Beaches and Gay Bars!

Saturday, September 11, 2010
We didn’t set an alarm for this morning and just woke up on our own. We had some breakfast and were supposed to call Scottie in the morning to see if he was coming or not. He had an excursion with his class that he was considering doing so we didn’t think he would come but when we rang him, he had just arrived in Valencia on the early train! We were super pumped! So we met him outside the hostel and he went in and tried to book a night at the hostel. They had his name from yesterday and were telling him that he was a no show and owed a night stay. He played dumb and they didn’t end up charging him. They didn’t have any availability for that night either so he had them take his number and call him if they had any cancellations. They took it but didn’t seem to confident that there would be a bed come available. The next closest hostel was like a 10 minute walk so we decided to wait it out and worst case scenario he could camp out in our room. So we had the day to check out Valencia. We started out at the central market where Scottie used his Spanish to converse with the vendors and we met this cheese man who was really cool. He recommended this delicious cheese that we bought and a place to go have some good paella. Valencia is known for it’s paella and he said this place had the best! It was apparently right at the beach and we wanted to head there anyhow so we took down the name of the place and he told us the owners name and to mention his name. So we wandered the market, bought some fresh produce and stuff to make tacos for dinner. We hit up the supermarket for the rest and then took it all back to the hostel before heading to the beach. We met this English girl who was waiting for her boyfriend to arrive so we invited her along to the beach with us. We caught the metro and were in search for this paella spot. The locals that we asked said it was really far down the beach but recommended a closer spot with a great view of the water. Off we went to the new spot and when we got there it was closed! We were so disappointed! We wandered up and down the strip and just picked this place where the paella was not overly good but it was edible. We then laid out on the beach for awhile and swam in the ocean! The British girl headed back before the b each as her boyfriend was due to arrive soon, so we made plans to meet up for a drink that night! They were staying in our room so it was convenient! After awhile we headed back to the hostel and made our tacos. They were super good!!! We made some excellent chefs! We still hadn’t head to a gay bar for Scottie so that was the mission of the night. We had some drinks and listened to music in our room as we got ready and the English couple joined us later and we all headed to a pub to grab a few drinks. This place was pretty sketchy but had cheap drinks so it was great! A few drinks later, we told the couple we were with that we were going to the gay bar (which happened to be across the street from our hostel) and they were welcome to join if they wanted. They weren’t too keen but were willing to walk along and check it out. When we got there, they decided to sit this one out and we went in to party. It was pretty crazy! Good music but nothing we had ever before experienced! Heather and I met some boys and were trying to hook them up with Scottie. He really put himself out there and was chatting it up with all the cute boys. Everyone in the gay bar is “a lady” so the female bathroom was 99% men and then the occasional girl...aka Heather or I. Pretty hilarious actually! We had planned to make it a big night but after Scottie had too much liquid courage and Heather and I were feeling pretty good we headed back to our hostel to catch a few hours of sleep before we had to check out and catch a train. We had this big extravagant plan to sneak Scottie in to the hostel as we had these security cards that we were supposed to show to get in. So we walked up with our plan in our back pocket just in case. We walked up, gave the guy a smile, told him our room number to get the key and all walked up without showing our security passes. Perfect!!! There was also an extra bed for Scottie since the British couple were sleeping in the one bed together. It was great! We all passed out after a really good night and had only a few hours until we had to wake up.