Barcelona to Valencia, Spain

After Anthony and I spent our first 4 nights in Barcelona, where we visited just about all of the "tourist attractions, walked more then we should have, and stumbled across some hidden gems, we had to wake up at 7:30am to make a train ride, 45 min walk away, at 9:30am. Keep in mind that we have been waking up past 10am almost every night since being in Spain, the time change and late night atmosphere here got to us. We pack up our packs and hit the road.

At the train station we had our first pastry and cafe de leche. It was bomb. We also saw, what we thought, a police officer who was at the low alert with his shotgun just walking around, not too sketch though! We had to ask a worker how to get to Valencia from the ticket we had purchased, they let us through the special entrance and we got on the train no problems.

The train ride took us 5.5 hours, but normally takes 3.5 hours, because we got a cheaper ticket and ate the 2 hours difference.

On the train ride to Valencia it was pretty mesmerizing as we went by the Mediterranean Spanish coast line and saw rural Spain. I broke out one of the two books I brought with me, The Alchemist, my second favorite book. I read 100 pages of that book and finished half the book on the train ride.

Because Anthony and I have been waking up so late, and having to walk 45 minutes with 50lbs on our backs at 8am, we were naturally tired. After 4.5 hours on the train, I took a little 20 minute nap and woke up to Anthony telling me that we are are our exit. I grabbed my backpack and got off the train with Anthony, noticing how almost no body else got off that exit, I thought something was up... We got off on the wrong exit...

We get out and am contemplating walking from this station to the city of Valencia, this would have been a 1.5 hour+ walk... We had to talk to a security guard who didn't speak any English and decided to just wait for the next train. We hopped on the next train about 20 minutes later and ended up making it in to the city of Valencia, Spain.

I have never seen such a train station like the one in Valencia. It was out of this world and I'm so thankful I got to experience that. This was my first time taking a train like this in my life. Right next to the train station was a McDonald's (of course) then Anthony and I went in to to see if they had free WiFi so that we could actually find where we had to go to find our hostel we would be staying at (Purple Nest).

They also sold beer in McDonald's here too. It was the place to be it seemed like. We found out where we were going and started walking in that direction. We made it to the hostel around 3:30pm, checked in and dropped our packs off. We then took my camera out and started roaming this new city we arrived in.

Valencia quickly stole Anthony and I's hearts as we walked around, feeling the community vibes, the historic architecture, and the jaw dropping scenery.

We met up with a 21 year old Canadian brewer (Liam), who has been brewing for 3 years, out in Valencia. We all naturally ended up becoming friends and hanging out that night and all the next day. The first night in Valencia we had some Agua De Valencia (gin, vodka, champagne, Valencia orange juice, and sugar) and met some other guys/girls in our hostel. Lucky for us, everyone there liked, and knew, beer. One guy even homebrewed many times and has a brother who is a brewer. We decided to go out on our first pub crawl that night after pounding 20ounce pours of their "Coors" and 2 small glasses of that Agua De Valencia. We go out that night to three/four different bars where we all got pretty hammered to say the least... I didn't really like the second bar so my new 35year old friend, Kevin, from Dublin, Liam and I head out to an Irish pub to pound a beer and talk.

We meet back up with the crew and head on out to the 3rd pub where Kevin buys me a big ass adios mother fucker looking drink that lit up in the dim light haha. It was so damn good!

I tried going up to some Spanish senoritas in the bar and they were feeling me! But my drunk un-spanish ass could not communicate and ended up going outside for a smoke break. Mind you its about 2:30-3am at this time. Kevin and I then head back to the hostel where we get locked out for 30 minutes... and it was raining outside too. We get in and pass out around 3:30-4am. Anthony or Liam wasn't with us...

I woke up the next morning at about 10:45am and Anthony wasn't in the bunk above me... I head down to the communal area and 20 minutes later he arrives at the hostel, thank god...

We decide to go on our first "free" tour at 11:30am. We met some awesome people from going on that little tour, learned about the amazing history of Valencia, and got small insight to living in the city. After the tour, we go back to the hostel to take a little siesta.

Now its about 5pm on a Firday, the streets are dead, and our hungover asses head to the corner shop, "The Meet Up" where they have 1.50 euro pints and 2-3euro tapas/food. Naturally our new favorite place because of price point. After grabbing our first tapas and some cheap beer we head back to the hostel to grab our "sandwiches", we go down to the park that used to be a river that Valencia is built around to much on some "Sandos"with Liam and Anthony. After becoming nice and full, eating around the park, we end up at a soccer field and an underground group of kids play sword fighting. They all took their play/sports so serious. We watched them in amazement for a good hour/hour and a half.

It was now dark and we decided to just walk around the town with a tall boy of cheap, 1 euro, lagers from the supermerecat. Anthony and I get to guiding our young brewer mentee about the ways of life. Taoism, the soul of the universe, brewing info., and about life. It was an awesome walk and talk!

We then head back to the hostel for 2 more beers and another sandwich. Start walking around again and end up at the bar area and decide to go in to one. It was packed and it was awesome. We just had one beer there until we went back to the hostel for bed, at 1:30am. We woke up the next day, Saturday, and got some work done before planning to go out for our last night in Valencia!

We are heading down to Alicante, Spain for the next 3 nights on Sunday!

Until the next adventure!

Cheers!

Ty Stevenson