Again we travelled by train but this time it wasn't the fast speed Ave it was just the ordinary train. The directions to the hostel were really easy to follow, almost like a treasure map. I'm surprised they didn't tell us to count our foot steps and get out a compass. It was a really nice hostel and we were in a room with two other people. As we arrived quite late in the afternoon we decided to save all the historical activities for later and go to the beach. We got a little bit lost but we discovered that when you are lost sometimes you can find then best things. We stumbled into the Americas Cup museum which mentioned New Zealand a lot in its audio museum as we had won the cup a couple of times.
By the time we finally reached the beach, it was dark. Elaborate sandcastles with money containers riddled the beach, watched carefully by their creators a few meters away and runners jogged past us, even thought it was dark. It wasn't unsafe dark though, people were constantly moving and it was vey light. That's the thing in Spain which is so different to New Zealand, night time is just like daytime as their are so many people around and the lights are so bright.
We tried to find a metro station which was printed on our map so that we could get home (hôme hostel) but we couldn't find the steps underground anywhere. We then realised that the tram station was actually the metro station and with the help of a man also waiting for a tram we learnt which one to take and that we could use our metro card.
That night for dinner we went out with one of our room mates Claudia who was from Italy. We ate at the recommended Bodeguilla del Gato and had a variety of tapas, ranging from tomatoes to cuttlefish. The waiter was a good laugh and mum and I definitely thought he had an eye for Claudia.
For breakfast the next day we went across the road to a traditional Spanish market. It is very similar to the Farmers Market back in Hawkes Bay but on a much larger scale. There are loads of meat stalls, cheese stalls, bread stall, Jamón stalls, fish stalls and much more. We purchased some bread, jamón, cheese and a bag or mandarins (1kg for 0.60€ which is like $1.30nzd) which lasted us for lunch as well.
We spend the day at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias looking around the science museum, which may sound boring but it wasn't. It was an interactive museum so it was very hands on, I forgot all about the science aspects though and just enjoyed playing about. There were things like soccer booths where you had to kick the soccer ball as hard as you could at the wall, a water whirl pool, strength testers and much more. I even saw a real chicken hatch out of its shell.
Our ticket to the museum also included a movie I the Hemisféric which was a circular building. The movie we watched was about a group of people who sailed down the blue Nile. That also sounds kind of boring but it also wasn't. Seeing all the shots on the huge IMAX screen was just amazing, we had to turn our head from one side to the other to see both ends of the screen. Words can't explain how big it was. We also had to wear these head sets which contained the audio. That way you could listen in any language you wanted.
Later that evening as I was writing about Barcelona on the computers at the hostel Yael walked through the door. We were both as shocked as each other and just stood there hugging and laughing. The even funnier thing was the man who was at reception got us to fill him in and said he would out her in our room, until it turned out she was in our room anyway. What a co incidence! Together we all went out for dinner (Claudia had already left to go back to Italy) at a restaurant called El Rally. Here we ordered a delicious traditional Valencia Paella which had rabbit and chicken I it.
On our last morning in Valencia we went to the market again but this time with Yael. Then we said our goodbyes again as we had to walk back to the bus station and travel back to Madrid.
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