The first day in Valencia has come and gone and I am tuckered out! (If I fall asleep while typing this you will understand why when you hear all I have been doing!)

First a quick update on my day of travel to get here. So I was pretty nervous about the long flights. Being a bigger girl I usually try to get an upgraded seat but it wasn’t an option for this flight. It was just too expensive. Part of my apprehension came from a bad experience I had a few years ago where a woman made a scene because I had to sit next to her.  It was very embarrassing. Anyway, I was nervous something like that would happen and the flight would be a nightmare.

Well, it was a long, exhausting day of travel but luckily nothing too terrible happened.  It was uncomfortable and things were definitely tight but I made it through. The Paris airport was a maze and very overwhelming- probably the  most complicated airport I have ever seen in my life. But after 16 hours of travel I made it to Valencia and my sister Anna was there to greet me. What a nice smiling face to see! Once we got to my sister’s apartment we went to thai food of all things. Despite it being after 6 pm none of the restaurants were open.  I have learned quickly that you have to eat late in Spain! 9 pm is the opening time for some of these restaurants.

After dinner I had been going on 48 hours with no sleep and my body felt it, so we went home and crashed. I woke up early in the morning because of the jetlag and then Anna and her boyfriend Steve and I went to a neighboring restaurant for a baguette sandwich that was fine but kind of boring. After that Anna and Steve both had to work/go to class so I was on my own.  I took a taxi to the beach and as you can see from this photograph was in heaven!

I was a little nervous about going to the beach by myself because I didn’t want anything to happen to my stuff but I put my phone and other valuables in my safe swimmer which kept everything dry. There was a man selling chair and ‘umbrella’ space and that was well worth it. I got to enjoy the sun and ocean without being over-exposed to it. I was in heaven!

Here is a little video clip I took of me in the water!

I stayed at the beach for 5 hours and loved every minute of it.  The water was the perfect temperature and it wasn’t too crowded to make it unfun.

Then I went and met Steve for dinner but again everything was closed so we ended up going to Burger King of all places but I was so hungry it didn’t really matter.

Once we finished dinner we met up with my sister for a concert of salsa music.  It was so much fun and made me feel right at home in Spain.

Here’s a clip of some of the music.

A bunch of couples started dancing along which was fun to see!

Here is Anna and I at the City of Arts and Sciences building where the concert took place.

Finally we made our way home and I am one tired gal!

So that was the travel and my first day in Spain. What a busy great way to start out my trip! More updates to come