adventure to valencia

Well...I can´t believe I did that.

I am at school right now--completely cracked out on espreso--having only slept 2 hours last night. My body feels like it was hit by a truck...but spirits remain high.

Rewind to Sunday...not long after I had come to terms with the fact that my ridiculous plan to follow Andrew Bird to Valencia would not be realized--I received a very important phone call from a friend who was just as interested as I in the endeavor. Vaya! We booked the rental car right away, with plans to meet at the Atocha train station early Monday morning.

Marcelo and Pilar were not too pleased with this plan--though they said nothing, the expression on Pilar´s face was enough to make me feel like a really, really stupid teenager again. It was a combination of extreme skepticism and motherly worry--altogether making for a rather unfortunate and guilt-inspiring feeling inside (considering, I am NOT a teenager, I am an adult, and therefore, the ugly face was as far as poor Pilar could go). But what´s a girl to do? This is the only down side about not living on my own--I have to answer to a whole family of very interested witnesses in the crimes I commit. Luckily Carmen, Pilar´s mom, wasn´t in the room during my proposal. She tends to be much more critical and outspoken.

So I met my friend Carlos at 9 am sharp the next morning to pick up the rental car. The story of Carlos is a long one that I don´t really feel like telling just yet, but I will say that it adds a whole new layer to the adventure of unbelievable randomness and coincidence and fate--considering that aside from seeing him outside the concert in Madrid on Saturday, unable to get in, I had not seen him since I met him during my first days in Spain. Anyhow, we ended up dropping twice as much money as anticipated on the rental car to go as far as Valencia, but we were both willing to make the sacrifice, and by 10 am we were crusing down the highway in our tiny toy Smart car. Hehe.

And it was so beautiful in Valencia! Sunny warm skies greeted us, and we spent most of the afternoon exploring around, making idiotic mistakes that are only to be expected when sincerely flying by the seat of one´s pants. We were rather scarce on resources, such as a map or any other source of knowledge about the city. All we knew was that there was a beach--which I will sadly admit we never found. Haha idiotic.

We had plans to eat some Paella, as aside from oranges, this is the food Valencia is most famous for. But we were both broke after the car rental fiasco, so we eventually opted for the poor man´s dinner in Spain of bread, jamon, cheese and fruit. Complete with a 1 Euro bottle of wine. Yummy. We decided to have our picnic in this wonderful park we stumbled upon, that was set in front of Valencia´s new science and art center. I had NO idea that Valencia had this breathtaking span of futuristic architechture, more or less 10 years old. Designed by architect, artist and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the monuments were intended to celebrate the coming of the 21st century. My most favorite was a giant eyeball that looks as though it is floating in water. It is so insane! From the side, where you can´t see the pupil, it actually looks like a spaceship from which aliens could descend at any time. What!?!! Other monuments were the massive Principe Felipe Museum, a science museum and science center, the L'Hemisferia which houses the Imax theater (as well as a planetarium) and the Palau de les Arts, the beautiful parthenon-like perfoming arts center. At the very edge was Valencia´s aquarium, which is apparently the biggest in all of Europe. I had to tell myself, Next time, when I have more money.

So, we frolicked around this heavenly futureland for a few hours, counting down the minutes until it was time to go see the concert at the very Palau de les Arts mentioned above. If I thought Saturday night´s show in Madrid was intimate--well, I didn´t know what intimate was. We had 5th row seats in this tiny auditorium, where I´m sure the whole entire audience felt as though they were having a cup of tea with Andrew Bird. It was so wonderful!!! The accoustics were insane--my ears could not have been happier. The set list was more or less the same, which was sort of a bummer, but what can you expect from a one man production? And anyway, the delivery was completely distinct. Andrew Bird is an odd fellow. Funny, but awkward, always a little uncomfortable unless he is lost in his music. His heart was on his sleeve; I was not surprised by how obviously nervous he was. The seated audience was calm, I´m sure pleased, but clapped only at appropriate times, offering no other signs of encouragement. His personality was so clearly reflected in the audience´s. In comparison with Madrid´s show, where he was just as light hearted as the 400 or so buzzed fans on a Saturday night, his mood was earnest, stoic even, during the whole of the show. I´m sure his only haven were his songs, which were played with such intesity that I thought he might fall over right there on stage. It was so perfect.

And that´s the end of this story--I will share no more, because the rest of the adventure was a well-worth-it hell. But hey, I made it back in one piece, and now I look forward to tonight´s sleep almost as much as I did last night´s show.