Valencia - Day 2

Three of us got up to explore a bit of the Valencian sights while waiting for the arrival of latecomers Baoey and Lil Miss J. Kt, the sleeping champion chose the bed, opting for a lie-in.

It was a beautiful, warm sunny day which made me kinda realise that I had packed the wrong clothes. Worse yet, the sky was so, so blue and I had forgotten my sunglasses. Boo hoo!

Leesh, J and I stopped by for a pitshop in the shopping centre opposite the City of Arts and Sciences and had breakfast. We utilised our non-existent Spanish, by pointing at food we wanted and tried the Valencian drink, Horchata. It tasted very nice, kinda like soy milk and was quite refreshing. Although, I think I'm slightly allergic as I had an itchy tongue for the rest of the day - ew.

Horchata and me!

Something that you wouldn't expect in relatively small Spanish city is impressive modern architecture. I am far from an architecture buff but this is reason enough to visit Valencia. Maybe it was the impeccable, crisp blue sky and warm weather (24+ degrees! yay!) in the middle of a northern hemisphere winter that enhanced the beauty of the structures and made it even more stunning. I can't remember the purpose of each building but there was an aquarium - L'Oceanographic (cool name eh?) and an opera house in the shape of a white Darth Vader helmet.

Pretty, pretty white buildings with a blue backdrop. No London smog to make those buildings dirty!

J and Leesh taking their photos.

Finally, Lil Miss J, Bao and Kt joined us, squinting like albinos. Like women on a biological clock mission, our sunglasses dilemma was solved when we detoured back into the shopping centre. Lets just say, a group of six Asian, English speaking women isn't exactly a common sight in Valencia and we were a bit of a walking freakshow.

Little did Baoey know, this weekend was her surprise Hen's night - good thing she was Lil' Ms. Oblivion. Knowing that Baoey had packed only inappropriate clothes, we tried unsuccessfully to buy her more 'suitable' attire for a glamour night out. J had a much more fruitful result and bought a dress for Bao and Mona's wedding. Lil Miss J and I bought the same dress! We got a bit sidetracked with shopping Zara (and shopping in general hehe) but eventually clawed our way out.

Walking among the buildings.

Now you see us, now you don't. Aren't we a bunch of cheesy tourists?

We decided not to cab it back to the hotel and enjoy the sun instead, taking a leisurely stroll back to the hotel.

The tree lined avenue towards the hotel.

Okay, so we got a little side-tracked with the shopping and stopped by Mango where J and I both bought dresses to wear tonight. Neither of us packed appropriately! Then there was a quick trip to a local supermarket to sample the Spanish goodies. Look! The basket converts to a trolley. Errr, little did I know that they have these at Sainbury's already.

A nanna nap to help us overcome the exhaustive shopping.

Baoey still had no idea that we had planned a surprise hens and our plans look like they were going to be unstuck when some of us were scrambling around, pretty-ing ourselves not realising that we needed to have congregated in one of the other hotel rooms. It ended up being unecessary fussing as Bao being Bao arrived at the hotel room about 20 minutes later than the scheduled time. Baoey, not managing to buy anything suitable to wear except for 2 pairs of shoes borrowed the Zara dress I bought today. She liked it so much, she kept it. True story!

(L-R, T-B) Picture with no Bao. Bao's hen accessories. Bao and her halo. Picture with Bao! Needless to say, Bao was not please to see we had arranged the night for her. Hehehehe

We managed to fit in a hair braiding session. I think anyone with a Y chromosome would have scratched their eyes out if they were here with us. Too much squealing.

Eating as the Spanish do, we turned up at Navarro for our restaurant reservation at 10pm.

One side of the table. The other side of the table.

(L-R, T-B) Mmmmmm Sangria. Grilled vegies - our first vegie intake! The giant paella. With Bao in the background, yes it is a huge paella. Seriously, I am so sick of paella.

After dinner, we decided to roam through the bar district with the option of having a tipple somewhere. Hmmm, we decided it was a bit too seedy and opted for ice cream instead. Exhausted from the full day and late night, we managed to sleep about about 3am.