Valencia, Spain

Saturday morning and I roll into the in the country's biggest college/beach/party town with my Australian friend at 6am after a long stop-filled 10 hour overnight bus ride with no reservations for a place to stay. No bed, no clue, but the night shift at the hostel we wanted to stay at is ending and the clerk at the desk offers to let us crash at his flat. Oh, yes.

We sleep for a while and then wake up for a guided tour of the city. The Mediterranean is just as I remember it being; big and green. The old part of the city with small building is in endangered of being leveled for condos near the beach. The quickening cycle of gentrification is present in modern cities worldwide. Lunch at a university campus cafeteria which was perhaps the best value for a meal I have had so far in Spain.

There are a lot of universities in this city that rise up like huge Lego blocks educating the masses. But the masses seem like they just want to throw down. This is the ferry port to Ibiza. The place is bumping at night, the clubs here must be sweet (there is a Pasha here) and the live music I imagine is pretty good. It reminds me of Austin, if only by the sea and filled with Spaniards. This is the kinda of place where cute girls skateboard to the corner store to get another 2 liter bottle of cheap beer. We went out with a few friends before the exhaustion hit us. I was in the back seat of a small Volkswagen with an Australian and a Pole with the Spanish guys up front were singing and clapping to Manu Chao. Oh, yes.