Barcelona to Valencia, Spain

We woke up around 9, got ready and went out for coffee and a croissant.  I forgot to mention, that during our stay, every morning, we would hear a man calling out what sounded like "hello" at steady intervals. We would call back to him! We could never see him from our apartment, but like clockwork, we heard him daily. On our last day, while out looking for breakfast, we heard him. He was close. We got to the street where he would be passing us, to learn that he was collecting or refilling these orange tanks. We saw one on the balcony across from us.

We were in the neighbourhood of that cool one of a kind, hand died dress store Gamaya, so we went to take a look. The owner is very cool. A clean hippie-like attractive Maggie Gyllenhall-esque. As we tried stuff on she showed us how to change up the style by tying the wrap differently or adding a belt. All her dresses were modular and flowing. Very cool. I bought two, and a belt and Leslie bought a second.

Contemplating my purchase

Picking out dresses for Leslie.

We headed back and packed up and tidied the flat, as Roc showed up. He helped us out and told us how to take the metro to the train station. We opted for the taxi route, as it was faster and our bags were heavy, and would end up costing like 10 euros. We got there in good time, accept that as we pulled in Shay realized he forgot his wedding ring in the bathroom!

We ran into the station. Got our tickets printed…a nice man helped us use the Spanish instant ticket booths, and found a payphone. It sadly took us a long time to figure out how to work the land line. Shay got a hold of Roc who had the ring. I wanted Shay to pay for him to come to us, but I guess Roc didn’t want to do that, so Shay had to rush there then try to rush back to catch the train. He had 40 minutes.

We had all the bags, Shay's included, and the instruction to board the train no matter what. We waited until there were 10 minutes left to board, but then decided we better make our way on. It was a good thing we did because you had to get downstairs to the platform and then locate our train. Trains were not announced, and left when the platform emptied, or at the time of departure.

Leslie and I boarded the very spacious train, found our seats. Loading the train took a long time, as people entered the car from both sides making it impossible to pass to get to your seat. This was difficult while carrying all of that luggage! I kept looking for Shay until I felt the train start to move. I frantically asked Leslie if we were moving, as we anxiously watched the platform for any trace of Shay. We were indeed speeding out of the station, right on time as I sadly glanced at the empty seat beside us. I was worried and anxious about Shay.

He somehow texted me and despite my wireless being off, I got the message. He was on the next train (it would leave 2 hours later). It was a three hour ride, so by the time we got there, he would just be getting on the train. Sad.

I was happy to know he got back to the station safely and got another ticket. I hoped that they refunded it for him, because a few stops later, his seat had been resold already to someone else.

Looooong night.

We arrived in Valencia in good time. At the station, we lugged the bags out of the station and caught a taxi outside. 

We showed him the address, another pedestrian only street, that he used a mapbook to locate. He got us there in about 7 minutes, and it cost about 5 euros. Not bad.

We got dropped off beside a tiny bar in front of a door with a giant 3 painted above it. There were buzzers but I had no idea which buzzer to press. Just as we were about to begin knocking on doors and ringing buzzers, Marina came by on a bike calling out my name.

She let us in and helped us up the 4 flights of stairs with our bags. She showed us around the two story very spacious apartment, and gave us pointers on places to see and restaurants to eat at.

Washroom...much cleaner!

Kitchen

Circle staircase to the second floor

Shay and my bedroom

Leslie's Bedroom

View from Leslie's large windows

Beautiful, beautiful AC units

View from the living room...cat sanctuary

More apartment views!

Our location, via google maps

A cool shop in the neighbourhood

Free wifi!

We actually used the wifi here instead. It was happy hour. Everything, including drinks for a 1 euro

Better view of the cat sanctuary

Leslie and I decided to go down to a restaurant that had wifi, as the wifi in our apartment was not working properly, and wait to hear from Shay. We found a Cervezeria that was having happy hour. 1 euro pints and tapas. It was packed. We waited around till 8, but heard nothing.

Shay's train was supposed to be in at 830. It took us no time to get in, and he said he would message me from the train when he was close, so we were wondering where he was and why he hadn't contacted us yet. I had messaged him the address, which was hard enough to find, and the address of the pub we were at, because we weren't sure when we would get wifi again. We weren't sure where if  he would show up. He had told me he was buying a phone card from Vodaphone, so I was wondering why I hadn't heard from him yet.

We split up. Leslie stayed at the apartment and I stayed at the restaurant…he didn’t show up.

At around 9:00, we went back to the apartment. The wifi was fixed, so we stayed at the apartment and tried to text him. Nothing. Another hour went by.

I thought I saw him aimlessly wandering through the alley. I screamed his name, then ran down the four flights of stairs and down the alley.

It wasn't him.

It was dark now. Another half hour went by, of me staring out the window feeling helpless. It was now two hours past the time he should have arrived. I didn't know what to do, or how to find him. I didn't even know if he had made it on the train. I was visualizing myself having to try to explain to the Spanish police that I lost my husband and that he has not made it from Barcelona yet, or having to identify a body somewhere. He is very good at communicating and keeping me posted on his whereabouts, so I was trying to figure out what happened.  I was trying to persuade myself that maybe his phone died, but I couldn't stop imagining him being jumped and having his phone stolen, and him lying in a Spanish ditch somewhere with no ID or money.

Out of nowhere, I get a text.

He is downstairs at the bar…having a drink. I ran down to see him.  Emotional. He laughs. Not impressed.

His version:

He missed the train, and waited around for an hour and a half to catch the next one. He met some Irish blokes going to a big concert. He rode with them the whole way, as they bought each other rounds of drinks.

He was extremely concerned about his worried wife!

The train was slow and late, and packed with people going to this big concert. He had a Vodaphone SIM card, but couldn't get it working. He got off the train in Valencia, got a taxi to the market, and wandered around the market until he found the address. He got a safety pin from the bar and put in his other SIM card and texted me, all the while getting drinks on the patio.

Our experiences differed slightly.

We went out for dinner at Sesame, a nice little restaurant around the corner. The staff are very friendly and like to speak English with you. Our waitress had been to Canada and loved it there. She had seen more of it than we had! The tapas were ok. They were Mediterrean/Middle Eastern themed. We ate, and strolled around. Everything was closed around 11. The restaurant was waiting for us to eat so they could shut down. Very different from Barcelona where people go out to eat at 11pm!!