Vamos a la Playa (y a una cervecería!)

La Festival de las Naciones

Hola amigos!  Boy, was I up late last night.  I think I said that I was going back to la Festival de las Naciones, and that's exactly what I did.  Once again the group moved on Valencia time, but it wasn't as bad this time!!  A group of five of us went, meeting in the river and walking up to the festival.  We got there right around 10:30, when the concert started.  The singer was the winner of La Voz (Spain's version of the Voice) and he was pretty good, although honestly we didn't listen all that much.  Instead, my group walked around to all the different stands, looking at the goods they were selling and trying to figure out what we wanted to eat!!  The first thing we decided on was agua de Valencia (a drink not a food).  This is a cocktail made from  orange juice and some kind of alcohol (I think gin and/or vodka, but I'm not positive).  It's called agua de Valencia because Valencia is known for its oranges and everyone has fresh, completely natural orange juice. Two people got larges, but the rest of us got smalls and had refills from the larges.  It was pretty good, but a bit too bitter for me.  Afterwards we got food.  People went to stands from all over the world, but I wanted a sausage and bread from Argentina (sorry I'm boring, but it was delicious!)

Erin's at a bar!

While wandering around, we ran into another group of UVA students, so we all decided to hang out together.  After eating, we went to watch the concert a bit and to dance (we danced to Gangnam Style).  The concert was wrapping up, and the other group had plans to meet people at a bar, so we all went!  The bar is called Beer and we hung out there for awhile.  The guy at the door (he wasn't a bouncer, but was trying to get people to come in) was really nice and was able to help us out.  He told us some of the better discotecas (more on that later) and gave us different deals to get to the discoteca and to get drinks.  While there, I played two games of fooseball.  My teammate was Adam and after winning our first game against two other UVA students, two Spaniards from Barcelona wanted to play us.  We were creamed (9-0 and the game ended in no time at all), but it was still fun!  We hung out there for awhile, chatting with each other and the bar tender.

Around 1:45 or so we decided to head to a discoteca.  A discoteca is basically a club where all the Spanish teens go to dance.  The guy at the door to Beer gave us directions and when we got close we found people who knew where to go and they took us.  At the discoteca, there were tons of people, lots of club music, and many flashing lights.  I ended up not going in because I didn't want to have to pay and one girl wasn't feeling well, but I want to go back before I leave Valencia!  Four of us took a taxi back to our apartments and I went to bed around 3:30.

The Mediterranean Sea!

This morning, at 11am, I had to be at the soccer stadium (Mestalla) to go to Peñiscola.  Peñiscola is about an hour and a half north of Vthis).  We got to Peñiscola around 1 and went straight to the beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous, the water was blue (although cold), the beaches clean and not crowded, and there was a cute town right behind us.  We ate lunch on the beach and then basically hung out until we had to go up to the castle.
alencia.  It is a little town and fortified sea port where Pope Luna resided at the end of his life.  Well, he wasn't really the Pope when he died, someone else was, but he claimed he was the one true Pope! (If you want to find out more about his life and stubbornness, ask me or read

Inside the castle

A few of us left a bit early so we could take our time going up to the castle.  While wandering up, we stopped for a cup of orange juice, and it was delicious!  There was absolutely nothing in it except pure oranges that had just been squeezed.  I can't wait for another glass!  We then continued meandering up the hill, stopping in some touristy shops along the way.  Once we reached the top, we went into the castle.  The inside was what you would expect, lots of stones.  The walls were high and the windows were few, but it was still really neat.  My favorite part, however, was at the top.  Once you got to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking.  You had to climb really steep steps to get there, but it was totally worth it.  A picture didn't nearly capture everything, but here's a try!  Until next time, I'm off for another adventure!

The view from the top of the castle