"Home" Sweet "Home"

Stef, Marta and I arrived in Valencia around 9pm after a four hour bus ride to be greeted by her father, Luis. He took us back to the apartment where the entire family was waiting to greet us. It was great to eat a delicious dinner and spend time with the family, especially Sonso, as she was heading out the next day to visit Barcelona for a week. We stayed up chatting for a while after dinner telling the whole family all of the hilarious things that happened on our trip and all of the amazing sights we had seen. Stef and I spent the remainder of the night unpacking for the last time at the Torro household and lauhging as we thought about all the good times we´ve had so far. We all crashed hard that night and were thankful to sleep in for the first time in days. It was great to finally catch up on all of the sleep we had lost in Paris.

Marta, Stef and I took a leisurly morning getting up and moving around. We spent the afternoon in the city center seeing the city hall, the bull fighting ring and of course, all of the shops. It was a relaxing afternoon to fit our perfectly relaxing morning. We ate dinner and hung out for the rest of the night. Marta rented Marie Antoinette and it was so exciting to watch the movie after having just visited Versailles and seeing everything the movie portrayed.

The atmosphere made me realize how much I´m going to miss this city.

The following day, we got up at a decent hour because Marta had scheduled us for pedicures. The salon was packed because the owners were going on holiday the next day for two weeks. We were really lucky to get appointments. It was amazing to have someone rub our tired, worn feet. Afterwards, we went to her grandmother´s condo on the beach where she made us a typical spanish meal. It was just like paella, but with noodles instead of rice. This dish was a favorite of Marta´s and had shrimp, small lobster, oysters and callamarie. Stef and I love the mediterranean style of cooking!

We headed for the beach with full stomachs and were looking forward to laying in the hot sun and having an afternoon siesta. We layed down for about ten minutes when the sun disappeared behind all of the clouds. Despite the lack of sunshine, we all took a two hour siesta and awoke to more clouds. We decided to head back to her grandmother´s house and as soon as we started walking, the sun peeked out behind the clouds! What luck. Afterwards, we went down to the street market for one last time. (The street market by her grandmother´s comes every friday, while the one by Marta´s house comes every Tuesday.) Strolling along and seeing all of the vendors, the people, the food and the conversation made me realize, even more, how much I´m going to miss this city.

We took a bus back to Marta´s apartment where we took showers and got ready to go out. Luis, Marta´s boyfriend, was hanging out with some of his friends at an apartment nearby. We headed over and had fun drinking and playing karakoe with them. It was hilarious to make them play it in English, and we had to play it in Spanish. Around 2am, we headed out to go to a disco in the city center. One of the friends was actually a DJ at the disco and got us passes to get in cheaper.  We spent the night dancing and went home around 4am. Stef and I had a blast with all of her friends! =)