You´ve Given me the Most Beautiful Set of Wings..

Depsite the last night/early morning partying, we still got up at a reasonable hour. We had a delicious lunch out with Marta and her parents. They took us to a famous tapas bar in Valencia in the old part of the city. They were delicious and are definitely some of our new favorite foods! These tapas were a bit different, as they were served on small pieces of bread. Marta was telling us that the nicer tapas are served on bread. After the tapas bar, they took us to a famous chocolate and ice cream store that is the most famous in all of Valencia. Stef, Carmen and I ordered chocolate cake, Marta ordered a Spanish dessert and her father Luis ordered different chocolates. It was some of the best cake and chcolate we have ever tasted! mmm..

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing with Marta and her boyfriends Luis. The weather really wasn´t the best so it was perfect to have him drive us all over the city. We were joking the whole day that they were our own personal tour guides. It really was perfect. We capped off the evening at yet another famous cafe in Valenica. It is famous for a special drink that is only made in Marta´s city. It is called "orcheta" and is a kind of sweetened milk. It is so famous that Micheal Jackson flew his helcopter on top of the cafe once and ordered orcheta for the entire cafe! Believe me when I tell you that this is no ordinary milk.

Saying goodbye to this city seemed like something we would never have to do.

The rest of the night was spent back at the apartment chatting and packing most of our things. We went to bed early, as we knew we wanted to get up for our last full day in Valencia...

Today we took another walk to the old part of the city to see the biggest market in their city. It is a huge indoor food market with meats, cheese, candy, fish...everything you could possibly think of. It was a wonderful experience and we made some purchases of yummy Spanish food to take home and share with family and friends. That afternoon we had a delicious lunch of black rice with small squid. It was delicious, as usual, and even more fun because Carmen let us help her cook. It was such a fun thing to do!

The remainder of the day was spent having a nice, long siesta on the beach for one last time. It was sad to say goodbye to such a beautiful beach, but wonderful to have such a sunny and gorgeous day!

This evening, we had our last wonderful Spanish meal of fish, oysters, bread, peppers, peas... with the entire family (Sonso is still in Barcelona). We also did some filming of her parents and of their apartment. We took showers and did our finishing packing. We also wrote in their guestbook and will spend the remainder of the night chatting before heading to bed. We will get up around 5am to go to the airport. Our flight is at 7am, so we will arrive back in the states around 1 or 2pm. It´s so wonderful because both of her parents, and of course Marta, are coming to see us off at the airport.

Saying goodbye to this city seemed like something we would never have to do. Now that it is upon us, it is much harder than I ever believed it to be. The people, the food, the culture, the language...everything is unforgettable and everything is intriguing. This country has so much to offer and I cannot wait to come back. Packing and leaving is definitely bittersweet. Stef and I have had an unforgettable, not to mention life changing, trip. It´s hard to believe that we are already packing up are things to go back to the states when it seems like we just arrived here and were in awed by the country, and by europe in general.

Stef and I both want to say thank you, of course to our parents, who have made this entire trip possible. Thank you for giving us the chance to fly (I maean that figuratively and literally! ;) )You have given us a taste of what it´s like here in Europe and you´ve created a monster! We can´t wait for you both to come back with us and see everything that we have been raving about! Thank you so much to everyone else, family and friends, for your love and support of this trip. We would not have been able to experince any of this with out you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Love you all so much. We will see you back in the states. Until then...

Bye!

Ciao!

Aurevoir!

Adios!

Chelsea and Stefanie Ridenour