day 29

sunday 6 june 2010 valencia

left barca bright and early and took the bus to valencia. 5h and EUR25 later (it's still half the price of the 3h long train ride), i made stumbled out of the bus station and somehow managed to make my way across the old river bed and into the historic centre of the city.ok, take 'stumbled' back. i'm actually a huge far of bus rides. love overland travel and my innate ability to space out comes in very handy for long bus rides. the kiasu singaporean in me usually tries to get a seat near the front so i've a good view, and as the country rumbles by, my mind wanders and it's a very pleasant experience. poor person's high, perhaps.

met Y at maccas (i know, very historic) and she'd already plotted our route to the hostel. woot! yay to my all-time favourite travel buddy. we'd done brunei together 8 years ago, and i'd gone with her family to bangkok the year after but this was our first time travelling together sans parentals. she'd just finished her exams and was sweet enough to join me for an all too short 2 nights in valencia. plus, she'd done her research and knew everything about valencia, right down to us arriving on the day of the rockers.

unfortunately, i'm as culturally obtuse as Y is savvy, and we'd a field day with our minor miscommunication. she'd really sold the idea of the 'rocker parade' to me and i was all excited about watching rock stars tour and perform around the city. it was after much confusion, however, that i found out that rockers were not ageing rockstars like i'd imagined but what the locals called their floats. nonetheless, a parade is a parade and no one was going to rain on ours! 

so Y and i headed to another historical institution (101 flavours of tapas, J, my born-and-bred valencian friend rolled his eyes when i told him i'd liked it) and ordered enough food for 4. the waitress tried to warn us that it was too much food for 2 people but we remained unmoved. the 2 of us proceeded to demolish this baby (below) and eagerly went to get curb-side seats of the parade.

before the parade, here's a photo of my bed in our double room. it was pretty insane. when we first opened the door and i saw this huge bed, i sighed inwardly, thinking they'd gotten our twin booking wrong. split second later, that sigh turned into elation as i spied from the corner of my eye that we actually had a king sized bed EACH and our room, psychedelic colour scheme aside, was HUGE. by far the most spacious hostel i've ever stayed in :) we couldn't believe our luck. 

a rocker getting ready to roll

the people dangle what looked like table runners from their window to add to the festive feel. it's a competition, according to J, and the best window display wins a prize! fascinating how the community is involved.

after the rocker parade, we were so wiped out (Y'd been on the go since 3am) that we surrendered to the fatigue and had an early night.