Barça vs Chelsea

Tonight is Halloween (I had completely forgotten about that) and my flatmates are dressed as Barça supporters, sitting in front of the tv with chips and beer and commenting loudly on every mistake their team makes. They play their part really well! Allright, this is a silly joke... they just are barça supporters and the neighbours, like the rest of the building, will know it!

Well, the past two days haven't been particularly adventurous: class, trying to study a bit, capoeira... So this post is not really thrilling.

Tomorrow two friends of mine are coming to visit so after their visit I'll have a lot more interesting news than today! Well... I'll just leave it at that, I guess!

Oh, you should to back to the previous post, because I've added a link to the concert. Check it out!

Sunday morning matinee

It's 2pm and the city lays deserted, baking in the sun. It's so hot that even the fountains have stopped working. All the people have retreated into the shade of their houses, having lunch and sleeping through siësta. That's what the city was like as I walked home after the Sunday morning concert I have just been to, a concert from Guillermo's band Union de Pescadores. The concert was in Mercado Colón, the art-nouveau market I've told you about before. (See a part of the concert on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E9FiWAyDkA)I took my book and sat on a bench near the market, amidst a bunch of old folks. One particularly energetic 80-year-old Don Juan started telling me I was such a lovely and beautiful girl... After I gently turned him down, he went on to seduce his other neighbour, a lady I believe better suited for his age... :-D After the concert was done and most of the people were gone, I still sat in the mercado for a while reading my book. I'm reading 100 años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez, a great book! And if you don't get lost in the complicated genealogy of the story, it's not too difficult for foreigners, either.



Yesterday, Saturday that is, I went swimming with Cécile. I swam for almost one hour and a half. I'm feeling very sporty here in Spain! :-) After swimming, we went to the terrace of my favourite café, café Soret, which is in my street, on the edge of a nice little park. We sat there drinking cinnamon-and-rose-petals tea, working for university and feeling very cosmopolitan! :-)

That night we both went to a party of a Swedish girl who is in Céciles university. Karinn (because that's her name) loves cooking and had prepared a lovely buffet of tabbuleh, a vegetable oven dish and a spinach tart (veggie paradise!). It was a nice party. Way too many frenchies, though. What I observe here in Spain is that nationalities tend to flock together. I just don't get why: if you're from France, why did you come to Spain to meet other French people? Why didn't you just stay in France then? Germans and Italians also have this incredible tendency to flock together. Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to avoid Belgians. I know my task is way easier than for a French or German erasmus student, because there simply aren't that many Belgians in Spain. But still... I know one Flemish girl and that's it! For the rest I really try to be with foreigners, to practice different languages and to get to know other cultures. Am I being snobbish now?

samba-reggae and Woody Allen

It's 2 am - scandalous! - and I just can't sleep, so I thought I might as well come here and tell you about my past few days and see if meanwhile sleep comes... Though I doubt it will because I've had quite some fun days this week!

On Wednessday evening I went to a concert of Brazilian samba-reggae music with a German friend from university. The concert was in a little club called The Black Note (http://www.pubyfiesta.com/base.php?name=pubportal&pub_id=000013), a very nice place to go if you're in Valencia and want to enjoy some live music, from jazz to samba. The band is called Tremolor (www.tremolor.es) and they're a group of Brazilians and Spaniards who have an eclectic style which is mainly inspired on Brazilian samba-reggae music. In other words, fantastic percussion on a very danceable beat! I had a great time and I danced until 2am! There were a lot of Brazilians in the room and after the concert, the band members came to the bar and mingled. Fortunately, my german friend knew some of them and he introduced me to them. How cool is that, huh? ;-)

On Thursday I -oh lucky me- didn't have class in the morning, which was very convenient as I only got to my bed around 3am the night before. I spent the rest of the day reviewing the paper I've written with Lena, the german girl of my economia social-class. It's very legislative (read: most of it is boring) and by consequence very hard for non-spaniards to understand, let alone write.

At 6 I went to capoeria class. It's great that I get to practice capoeira twice a week here, like that I'll really be able to get better. And when my muscles stop aching, they'll be happy too. It's for their own good. :-) And after capoeira I still had class until 9pm. At 9:30pm there was a concert in the Plaza de Toros, which is the arena where normally bullfights are held, where I was supposed to go with some friends but as I still had to shower and eat I just couldn't get there in time, so I canceled. A pity because I would've loved to see the arena from the inside without having the inconvenience of having to see an innocent animal get killed. Anyway, I didn't go to a concert and instead decided to have a glass of wine with Cécile instead.

Today I woke up and finished reading a chapter from the book I'm reading for my thesis. Then I went to Sevillanas class. Did I tell you I'm taking Sevillanas classes? Yup! Sevillanas is a dance that is familiar to Flamenco. I actually haven't discovered yet what the difference is. But it's really fun to be taking dance classes again! And if there's anything typically Spanish that I can learn here besides the language, it's either that or becoming a torero. Given my earlier remarks on bullfights, I happily prefer Sevillanas!

This afternoon I spent alone in my favourite café, with a cup of cinnamon-rose petals-tea (which was the high point of the afternoon), reading another chapter for my thesis. It's nice to be able to get out of my room and go somewhere else where I can study in a more relaxed environment. Sometimes I concentrate better in a public place than all alone behind my desk!

Tonight I had agreed to go to the cinema with Cécile. We had finally discovered that there is a small cinema in Valencia that shows films in their original version and we though it was close to our home, but after all it wasn't all that close so we decided to just rent a movie and watch it at my place. Then Morgane called asking if I didn't want to go out that night so I invited her over to see the movie too. Then I met Guillermo on msn and he asked me about my plans this night and I invited him over too. He brought a friend -and ice cream and wine, which made him double welcome!- so we ended up having a small dinner party+Woody Allen movie night.

Though we did have a little accident! When Cécile, who is quite tall, got up after the movie to leave, she banged her head against the luster, which is quite low, and she broke one of the lamps! Poor girl! We were lucky she didn't get hurt! There was lamp glass shattered all over the floor! And that's how I ended up vacuuming the living room at 1:30am, which is about an hour ago...

Hm, I am getting sleepy now... Good night!

My brother, the architect

Today I received my brother's first project by e-mail. You should all take a look, it's fantastic! Just one month of class and he's already an architect. Five more years in university and he'll be a genius! Just click on the link on the right called 'Thomas' project' to see his project.

Today was just another day of class... In my last class, Evaluación Económica Pública, is an older guy who I've seen walking around on campus, so I suppose he's taken up studying again. And I really can't help it, but he reminds me of a toad!

And by the way, I've changed my blog settings and now you should all be able to leave comments without registering! So please do, because I actually don't know if anyone reads my blog... :-(

Sunny Tuesday

Apparently that autumn thing was just a quirk... Today the sun shone as if it were summer once again! The thermometer rose to 30°C!

Gosh, today was tiring! I had 4 hours of class in the morning and I - finally - had to go enroll in the courses I am taking. A process, which, all in all, took about one hour and a half... Of which over an hour was queueing! Ah, lovely traditional Spanish organization... A good thing was that while waiting in the line I met a nice Brazilian guy, who is also studying in Valencia for 6 months, after having studied two years in Paris. It's a small world after all!

After enrolling, I should finally have access to all the electronic services of the university and be able to check out books of the library. But I say SHOULD, because I tried to access the electronic blackboard this evening and nope! If you learn one thing in Spain, it's pacience.

In the afternoon I went to capoeira class. It seemed like a military workout! But it was very nice, and even though all my muscles are screaming with pain now, it's good to know that at least they're there!

After capoeira class I had yet another class, until 9pm... All of you who thought I was here on a prolonged vacation: wrong!

But I don't mind these long days, because I'm really enjoying the classes and having a lot of fun, meeting new people every day...


Every day as I walk to class I pass a little house with a scrap of farmland next to it, struggling to survive in an ever-growing city. It took me two weeks to even notice it, though I pass it every day! You hardly notice it on the picture too. It stands there so bravely between those big bully buildings! The part of the city where the university is is a very new part. About 15 years ago, this part was farmland. Hence the little house with its little scrap of farmland...

Another Monday

Today, as I left the apartment at 8:10 to go to class, I witnessed the most beautiful sunrise! The sky was turning into a lighter shade of blue and the small clusters of clouds drifting in from the coast were gold-coloured with the first rays of sun. But as it was still more or less dark, the streetlights were still on. It was such a beautiful sight and I was very sorry not to have my camera with me! I've decided to carry it around always so I won't miss another photo opportunity like that. Though, it's true, you should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes!

Well, today was a day of class and catching up with my course notes... a nice quiet day of those. I did fulfill my promise of always carrying around my camera with me, so when I went to my afternoon class, I took some pictures of the inside of the campus buildings. This is the hallway of the top floor. Special, isn't it? Even though I'm on the fifth floor, I feel like I'm in a catacomb or something.

Well, I don't have much else to say today... Alberto, my flatmate is in the livingroom studying for an exam he has tomorrow, poor guy. José has already gone to sleep. He always gets up very early to go to work (he's in the military, apart from being an engineer student.) Saúl isn't in today because he's got night shift at work (he's also in the military, apart from being an engineer student.) Have I already shown you a picture of them? I don't think so! Here you go:



From left to right: Saúl, me, José and Alberto. Alberto and José are brothers, José being the elder one of 24, and Alberto the younger brother of 19. Saúl is as old as José and he and José have been friends since high school. They're angels, my three flatmates. Because the elder ones are soldiers, the apartment is always impeccable! José even proposed to clean three times a week! Lucky that Alberto and I went into opposition. Cleanliness is nice, but let's not exaggerate. But it sure is nice to have two men in the house who do the dishes, rub the floor and wash the windows! Though they sure know how to relax, too. So well, these are my three men in Valencia! ;-)

My Mom's Weekend, part II

It's a lovely Sunday morning, October 22nd, and the sun shines as if it had never heard of such a thing as autumn. I could live in Spain forever just for the sun! Be gone, autumn blues and winter depressions! My flatmates are in their rooms or in the living room studying, like me until a few minutes ago, and it feels very homey to have them around in comfortable pants carrying around books. These are the days I will remember from my student time here. Even though the boys are all engineers and I'm and economist, the fact that we're all students creates a sort of complicity amongst us.

But I still have to finish telling you about last weekend, when my Mom came to visit! So I've told you about Thursday and Friday. Let's see, well, on Saturday morning Mom and I did what girls do best... shopping! :-) Calle Colón and the perpendicular streets are a great shopping area, filled with Zaras, El Corte Ingleses and shoe stores. But even while shopping culture is never far away, because at the end of Calle Colón is the Plaza de Toros, the arena where bullfights are still held on festive occasions. (Though I think you can hardly consider it 'culture' to kill animals for entertainment.) But the architecture is so typically Spanish and nowadays the arena is also used for concerts.


After a few hours of intensive shopping we went to have lunch at the Mercado Colón, which I've told you about in a previous post. It's a fantastic art nouveau-building which used to be a marketplace, but is now redesigned as a hip place to eat or have a drink.

Like totally cool Spaniards, we had some tapas for lunch: smoked potatoes (they taste a bit like smoked ham), 'alcachofra' hearts (don't ask me to translate that to English, I didn't bring my dictionary...) and a sandwich.

After lunch we discovered a chocolate paradise in a street near Calle Colón! It's a store-annex-café where they serve all kinds of hot cocoa and chocolate desserts. They also sell pralines with the most exotic flavours. We had a taste of those! And as we come from the land of chocolate, we were very critical of course, because we're used to the best, but these pralines totally passed the test! Very much approved!

After siësta - digestion time for all the chocolate we had - we walked to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. I could spend a day taking pictures of this! We didn't visit any of the museums, because we will do so when my Dad and brother are here. But just walking around the buildings is an activity an sich, they're so impressive!

After walking around in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, we continued walking along Turia park, the park in the riverbed which I've told you about. We passed the giant Gulliver, which is a big puppet lying in the middle of the park, covered with slides for children to play on, so the children look like the Lilliputters from the story! I still have to try and get a decent picture of it, because the concept is fantastic. The rest of the park is lovely too: fountains, flower beds, people jogging and cycling... For every self-respecting city out there: be gone with the Seine and the Thames! Make parks in those riverbeds! River are out, parks are hot! We walked until metro Alameda and took the metro there to the city centre. At the Plaza de la Reina we had some excellent tapas: patatas bravas, gambas and stuffed mushrooms! After dinner we walked to Plaza de la Virgen, the most beautiful plaza in Valencia, which is beautifully lit at night. The plaza was full of just-married couples! Apparently the beauty of Plaza de la Virgen is also recognized by wedding photographers. There were five couples being photographed at the plaza at the same time!

And I totally agree with their choice of setting... Don't you?

On Sunday morning we went to a flea market near la Mestalla, the football (soccer) stadion. It was full of old people buying furniture and household supplies! And they sell the weirdest stuff: car mirrors and radios, blank cd-roms (what are those doing on a flea market?) and old 40's radios that apparently still work. I'm not sure if everything offered for sale at the market got there in quite a legal way, especially the first two things I mentioned.

We then proceeded to the city centre to visit the Ceramics Museum, the one which I've already told you about in a previous post. I really wanted Mom to see the beautiful palace where the ceramics collection is displayed.

The museum boast a traditional Valencian kitchen, covered in painted ceramic tiles depicting food and hunting scenes.

This is the bedroom of the Marquês de Dos Aguas, accompanied by a royal yawn!

And once more, the breathtakingly beautiful ballroom, with big mirrors perfect for a little photography experiment!

Leaving the Museum we walked towards Plaza del Patriarca, a cute little square full of mandarine trees. The clementines are already starting to turn orange. By december they will be ready for Sinterklaas to take them to Belgium!

At the Plaza del Patriarca is the Collegio del Patriarca, a gloomy baroque church where one can hardly breathe because the air is so thick with incense. Below, an illustration of the gloominess...

And what better way for my Mom to end her visit in Valencia, than with a typical Valencian paella? The rice was very good, but the gamba's came with legs and heads still attached to them! And though I claim to be a vegetarian of the brave kind, my stomach did make a little turn when I chopped the head of a gamba. Brrr!

And so my Mom's visit ends... and living and studying in Valencia continues. I think I'm going to go back to doing that last thing now...

Autumn in Valencia

I think autumn is finally taking over in Valencia... Yesterday I survived my first rainstorm! As I came back from class in the afternoon with Lena, the german girl with whom I am writing a paper, I saw a huge black cloud approaching... Halfway home the wind started to blow, lifting dry leaves and sand, very impressive... We started running, because we saw the rain coming and I had clothes hung out to dry! We got to my apartment just in time to save my clothes from being blown away and getting soaked with rain! As it rained, it got so dark we had to put on all the ligths! The lightning and thunder only lasted half an hour or so and after that the rain quickly stopped too. An hour later the sun was shining again as if nothing had ever happened! I've been told that this is the normal kind of rainstorm that occurs during the changing of the seasons. It's got something to do with the changing of the winds, or something...

But anyway, it's been way too long since I've written on my blog! I've been quite busy this past week! Last weekend my mother came to visit me (and she brought me this lovely, o-so-handy laptop I'm now writing from!). As last weekend was another prolonged one, because thursday is a festive day and friday I don't have any classes, she came for 4 days. I picked her up at the airport on thursday morning, and after a quick lunch we set out to explore the city centre. But first... coffee!

Unfortunately, as it was a festive day, many monuments and shops were closed. But Valencia has very beautiful things one need not visit to admire, like the Torres de Serranos, the barrio El Carmen and the various beautiful plazas. Luckily, the Cathedral was open, so we climbed the 200+ steps of the tower to admire the beautiful view over the city.

On Friday we visited the Mercado Central. There's so much to see, feel and smell! Like these huge cheeses Mom's checking out...

There's Jamón Serrano everywhere, whole plucked chickes, even pig's heads! (Some parts are really unrecommendable for sensitive vegetarians. Luckily I'm of the brave kind!) And the fish section is one of marvel and and sometimes disgust... like, for example, the aquariums full of live eels!

Or take a look at this baby squid... Yummy looking, is it not? :-p I'm glad that these things, once they get to your plate, look like food instead of alien seacreatures! Otherwise I'd be one heck of a vegan.

After our visit to the Mercado Central, we took a peek in la Lonja, the old silk exchange. It boasts a huge hall of columns, which used to be a trading floor, with magnificent spiralled columns. Just to give you an idea of how huge this hall is... and that for a 15th century building!

Not far from la Lonja is the Plaza Redonda, a cute little round square (how paradoxical!) where little stalls sell linen, lace and ceramics. While walking around on the square Mom and I were adressed by a group of Brazilians! It's a small world...

In the afternoon, we took a trip to l'Albufera national park. L'Albufera is a lake near the sea, where tall plants grow in the water, thus creating an ideal nesting habitat for birds. It's a fishermen's area, or well, it used to be before the tourists came. The fishermen built small white houses with typical pointy, low roofs, which are characteristic of the region. They say it's the best region of Spain to eat pescado, fish dishes. You can take a tour to l'Albufera by bus, departing from the city centre. The tour includes a boat trip on the lake in a typical fishermen's boat. This is Mom with our lovely boatsman, a very lively and funny man.

This is a fishnet, put up by the fishermen. Apparently it's as easy as that to catch fish! Just put up some nets in the middle of the lake. I always thought a fisherman's life was tough... not soooo tough, I suppose. But I guess it's not as easy as it looks, like so many other things.

And look at that! An authentic fisherman drifting by! So the craft still survives to this day, but of course on a much smaller scale... it's a pity that these lifestyles are lost...

That nigth Mom and I prepared a lovely home cooked meal with the cantharelles we had bought in the Mercado Central. No fish though! :-D

Well, I have to get going! I'm going to meet Lena in the city centre and she's going to take me to a place that has the best chocolate cake of Valencia! Mmmm, I'm curious! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, as well as finishing the story of the mother-daughter weekend!

Madrid: neck pain and fireworks

This weekend I went to Madrid! As I will probably only live in Spain once, I figure you have to seize every opportunity to get to know the country better! So I decided to start with the capital. There is a bus connection between Valencia and Madrid. It takes approximately 4 hours. As last weekend was a prolonged one - because monday is a holiday, the Dia de la Comunidad Valenciana - this was the ideal weekend to undertake a trip to Madrid! So here we are, Saturdaymorning 9am, in the coach, on the road!



I díd make good use of those four hours to work on my thesis... (Good huh, dad?)

And Morgane, my travel companion, also did some useful work during the coach trip.

As soon as we arrived in Madrid we took the metro to the hostel. We did not have a map of Madrid or the metro, we only knew at which stop to get off. The good thing about metros is that once you´re used to using it in one city, you very quickly get the logic of it for any city. So we were very proud to have found the hostel so quickly using nothing but good sense and our eeeexcellent spanish to ask the way. :-) After a quick lunch we immediately set out to explore the city. The hostel (Mad Hostel, www.madhostel.com, I recommend it!) is very well situated in the city centre, but in a small street so there isn´t much noise. The first tourist attraction we stumbled upon is the Plaza Mayor, a beautiful square that reminds me a bit of San Marco in Venice. Less doves, though, which is a good thing. Same number of tourists, though.

From there we walked to l´Almudena, Madrids cathedral. A very impressive building. I wish I could say something intellectual about the architectural style of the history of the building, but well... I will have to leave that first comment to my brother! Inside the building is very colourful and rather modern for a cathedral of its age. But my pictures of the inside are rather dark.

Then we went to visit the Royal Palace, which is right next to the cathedral. Spain is a monarchy, and in earleir ages the royal family did indeed live here, but nowadays they have moved to a somewhat smaller and simpler palace. This palace is only used for ceremonial activities these days. On the picture below you see the royal pharmacy.

One warning: visiting the Royal Palace is really bad for your neck!! Because the most beautiful thing about the palace are the beautifully decorated ceilings! Take a look!

This room is entirely decorated with porcelain applications! The most beautiful ones are again on the ceiling.

This is the "patio" of the Royal Palace. Enough place to hold two football competitions at once!

After visiting the n rooms of the beautiful Royal Palace, we decided we deserved a little break before heading to the next touristic attraction. Ah, happiness resides in little things... especially if they come by the two!

We sat down to eat our icecream in a pretty little square called Plaza de la Villa. I read there was supposed to be an ancient prison there with beautiful arches, but we didn´t see any arches...

Our next destination was the Centro de Arte Moderna Reina Sofia, or better: the museum that has Picasso´s Guerica! Very impressive to see the painting in reality. It´s much bigger that I thought! You can keep staring at it for hours discovering details you wouldn´t notice on a smaller reproduction. What´s also very interesting is the vast collection of pencil studies Picasso did before Guernica. Very interesting to see how he developed the characters and compositions of this famous painting. The museum also boasts several works by Miró, though not his best (those are in the Miró museum in Barcelona) and Salvador Dalí, not his best either, which are in the Dalí museum in Figueres. The annex to the original museum buidling is by Jean Nouvel. It´s way more impressive than you can see on the picture. It has got outside glass elevators, so you can see the city as you ascend to the top floor! The elevators an sich are a touristic attraction!

On Saturday night we had tapas on the Plaza Santa Ana, as recommended by Morgane´s uncle who is a travel agent. A very nice square indeed, filled with one tapa restaurant after the other! We sat on a terrace on the square, and had four delicious tapas and wine.

Oh dear... Am I eating meat on this picture?! It looks like that... but in fact it´s smoked tuna! It looks like smoked ham and tastes a bit like it, but it´s fish!

On Sunday morning we went to the El Rastro market, a huge, very busy, partially second hand flea market where they sell everything, from jewelry to clothes to bags to electric ustensils to tyres to flowers to...

And when I say they sell everything, I very literally mean, everything! Hmmm, could I try this one on please?

Oh, I have to show you the hostel! Here it is, the orange building. A very nice hostel, not too expensive, small but nice rooms with bunk beds, free internet, a bar that stays open late and breakfast included! Horrible electronic keys that never work, though. What happened to old fashioned metal keys? In the end, Morgane and I just left open our window a little bit, to stick an arm through to open the door from the inside. A lot easier!

This is our dorm room door, on the interior plaza. The dorm was for four people, but as the travel season for youngsters and students is over, we were alone in the room.

Anyway, back to our Sunday afternoon activities. We took the metro to Plaza Cibeles, one of the most beautiful squares of Madrid. Pity it´s not car free though, quite the opposite: it´s one of the big traffic points of the city centre. In the middle of the square is a beautiful fountain representing a Greek goddess. The beautiful building you see in the background is... the postal office! They say the Madrilens lovingly call it the ´Nuestra Señora de la Comunicación´.

Then we visited the Prado museum, a must for every art-loving tourist that comes to Madrid! On the picture you see the façade. The museum is enormous! Even my tourist guide said it is impossible to see the entire collection in one day! Nevertheless, we saw beautiful works by Rubens, Velázquez and the Garden of Pleasures by Hieronymus Bosch, which they call El Bosco in Spain, very funny!

After nearly two hours in the Prado, we decided we had seen enough art and started walking along the paseo del Prado, a beautiful avenue that crosses Madrid from south to north. We stumbled upon a cute little antique book market!

On Monday morning we took visited the Egypcian templo of Debod. What´s an Egypcian temple doing in Madrid? Apparently the Spanish helped moving the temple of Abu Simbel that would have gone under water after the building of the Aswan dam, and by means of thanks the Egypcians gave a temple to Spain!

From the park where the temple is situated, you have a beautiful view on the Royal Palace and the l´Almudena Cathedral!

For lunch we decided to go a little crazy, and we had a delicious chocolate con churros in the old Chocolatia San Gines. It comes down to a cup of chocolate sauce and a beignet like pastry which you dip in the chocolate. Soooooo so bad for your health and waistline, but soooo sooo goooood!

Then we walked to the Puerta del Sol, which they say can be considered the main square of Madrid. We had been told it is a dangerous square, full of pick pockets, drug dealers and even false policy agents who ask for you ID and then run away with it (for what purpose, I don´t know!). Other sources had told us there was absolutely nothing to see but a ´estatueta de mierda´, in the words of Morgane´s flatmate. But we decided to cautiously stop by anyway to take a peek. On the picture you see the ´estatueta de mierda´, a bear eating fruit of a tree. And the square was not at all the dangerous mayhem battle field we had expected.

In the afternoon, we went to the Parque del Retiro, a big, beautiful park with a lake in the middle on which you can row, which we did! Cool eh? Look at those biceps go!

And then it was time to go back to the bus station... Madrid is a wonderful city with lots of beautiful things to see, as you have just seen, but it is also a very busy city, crowded streets, more criminality (though we luckily didn´t experience any)... So I´m happy to be able to say: I´m going home to my beautiful city of Valencia!

By the sixth hour in the bus I wish we had stayed in Madrid... Normally the bus trip takes 4 hours, but we took over 6 because of bad traffic and accidents! (With other cars through, not with our coach). So by the time we arrived in Valencia it was almost eleven, and we just caught the last metro to the city centre, but of course missed the metro to our part of the city. So we walked to the main square to catch the night bus, and as we approached the square, we heard loud bangs... because we arrived just in time to see the fireworks commemorating the Dia de la Comunidad Valenciana! It was great compensation for our travel misery and the perfect way to end a lovely weekend in Madrid!