because we were so wiped out the day before, J and his incredible hospitality had to wait till valencia day 2. we arranged to meet for lunch near the hostel and J brought us to this cute curbside cafe where we'd all the local delicacies we'd space for. one of the drawbacks of being well fed is that i've not enjoyed the sensation of a brand new taste in awhile. you know that feeling, like when you try something for the very first time and it's like nothing you've ever had before. the best thing i can think of is my first taste of uni (sea urchin). it's become a bit of a personal quest for me to experience a new taste at every opportunity, which has been harder than anticipated. at lunch with J, however, i tried tomato jam for the first time. the consistency was familiar, after all, who hasn't had preserve of some sort or other before. but tomato, sweet as it may be off the vine, gave the dish a whole new element. combined with some local goat cheese and i was in gastronomical heaven. good stuff! and a great sensory memory.
after lunch, J invited us back to his terrace for coffee and, um, we accidentally stayed for 12hours, only leaving at 3am. such was his legendary hospitality, and the lure of his housemate, C's fanstastic cooking.
meet lao! J has the cutest sharpei :)
coffee turned into dinner as C insisted that we stayed for a home-cooked meal. we whiled the afternoon away soaking up the summer sun on the terrace and i was very proud of Y, my crabby patty friend, for being at her amiable best ;) C is an excellent chef and we made believe it was restaurant night, all fancy schmancy on their terrace. this was by far one of my best days this summer - just sitting on the terrace, hanging loose with Y and our new friends. nobody had anything more pressing to do, which was very much part of the pleasure. Y and i were done with exams, C was on holiday and anticipating going to lisboa on erasmus, and J was enjoying his last few weeks in valencia before moving to mumbai alone and indefinitely. pretty awesome, huh.
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and after dinner, the gents had some friends over and we got to meet even more friendly locals. really interesting characters and such fun to get to know. when we reluctantly left at 3, their dentist friend offered to walk us back but we were too macho to accept his chivalrous offer. bad idea.
and ladies and gents, i present the only lowlight my entire holiday.
as Y and i were walking back at 3am, a burly man passed us and called out, "japan japan?". we ignored him. he tried again, "korea korea?" and we looked away. "china china?" this time we picked up speed and hurried towards the hostel. the man then took a left and was soon out of sight. whew, we sighed in relief.
suddenly, out of one of the side streets, we saw an oddly shaped shadow. as we got closer, we saw that said man had dropped his pants and was PLAYING WITH HIMSELF. this time, no amount of flasher 101 so deliberately indoctrinated in us over years of being in an all girls' school* could prepare us for an actual flasher. too scared to run (you know how you're not supposed to run away from a mad dog because he'll chase...) we walked as fast as we could and none too soon, arrived unscathed but shaken at our hostel.
thankfully he was a harmless perv with an asian fetish (or so we inferred) but that was definitely too close for comfort.
and i still say today was one of the best the whole trip, flashing incident notwithstanding. that's just how much we enjoyed J and C's company and hospitality, they even made up for the loco local.
*whack it with a brolly / laugh and exclaim, 'so small!' / take photo and lodge police report
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