Oxford and Spain :)

Be forewarned... long entry ahead :)

Dustin is here visiting and on our first night, we met up with Sahrah and Stephanie for drinks at the Cape. We also ran into this guy Nick from Queens and a graduate of Hunter College :) Everything was going great, laughing, joking, meeting random bar patrons, shots of jack, hot sticky sweet nuts... But as the bar was closing, we still had an entire bottle of wine and some full glasses of Hoegaarden left.. the shock! We ended up taking the bottle of wine with us and drinking it all the way down the street... until we decided to go into the Jamaican after hours restaurant! There we ordered all sorts of delicious foods like buttered yams, sweet pork ribs and plantains. Also started drinking Redstripe beer. So Nick was hanging with us the entire time and it was so much fun, even though I just met him :)

The next day, I don't remember what me and Dustin did.. haha I know I made breakfast, oh yeah and Dustin bought sneakers from RYOUKI, it means cool or freah in Japanese, I forget :P and we hit up Topman, and I bought a sweet DKNY bikini, that dented my wallet, yikes!

But the following morning, Saturday, was our trip to Valencia, Spain :) We started to pack and were in haste to finish and jump over to Joe's for breakfast. We were making pretty good time too. On the bus ride to Heathrow we played 'Name That Tune' on our IPOD's, but it was later discovered that Dustin was cheating and reading the artists off the reflection from the glass window. Boooo! So we get to Heathrow and thought we had some time to spare, when all of a sudden an announcement says 'final boarding to Valencia'!!! We ran through the airport ala Home Alone to find out that the announcement meant NOW boarding, not FINAL boarding! Booooo! So we got on the plane mighty early. I thought we booked Iberia Airlines, but it turned out to be Click Air???? Ever hear of it? Me neither. The good part though was that it was an Airbus 320, the new breed of planes that make little noise and are the bestest says me :)

So we arrive in Valencia into the smallest airport ever, about 1/8 the size of PHL. One of the passengers on our plane lost her bag too, which sucks. I always use my backpackers travel bag, because it is lucky. I never lost baggage! (knock on wood) After the taxi ride to the hotel, we find out our initial room was booked. They gave us a key and we went inside to see someone else's belongings scattered across the room. But it turned out to be better because the first room was on the 2nd floor overlooking the crowded 20 lane highway below, whereas our second room was fitted in the back and overlooked Spanish apartments, a soccer clay court and an elementary school. The room was beautiful, a 4 star hotel. My favorite part was the incredibly hot and luxurious shower. Good job Dustin!

It was getting late, so we took a stroll through our local neighborhood to find some food. A hotel employee recommended a place, and it turned out to be the best Spanish dinner of our entire trip! We had a plate of salami, mussels, tomatoes with mozzarella and tuna, crunchy stuffed mashed mushrooms, a plate of goat's cheese, potatoes drenched with a spicy cheese sauce, and a host of other delicious tapas. I don't know how we figured out the menu as we ordered blindly- neither Dustin nor I speak any Spanish! After dinner, Dustin lit up a Cuban cigar- Romeo y Julieta, and we walked around some more. The neighborhood was called Russafa, it's where all the Spanish hang out, no tourists, thank god. We saw some interesting architecture and families sitting outside of restaurants. There were so many outdoor cafes, probably because it is sunny 330 out of 365 days. Walking past one of these cafes, we saw two funny men on stilts, blowing up balloons for the kids congregating. Granted it was Saturday night, but the time was about 2 am at this point. Who lets their kids, some as young as 6 stay out that late??? Only in Spain!

We later spotted a 24hour takeaway bakery and I bought a huge chunk of tiramisu and Dustin got a honey coated croissant emblazoned with roasted nuts. The owner was so nice, he gave me a silver fork to eat my tiramisu, and didn't expect it back! We also walked past a park called 'Guru Park', and we kept quoting Gangstarr on the way home.

The next morning, we decided to conquer the Mediterranean beach! We stopped into a Spanish Supermarket and bought Coronas, cherries, and the biggest seeded grapes I've ever seen- the size of golf balls! After some finagling, we get to the beach, and it is packed with all sorts of people- young families, old women, tons of teenagers and lots and lots of topless women (including me)! Dustin was bewildered! Also, little Asian women would walk around asking if anyone wanted a massage. Of course, we obliged and for 10 Euros, got a 15 minute massage :) This beach was so cool. Apparently, the America's Cup was in Valencia and there was all sorts of promotional events taking place. So on the right of the beach was a huge port where giant sailboats would pass by. On the left was picturesque mountains on a shiny people filled beach. Behind us was a long walkway where two dozen or so bars/restaurants/hotels were bustling with customers. It was unbelievable. Furthermore, we had two comfortable chairs and a really funky tiki umbrella. We were hooked!

I went into the water for a little bit, this particular day the water being quite chilly. The color was a clear crystal blue green and no matter how deep you went, you could see the sand underneath and it was not shelly, nor were there any bugs. There was a lot of these clear fish with black tails in the sea, around eight or ten inches long.

The public restrooms were unfortunately closed, so we HAD to go out to eat at one of these cool restaurants. I was craving pizza, so we ordered Hawaiian- ham and pineapple, and had a giant jug of sangria! hmmmmm! We were at the beach for awhile and then headed home, but Dustin was burnt to a crisp. He didn't apply enough suntan lotion and was completely lobster RED! He couldn't even move :( But he did get up and shower for the CASINO!

Dustin researched and found the only casino in Valencia, or rather NEAR Valencia. It was called the Monte Picayo, a five star hotel/casino located in Pucol, a town literally in the mountains. We were at first really scared because we thought it was going to be a 7 or 8 Euro taxi ride. Turns out it cost 30 EUROS!!!!! We were on this long highway and were going to the mountains???- It was sooooo the movie CASINO! I thought I was going to be seeing some corn fields and being beat with a shovel! HAH!

The casino location reminded me of Foxwoods in Connecticut. But the food was horrible. I don't even want to go into how bad it was. Anyway, Dustin was playing poker and blackjack and was down and up but we had so much fun playing roulette. We made up a song for our birthday numbers, 11-7-10-26 and kept repeating it over and over. We made some of our money back, but not nearly enough :P

*to be continued...

Alright, so I've got to make some breakfast. Today is Dustin's last day :( brb

Ok I'm back :)

The next day, we went to the Valencia Aquarium and Arts and Sciences museum center. We ate at a nice restaurant, I ordered Protein- a hamburger hmmmmmm! Also, all the animals in the aquarium looked like they were sedated. After that, we got some ice cream and lemonade and took pictures of the massive architecture structure that dominates the Valencian skyline. Dustin got out his Cuban cigars again and we posed for pics with them :) At night we walked around the historic city centre and ate at another cool tapas place, got drunk off sangria and debated about why or why not you should respect R.E.M. ?!? We also bought chocolates from a chocolateria that the taxi guy recommended and it was delicious! I love chocolate :)

Oh yeah, and the next morning was quite special. We woke up at 5am to hustle our asses to the Estacio Nord train station to buy tickets for a day in Barcelona. However, they were SOLD OUT! We were so upset, but decided to taxi it to the beach for a sunrise spectacular! It was gorgeous! Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for an all-you-can-eat breakfast, where we tore up the spread. It was great, I had two giant plates, and I think Dustin had about 6 or 7 plates :) Then we napped for what seemed all day and still had enough time to visit a museum in the city centre. It had all sorts of 14th-15th century Spanish religious murals, paintings and sculptures. Also a really cool baroque Islamic blue courtyard. We then walked through a different part of the city centre and found a cool candy shop where we bought chupa chups. Then went next door and bought more Cuban cigars :) Then we stumbled upon a massive square ala Venice where there were hundreds of pigeons and tiny outdoor cafes. We ate paella and pizza and drank sparkling water, Dustin's favorite :) We also were shopping and found all sorts of sneaker boutiques and an awesome store called Kukuxumusu... www.kukuxumusu.com

The next day we were finally on the train to Barcelona. I have to say that I've traveled by train quite frequently, and never was there such a beautiful train ride than between Valencia, north to Barcelona. First of all, we left at 6:40am, the sun was not even out. Secondly, on the right side were magnificent mountains covered with rice paddies, orange tree groves and wine vineyards and the left side the beach. And the beach was unspoiled in some locations where you could see pharaellians and ocean side cliffs. It was so cool. We got to Barcelona three hours later and went straight to Guell Park, Gaudi's architectural marvel. We took the long cut and walked a mile up a huge mountain where they had pedestrian escalators. After walking through the park complete with cactus and palm trees, we saw breathtaking views of Barcelona below. Also stuck our hands in the infamous Gaudi Lizard mosaic sculpture.

Afterwards we walked another mile to the Metro where Dustin raved about some market we HAD to visit. It was a regular Spanish flea market where they were selling everything you could imagine. Dustin was excited that he could buy Spanish porn- 2 for 10 Euros :) Then we walked back into the city centre, found some cool squares and side alleys, and cathedrals, which led us to the Picasso museum, one of my favorites. I really like the layout, it's not quite inside it's own structure, rather, you can walk in and out of many entrances along the Spanish street. After that, we walked around Las Ramblas of course and laughed at all the street performers. We saw Michael Jackson, a Mer-man with a crystal ball, a man who looked like Brain Gralnick in a swimsuit, a sword swallower, and a naked man with his penis pierced who had his entire ass tattooed in black- like underwear :)

We then ate at the Pita House, a nice little outdoor cafe on Las Ramblas. We love people watching :) And I love me some tapas :) However, while we were eating, we kept hearing helicopters overhead and we had no idea what was going on. Later we saw it to be a massive protest gathering in front of some Spanish embassy. We found out it was a local protest of the police and how they manhandle female suspects and people in prisons. Interesting!

The next day, we were back in Valencia. We slept in, as we probably walked over 10 miles the day before. We went back to the Spanish supermarket and got some chocolate covered elephant ears, pizza, and more fruit- this time some Valencia oranges. Did you know that Valencia was famous for its oranges? I kinda did. But when we got on the beach and I tasted them, they were HORRID! They must export all the good oranges. After the beach we decked ourselves out for a night on the town. But our restaurant choice left me little to eat. I ordered bruchetta and got some survivor food. Then I ordered gnocchi and got some shrimp and yucky cheese sauce. The only good part was my mojoito drink :) Dustin loved all the food, but me, not so much. We then had to go out to another cafe where I got more pizza and sangria. They was also more street performers, one singing Beatles music, another playing the accordion and one more selling jumping stuffed animal toys. We then strolled through the streets finding all sorts of bombed out buildings, hip clubs and drunken tourists.

Next day we were back in Oxford. After some rest, we walked around Oxford, I finally took Dustin to the Turf Tavern and we went to a Lebanese restaurant and ate Baba Ganoush, Yogurt with cucumbers and Pita, while smoking on a Mixed Fruit Hookah Pipe, or Hubbly Bubbly Shisha as the British call it :P Meanwhile, we had a great second story view of Oxford and down below we saw Julia and her boyfriend Matt walking by! I called her like 'dude, I just saw you walk by' and she said 'nuh uh'! haha

So we then walked the mile and a half back to my flat and Dustin cooked me an amazing dinner of lemon chicken, artichokes, mushrooms, rice and asparagus. hmmmmmm! Also checked out the movie Stranger than Fiction, but I HATE MAGGIE G!!!!

Today we are sleeping in some more, watching the French Open and also Free Willy, hah :) Tonight we are meeting up with Julia and Matt for the Quizzo night at this local pub near my flat. I'm about to make Dustin some more pizza bagels that he soooooo enjoys, hah.

I must say Valencia, Spain is crazy, we were always struggling with maps and kept going back to the same spots over and over. But they did have excellent shopping and fantastic beaches. Overall, it's not as fabulous as Barcelona, but it is worth a visit. I mean how do you compare it to Barcelona, which is my all time FAVORITE European city! I love Barcelona even better than London, Paris, Rome AND Amsterdam.... and that's saying something :P