Valencia

Last weekend I visited my good friends Jake and Nick, who have been living the Valencian dream for the past eight months. The boys seemed well, and within moments of my arrival I was pleasantly taken aback by their impressive Spanish fluency. After hearing so much about their fellow Study Abroad pals, it was great to finally meet the faces that they'd been spending their exchange with too (shout out Douglas and Kiff).

Further delight was found on our bicycles (echte Nederlands), which is how we covered a large amount of ground over the weekend. I had a fantastic time using the Valenbisi (Val's 'Boris Bike' system), and getting an insight into the various areas of Spain's third largest metropolis - Carmen, Benimaclet, and the mesmerising 'City of Arts and Sciences' to name drop a few. I picked up some cool facts about Val through Soiree, and some nice Spanish words - he had a lot of ganas regarding the city (whey?).

We did thousands of fun, and equally bizarre, things - at one point Jack, Nick, and I were consuming two main course meals each whilst being surrounded by the Spanish elderly, all of which was fairly surreal/awesome. My favourite Val experience was 'Bodega Fila'/Bodegas Labrador though. This tapas bar was a typical Valencian joint which reminded me a lot of a stock exchange. There were a lot of people in a small space, all yelling about who-knows-what, in God-knows-which dialect, either fairly cheerily or with some hectic franticity (that isn't a word). After a hunt we got ourselves a couple of stools and a surface and joined in the mayhem. It all felt very Spanish and mental. Jake, Nick, Alex (who joined us for a hearty slam from Barcelona), Joe, and I, consumed a great deal of baguette, chorizo, and vino tinto which all cost us about a cent. Then we went on our way like a company of merry parrots!

Despite the weather, which sadly wasn't sunny delight, Valencia was a chuckle! As there were two pussycats on my flight back to A-Dam, and some Slovenian DJs sleeping on Jake's chintz sofas, I found the Spanish escapade a little alarming at times too. I wasn't the worst at Brain either, which was additionally highly surprising. 'Til next time España, cheers for these unexpected occurrences, good company, the delicioso café con leches.