Back in Valencia for a Few Days...

Sonso, Chels and Mari-Carmen eating delicious chocolat covered strawberries at the baptism dinner.
see all photos »

Being back "home" in Valencia has been really nice and relaxing compared to the busy schedule we had in Roma. Although we didn´t get much sleep, we got up relatively early on Sunday morning to get ready for the baptism. Marta is the godmother of her newborn cousin, Hugo. The baptism took place in a church about twenty minutes outside of Valencia. The church looked like a castle and it was absolutely beautiful! It was interesting because there were actually two children being baptised at the same time. One family sat on one side of the aisle and another family sat on the other side.The entire ceremony only took about thirty minutes. Afterwards, we went outside the church and Marta and the godfather stood on the steps and threw candy and money out to all of the family watching them. It was a very cute and interesting ritual that they do after every baptism.

We then went to a very nice restaurant not far from the church and had an AMAZING meal there. With appetizers, three other courses, and two desserts..it was, needless to say, the best meal we´ve ever had! Shrimp, steak, fish, potatoes, red wine, white wine, ice cream, and chocolate are only a few of the many things that we ate! Marta, Stef, Sonso and I all went back to the house for a quick siesta and then we were back in the car to go to her aunt´s house for a dinner party and to continue celebrating the baptism. This one was much more casual with small appetizers and drinks. Stef and I were not even hungry at all--still being full from the afternoon! We got home and crashed hard, me and Stef still had not caught up on loss of sleep in Roma. We slept in today and went  out for some shopping. Who knows what we´ll be doing later on this evening and into the night, but with a ciy like Valencia, anything will be spectacular!

With a city like Valencia, anything will be spectacular!