Driving home for Xmas (or quite the opposite)
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2006
1
18
48
Trip End
Ongoing
Valencia,
Spain
Sunday, December 23, 2007
I decided to go away this Christmas as I got some time off - this is the first time this has ever happened and I like to go exploring when I have the time. Due to Ryanair's genius low cost flights, it's pretty cheap, but due to my lack of secure and consistent internet access, I just missed out on Slovenia and Norway. Next year maybe!
After a mad dash round Greenwich to get last minute essentials (I woke up late due to a last minute bender last night - are you seeing a pattern here?) I got the Stansted Express, which incidentally should be renamed, there's nothing "express" about it, I checked in, blahdy blah etc
Valencia Metro Car
. I arrived in Spain at about 9.15pm - the flight was delayed for whatever reason, of course Ryanair never tell you why but never mind, I got here safely. The first thing was to negiotiate my way round the Metro system, quite easy as there's only 5 lines, but the instructions on buying the tickets were all in Spanish with no translations or English options. Here's the first example of when the phrasebook would have been handy, but common sense and racking my brains for my rusty Spanish worked out quite nicely. The trains are very spacious, so London Underground, if you're listening, the Valencia Metro must be researched should you ever decide to design new carriages. It looked like it would fit twice as many people in rush hour as the current London tubes do. Which would be nice.
Even though it's Saturday night, EVERYTHING is closed. No 24 hour Tesco here. I was starving so went for a wander despite being told that I wouldn't find anything. Starbucks round the corner was open (I think, if it wasn't, then they should have locked the doors), they were clearing all the cakes away so I managed to nab a chocolate and orange slice for dinner.
The hostel I'm staying at seems fairly central - one downside is the lack of information like maps and so on that would be useful to travellers, but everything else is nice. In my room I have a Thai/Swedish girl, Pino; and two girls from Hong Kong and Taiwan who are studying in Leicester, Jacqui & Vita. Pino has been very helpful in instructing me where to go and what to do!
Ok thats it for today, not much to report - sorry, but I got here too late to explore. One thing I will say is, Valencia looks nice in the dark!
