed the warm(er) weather, sunshine and palm trees and then sat down for a big paella lunch.
For dessert, horchata, or orxata, in Valencia. We sat out on the patio and Jen and I shared an orxata milkshake. Our friend ordered coffee-flavored orxata drink and we snacked on chufas while we drank. Chufas is the main ingredient in the Valencian orxata, along with water and sugar. But it seems very milk-based. Maybe my friend remembers. She drinks it Mexican style and has promised to make it for me. I'll take it either way! Mmm, delicious!
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| Chufas - they look like inedible seeds or pits, but they kind of taste and have the consistency of coconut. |
Next, we headed home to rest before going out later to meet our host's friends.
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| Valencia used to be separated in half by a river. Now the river is dry. Underneath are parks and soccer fields illuminated at night. |
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| Main plaza - the cathedral to the left supposedly houses the Holy Grail. |
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| Our host and I |
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| Jen and I |
We played pinball, we drank, we drank absinthe, we danced. We got home at 6am.
The next day we got up in time for an all you can eat sushi lunch and took a walk in the dry river valley, where now there is an opera house, science museum, an aquarium, etc. and it looks like a place built for a World Expo year.
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| That's the opera house behind us. |
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| We met some more of our host's friends and drank more orxata. Then we went for wine and headed back to the downtown area. |
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| Deciding our next move...We decided to go for a glass of wine and then climb the church tower. |
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| Here is Saint Mary of Valencia Cathedral, the cathedral which may possible house one of the holy chalices. |
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| From inside the church, we headed up a couple hundred stairs to the bell tower for a night view of the action below. |
Time flies when you're having fun. Before we knew it we were almost late to see Flamenco!
Olé!
At the opposite end of the dry river valley from the Science and Arts park, there was another kind of park....with families, dogs and geese. We took a stroll through the park before we headed home after a great weekend!
Oh, Spain. Only you can end a relaxing weekend with such a complicated ending. After a lunch and a 2 hour drive to Zaragoza, we were late! If we hadn't parked in the prohibited zone, ran through the bus station and if Jen hadn't've been in that station before and known where to go, we would've missed our bus. Our friend was so gracious and we were happy to hear he had a good time with us too. Later he joked that he delivered us just in time to avoid a sad goodbye!
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