Hotel Simba Chilches

...And, to think. I did all that. And may I say -- not in a shy way. Oh no. Oh no, not me. I did it my way.

Okay, okay!!! Stop the music!!! Silence the band!!! The trip isn't over yet.

But it is true, I am officially in the last week of my European travels. And other than the food challenges that I've mentioned, Spain has been very good to me. Though Mizz Valencia is being coy and keeping her sunny skies veiled with a drab, white, overcast haze. Hmpf. But ...

... in America thoguh because unlike americans who try to all be unique and find very different costumes from eachother everyone in Valencia sported the same costumes. You would see a huge group of girls all dressed as witches, then another group as super heroes or ghosts and lots of them just wore white tshirts ripped with blood. But since most of the kids were too young to enter the bars they just drank in the streets and filled the streets like an enormous ...

... and healthy food. Now during our daily riding and passing places we can check out the possibilities to recycle food all day! Important is to check if there are easy accessible trash containers. Sometimes there is something inside them, sometimes not. If not than find out what are the closing times of the shop and where they possibly could bring the container from (mostly a door with metal shutters and ramp). When you appear at ...

... viena - salzburg
22sept: salzburg - hallstat - salzburg
23sept: salzburg - zurich tren nocturno
24sept: zürich - winterthur - schaffhaussen - rheinfall (cataratas rhin) - stein am rhein - zürich
25sept: zürich - lucerna - interlaken
26sept: interlaken - grindelwald
27sept: Grindelwald - interlaken - berna
28sept: berna - laussane - montreaux - fribourg
29sept: fribourg - basel - vuelo a alicante

... many conjugating mistakes. I signed up to do an exchange with a Spanish student here called an intercambio. What it is, is that we meet and talk in english for one hr then talk in spanish the next hr or whatever we decide on. It´s just a way to meet valencianos and to also improve your spanish. I got some girl named Sonia and she´s supposed to call me but she hasn´t yet so I may change. Also, they´re really old here when they´re in college. The avg. age of the college students ...

... their meals together. Warm Meals!!! For a couple days we are off the bread and jelly diet that we do at every other hostel. And we are doing our own laundry!! Who would of thought. We have gained a lot of cultural insights and from the people we've met and we gained a lot of friends. Tomorrow we leave for Salou to see a new city and meet new people. I wish i had more to say.... i miss all of you. Today we decided we are going to Switzerland!!! Ive never seen mountains.

... the pole that they crawl up to get the ham before the tomatoes start. The guys almost got there and then the sirens sounded for the trucks to bring in the tomatoes. And on they came. Of course, I had to be in the middle of it all. The crowd started to sway and it was so hot. I lost my thongs and was being trodden on. Not all the tomatoes were ripe let me tell you. So after half hour, I decided it was time to make a run for it. Not much running happening ...

... had been paid on the spot without any problem). For whatever reason, there was a lot of people travelling on that day so trains - both first and second class - were being sold out. The lines to buy tickets were insanely long and it seemed to us that even the station's employees were surprised with the volume of travellers. At one point we thought we had to draw a number. We drew 472 and they were serving 202. No joke ...

... hotel (which we were all sad to leave!) and walked back to our orange train station passing a group of beautiful and traditionally dressed Spanish women and girls in Ayuntamiento palaza. A perfect end to a beautiful day in gorgeous Valencia!!! This city definitely captured all of our hearts....we were very sad to leave this city which we all stated that we would be happy living in! Alas we had to board our train to Madrid...a train ride which went past gorgeous abandoned ...

... speaks Valenciana, a version of Catalan which is spoken in the east of Spain as another official language beside Spanish. But she also speaks Spanish, so does any one in Valencia. As I was in Valencia, she offered me a big lunch in a restaurant that has a great reputation about their glorious paella. Our 1st plate was ensalada Valenciana, Valencian ...