Valencia, Spain—Barcelona, Spain—Day 287

After having quite some difficulty getting myself to bed last night (in my stupor I knocked over a glass which shattered all over the floor which I recognized to be a bad thing and proceeded to put my boots on and stomp around the room instead of cleaning it up first), I woke up this morning bright and early, although I wasn’t feeling too bright myself.

Unable to go back to sleep, I cleaned up the reminder of last night’s broken glass and got ready to go back to the zoo. This time I caught the bus like I intended on doing yesterday and soon was at the entrance to the zoo. Luckily there was a new woman working at the desk of the entrance booth so I didn’t have to deal with the “weren’t you here yesterday” looks I am so used to getting.

Unfortunately Rigas and Ralf were not in the best performance mood this morning. In fact you could hardly see them and they barely got their noses out of the water. I waited for quite some time before deciding that I wasn’t going to get any new material this morning and that I needed to get to Barcelona.

So after going to the bookstore and buying a book on the history of the zoo (probably being the only person who has EVER bought the book by the looks on the girls face when I picked it out), I tried to find the bus back to the hotel. Yeah right! You would think that there would be a stop right across the street from the one that dropped me off, but no that would be too easy.

So despite the increasing heat of the day (which was a lovely day but my boots and jeans were too much) I trudged back to the hotel. I made it to the street that the hotel was on before finding the right bus stop and finally rode it back to the hotel, even if it was only one stop dammit.

I then called up Leyre and Jonathan who, in last nights fiascos, had offered to take me out to a late brunch. Surprisingly they were up and offered to pick me up at the zoo but then after I explained to them that I wasn’t at the zoo, we planned to meet again at the hotel.

Since I had already checked out, I waited in the lobby for them to arrive. This time they came in Leyre’s car (not a BMW but a nice Jetta) and greeted me with enthusiasm. We headed to a local old winery place which one never would have known about if you weren’t from Valencia and dined on tapas and an entire bottle of wine.

Wine for breakfast? In those memorable words of Jonathan, “Why not?”

So after drinking myself silly again (its seemed that a majority of my time in Valencia was spent feeling quite happily buzzed) Jonathan and Leyre drove me around Valencia so that I could see the beaches (I was impressed) and then finally dropped me off at the train station. I said goodbye to them and we agreed to meet up again the “next time I was in Valencia” so that they could show me the best paella restaurants. I can’t wait.

So I went inside and after waiting for a ridiculously long time I finally bought a reservation to Barcelona. My train didn’t leave for another hour so I passed the time making phone calls and becoming sober. Finally it was time for my train and I went through security and boarded, finding a nice old couple in my seats. So I chose the seat behind them and spent the entire ride trying to read (failing to do so), trying to watch the movie on the TVs (falling asleep RIGHT at the end—basically I have seen the entire movie and missed the crucial ending so I have no idea what happens) and trying to listen to music (this wasn’t hard—I didn’t fail at this).

I made it to Barcelona (yay!) and took a taxi to my hotel where I checked in and then went in search of dinner. Ending up at an Asian food place (my cravings for sushi outweigh my insistence for Spanish food) and collapsed back at the hotel. I have one day in Barcelona tomorrow then its off to the States. I don’t even want to think about it.