SPAIN
So once our program ended in Antibes, we stored our luggage (we didn't manage to pack lightly-who could for a six month stay?) and boarded our first train of our journey. This was an interesting event in itself because of first encountering some very strange oddball individuals. Try riding a train for four hours in a compartment for four people and having someone stare at you for 3 and a half hours, and this was the least awkward part.
Our trip to Valencia was anything but easy, we had to get so many connections because everything was mostly booked because holiday season here in Europe, most everyone takes a month holiday! So you can imagine that. We had a train from Antibes to Narbonne which was about five hours. When we got there we had to scramble to make our next train to Cerbere where we had a decent layover of 2 hours. We just figured we'd get some food at that stop because we had so little time at Narbonne. BIG MISTAKE. This is a warning to everyone, avoid all contact with Cerbere. This place was deserted. It had the feel of a ghost town and was very eerie. And, there was no food to be had. Anywhere. Nothing near by. I can't describe it any better than saying it felt like we fell out of civilization and that this city had been forgotten. I actually don't believe anyone lives there. So after sitting there for what felt like an eternity (2 hours) We continued on to get our train to Barcelona at another connecting station.
Once we reached Barcelona, there were no more trains leaving to Valencia, it was about 1130 at night, we don't speak spanish, and Nathan had forewarned me of how dangerous Barcelona is known to be, especially pickpockets. After a crash course in survival spanish with him on the phone we went in search of a hotel/hostel. All the hostels were booked and each hotel was more expensive than the rest so we ended up staying at a hotel right by the train station which had the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in...or maybe because we had traveled for twelve hours on hot trains...This was also quite a funny relief because when we got into our hotel room (that was beautiful), we realized the lights weren't working. Not wanting to call the desk because they already had a poor impression of us...we searched frantically, it's so funny now but we felt pretty dumb at that point. Eventually we found out there was an obscure slot to slide your hotel key card into and voila! Let there be light! Quite a short stay we showered and immediately went to sleep and woke up and rushed back to the train station, worried about when we could get a train to Valencia.
We were also concerned because our host in Valencia that I booked through airbnb.com, wasn't very helpful in describing how to reach her home. Did I mention she also didn't speak english? This made things very interesting...We got an early train to Valencia and once we got there we ducked into the tourism office to get some help. The girl was so helpful-she called our host, Maria for us and turns out she was coming to pick us up from the station! We were so relieved because we had no clue how to get there otherwise.
She was this little tiny woman, and made me feel like a giant it was pretty funny how we towered over her while she was leading us through the streets of Valencia and she also thought we seriously knew spanish even though I had informed her that we did not. Because she kept speaking to us and all we could do was laugh (because she started laughing-at what? Who knows) and say Si, Claro, Non claro.
So, I thought Antibes in the French Riviera was hot? Not compared to Spain. PHEW I don't know how people can manage it. We went to the city center and walked around and checked out the monuments and had a grand time checking everything out. The next day we spent at the neighborhood pool for Maria's neighborhood and had a blast! Not so keen on ocean swimming...you never know what's in there after all...so we were so eager to actually get to swim! Before we knew it, it was already time to head to Venice, mostly because things were so booked so we had to choose between leaving Valencia two days early, or leaving five days late. We were so ready to switch countries especially because we were exhausted from attempting to communicate with our host. Google Translate was very helpful, but it was very hard to get anything across to her. She kept saying things in spanish over and over just in case we'd be able to understand which after several frustrated minutes we'd finally get the point haha, but as soon as we said anything in english she would walk away and say Non claro.
I'm still really sad because apparently I left my favorite shirt there although it's odd because I'm very thorough on making sure I don't forget anything...sorry you all must know how much I love clothes and can understand why I'd be sad...haha.
This is it for the Valencia recap, up next, Venice!
