Valencia is for lovers... food lovers

Song(dedicated to Rebecca. Should have asked your last name so I could have found you on Facebook. Thanks Sep for song and idea):

Valencia:
I am still travelling alone through Spain with no Spanish skills. This becomes even more of a problem as I have to navigate and try to find my way to random people's places. I was going to see Yasmin. Remember how I wanted to do couchsurfing... well Yasmin is a couch surfing pro. Check her out http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/yasamin/
She is what I strive to be. Having random people sleep on my couch... but really shes an amazing couch surfing host. If anyone is going to Valencia, she has a place for you. No matter how dirty and rude you are. I am sure Yasmin will love me after I've offered her couch up on this shitty blog. Let the homeless people (Soroosh) ask her for a couch. After being lost for an hour cause Spain is horrible at numbering (basically puts evens on one side of street and odds on other but they arent in order). I get to her place and get greeted by her rat... Snickers

Fine its a dog, but as the locals that see the dog say, its a ugly cute dog with a great personality. Remember how I said Madrid had the best deal ever, no Valencia is so much cheaper. Yasmin took me a to a place. Beer + tapa for 1.50. I was shocked

I ate so much for 6 euros and at the end we had a beer left. We tried to offer it to people and no one would take it. I guess everyone was too full. The best place ever. Nima, we have to go to Valencia. The cheapness continues. Also when you come from Paris and you go anywhere (just like New York) every city seems super cheap to you. I like it. Next time I will be only in the cheap cities (although I want to go to London). Head back pass out.

Exploring Valencia:
Next day Yasmin takes me out to explore Valencia. I will explain how Valencia was developed later, but all you have to know is that like Madrid and Barcelona it used to be enclosed by a wall and that area is the old part of the city.

Also like most cities, it used to touch a body of water. Now this river used to flood a lot so they decided to turn it into a park. So there runs a huge park in the middle of the city.

This is from the top of the tower. The bridge used to be a bridge over a river and now you can see they put a soccer field there and a park. It was so pretty. Yasmin said they were thinking of making it a highway... I think they should still make it a high way. Hate fun.
Inside the actual city like all other old cities was a mess of streets but the weather was so beautiful

Xmas tree. Will get to it later

over all a beautiful city.

THE LARGEST INDOOR FOOD MARKET IN EUROPE(its kind of a big deal):

Since my competition(Roshan) puts pictures of food I will do the same so no one can say her blog is better

This is a cake for 3 kings day. Its like double x mas. In it is a plastic stick(?) and a plastic king.
Who ever get the king is king for a day and who ever gets the stick has to buy next years cake.
Its a really funny thing. What if the King plays this with his family and he doesn't get the King piece?

And the best part. Every thing was relatively cheap and everything was fresh. On the bad side. People in Europe are "lazy". As Yasmin would say, there is no such thing as Wal mart where its open 24x7 so a lot of places would close early. This lead to heart break as my favorite place was closed for the rest of my stay. No dolmehs for me.

Paella de Valencia:
If anyone knows me, I don't like sea food. Therefore I've never been fond of Paella, but what made Valencia so great is that their Paella didn't have any sea food but rather chicken breast which I love

Again, best part. For only 8 euros.

Also Valencia is known for its Oranges and the whole city had Orange trees everywhere (don't eat them fobs, they will make you sick).

Cool pictures break:

What is this statue doing?

Now back to me, back to story:
Later on that night, Yasmin make us tachin. She's really the best

Pass out again.

Song (stolen from Yasmin. Really beautiful but have no idea what it says):

BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
The next day we go to the beach and I have to say that Valencia has an amazing beach. Even though it was 70 degrees outside it was still too cold to go into the water.

As were walking by we see the coolest thing ever. Its a statue that makes a boat out of water which leads me to take the best picture I have taken this whole trip

TELL ME HOW GREAT OF A PICTURE THIS IS!!!!!!!!!!

Then I take the bike and go around the park at night. This is where I realized that Valencia is really the best place to Vacation with with a lover. It has a beautiful park, a beach, and amazing buildings. Its just a really romantic place to be.

Best play ground ever:

Its Gulliver. It was really cool. Every part was a slide. Really this is the best thing if you are a kid and I can't think of a cool play ground like this in the states. So sad. We should steal it?

Everyone in Europe Speaks 12 languages...:
I get back to Yasmin's place where one of her roommates. Now this lead me to the most confusing dinner I have ever had.
 Let me introduce the actors in this play

The most important actor in this play. The food.
It was German meatballs.

From left to right.
David's dad - Hailing from Aachen Germany. I know What are the odds. Speaks English, German and understand Dutch.
David - Speaks English, German, and Spanish. Industrial Engineering student. Comes from Aachen. Took Spanish in school for a year and lived in Valencia for 5 months and is fluent now. Still blows my mind.
Yasmin - Speaks Farsi, English, and Spanish. Hails from Atlanta
Jean Pau - Speaks Spanish, Catalin and possibly Valencian. Understand English to an extent. LOVES BARCELONA
Me -  Speak English, Farsi, and can BS saying I know German.

The Stage:
Dinner as the apartment.

The play:
We are sitting around and trying to talk to each other. At certain times David Yasmin and Jean Pau are speaking in spanish. This is done cause David doent want his dad to know. So Yasmin will tell me what is going on in Farsi. Another time Yasmin and Jean Pau are speaking in Spanish. David is explaining it in German to his dad and I am trying to understand the German. Some times David, Davids dad, Yasmin and I are speaking English and then Yasmin explain to Jean Pau what is going on. Needless to say, I have never had such a confusing dinner. It was really cool to see so many languages come together and work... but really, it was super duper confusing.

I leave:
The next day I walk around take pictures of graffiti (will post on Facebook) but before I go I get some Aqua de Valencia which is basically orange juice and champagne and drink the whole thing.

The x mas tree at beginning of post was being taken down. This was very symbolic
as x mas was ending officially and so was my journey. It was really powerful
seeing the end of something

What is the next post and what is going on with me?
I left Valencia and went to Paris and now I am back in the states. Sorry my blog has been a lot of pictures. The next and last post will be better. Holler and love you all

EDIT:
So I like carrousel's and i saw the coolest one ever.

IT HAD REAL HORSES!!!!!!!!!!!

I can taste victory. I hope its ever lasting... like Seppy's beauty.

Song (I will give you what is played at clubs/bars in Madrid/Spain. I take no responsibility for the songs I am putting up):

Hostel:
Not sure why I am giving hostel reviews, but this hostel was super cool. Barcelona Hostel was known to be a party hostel but Cat's Hostel was super chill.

A word of advice for people who are going to go stay in a hostel, do not stay in a room with more than 6 people

We were in a 12 person dorm aka the dungeon. The problem with this is, the light is always off cause you have at least a few people who sleep till 2 am.

As I am writing this, I realize not much happend in Madrid of note, so I will keep it short I think and throw in random pictures

Food for the day:

Churros and chocolate. It was sooo good.
I don't get how this is for breakfast

Value meal of the trip brought to you by Reza Rad and Nima Sadri. Reminding you that Pop Tarts are not worth the money because they don't provide a good nutrition to dollar ratio.

Can't find the name of the place but its a chain in Madrid. Its literally(<- i mean this) everywhere. Even more than McDonalds. But only go on Wednesdays (is it sad that I am so happy about a deal?). Usually they have sandwiches from 1 to 2 euros. BUT on Wednesdays everything on the menu is 1 euro (except for salads, which was 2 euros. we learned this the hard way. punishment for trying to ball out). This is including big... ass pitcher of beer for 1 euro. I know Nima is reading this and thinking about going to Madrid.

We ate so much that even our friend ( btw I was there with a friend from GA Tech (Mellisa/Mahtab/Mahsa and her friend named Kiyana) that we met in our hostel started to throw up

And then he passed out in the middle of the street.

God we should have know. Esfoonie and cheap food = this. Now that I think about it, I actually did this once. Oh god.

Go out:

WC sign at bar

Go to Madrid club. Not sure if I've mentioned it, but you don't get to club till 2 AM.

The weirdest thing, for Nadal(? i think thats x mas) there was a Santa walking around taking pictures with people and obvs with his hugely talented wife... and then randomly those pictures were put on the screen of the club

Contrary to popular belief, hipster love Santa

Things happend. Got mad at a guyish. Felt semi badass but not really. I need to have a temper.

Things I learned that night:

• In Spanish clubs (at least this one) they play an American song for like 2 minutes then they put a house beat at that moment and its remixed. EVERY SONG WAS LIKE THIS. 

                                                ^ this song actually came on and the place went crazy

• Spanish girls are really good at moving
• Spanish guys will
•  tell a girl anything to get with them
• I love you
• I only want you
• I only want to kiss you
• I like your personality
• they will also want to kiss really quickly
• I don't like clubs?
• I don't like talking to random people
• I am socially anxious
• Fear of rejection
• Hard to talk to someone with bad English
• People I don't get girls. If you had that misconception I would like to clarify.
• We all want to live a fantasy where we get girls all the time, but I am not one of those guys

Real Madrid Stadium:

Next day, wake up super late but make it out to Madrid stadium

WHAT NICE STACHES!!!!!!!!!!

The were shining light on grass cause it was so gloomy they
wanted to make sure the grass wouldn't die.

Like a boss.

Overall impression, Madrid is more suit than Barcelona so I like it more. The stadium is also nicer

Xabi <3 Kaka, a love story:

The end

Flamenco dancing:

So the video sucks and its upside down. They said you cant record but I tried. Failed in the process. I like shows with stories. I zoned out during the dance. It was good though.

LAST DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went on a walking tour. Our tour guide was super lazyy. Thats what you get when there is no tip. Really didn't know anything. But I did see

The oldest running restaurant. Since I think 1772? So far I have seen the oldest in the world and US. WHAT WHAT!?!?!?

Royal Palace.

Some church that had graves all around it. SO WEIRD

THE COOLEST PARK EVER. It used to be the Royal Park but no one goes there anymore. It was empty. It was so weird. I fell in love with it. Its my favorite park ever

More songs (apparently this is really cool in Spain? And has a dance? Honestly it was all American songs, Pit Bull and this song when you go out. Kinda annoying):

Difference between Spanish and French:

• Spanish more passionate
• More loving
• Live life more
• Dont dress as well though
• Touch each other a lot

I leave you with this:

This post was kinda short I think and not that many stories. Tons of pictures though. Stay black yall and leave you with people playing on the metro

Update on the "blog war":

As I type this I have more followers than Roshan and Seppy. Also I have about 3170 views and Seppy has about 3180 views. Its in reach now.

I am back in Paris. Went to Valencia. Loved it. Took the best picture ever.

Random chats:

me:  youve seen seppys post?

 Rosa:  no i dont read his blog