Anyhow, so yesterday, I went to the aquarium. Man, was it neat! Well worth the 23 E I paid to get in, however, I didn't even end up having to pay that much! Actually, let me start from the beginning of my awesome money-saving day! Let's see, it starts out in the market. I went to get some fresh food that I could prepare for dinner that night. Well, I got 3 potatoes, 1/2 pound of mushrooms, and a chunk of salmon for under 3.5o E. That's like, less than $5. Simply amazing. Then, never having caught a bus in my life on my own, I jumped on the correct bus (thank goodness) towards the aquarium and had no idea on when or where I was supposed to pay, so I just waited until we made it to my stop. Once there, I tried to offer the bus driver my 1.25 E, but he rambled off something in Spanish and just kinda shooed me off the bus, so I didn't have to pay the bus fare! And thennnn, I got to the aquarium and found out that students get a 3 E discount off general admission! Really can't beat that! So I was feeling pretty good still when I spent 3.10 E on a gigantic thing of popcorn that I knew I couldn't finish. Definitely didn't realize it was that much though, or I for sure wouldn't have bought it in the first place, but even adding that in there, I still came out in the green!
So yes, the aquarium was simply stunning to say the least. I ended up walking back to avoid any more embarrassing bus scenes and once I got back, I made my very odd, but still delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, grilled mushrooms, and salmon. The salmon was delightful even though I had never really prepared it myself before.. and certainly not just a CHUNK of it. It still had the skin on it and everything. . . but that just fell off when it was finished cooking.. Yep. I could sure get used to visiting the market everyday!
Thennnn today, I was set on getting some sun finally and woke up early to head to the beach! I had heard that the bus that went out that way was very rare and kinda hard to catch if you were a tourist. Great. However, after walking all over town and asking the Valencia tourist company, I finally managed to find the bus stop where I was supposed to wait.
Or so I thought. The tourist centre lady told me that the busses ran every hour, and actually, while I was walking to the bus stop, I SAW the bus I was supposed to take. Too bad I was still at least a 10 minute walk from the station. But I did make it to the station, waited for a good hour, and then finally gave up. This bus was not going to come and I was NOT going to waste my day sitting in the shade of the bus station when I could just as easily walk a block to the park and lay out a little.
So that's what I did. I did a little reading and then laid down and took a nap. It was only about 45 minutes or so though, and I woke up because I got really cold. Good thing too, because as I woke up and looked around, I saw dark, ominous clouds starting to roll in. I'm an Indiana girl, I KNOW that means rain. So I packed up and started the 25 minute walk back to my hostel. As the clouds got nearer, I decided to stop in at the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. When I left the store, it was pouring! It even thundered once or twice! But I made my way back through the rain, stopping to try some horchata (yet another traditional Spanish drink) on the way.
So, the day didn't go exactly according to plan, but at least I didn't make it all the way out to the beach just to sit and be cold and then get rained on. Knowing my luck, I wouldn't have been able to catch a bus back either. So really, it's probably all for the best. And since I got back so early, I re-packed all of my stuff and got it all organized for tomorrow's early departure and then went out for a little (okay, a lot of) gelato and a walk. And now it's 20 til 2 in the morning, and I'm guessing I should probably get some sleep if I don't want to be a zombie in Paris. Soooo, until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment