Renfe is like an Amtrack. Just as expensive, but amazing.
Aliza and I spent our 2nd shabbos in Valencia, Spain.
We chose all of our shabbos spots based on where Chabad is, because who can survive without food?! Not us.
Straight from school, we left for the train station.
We lugged all of our clothing/food/books with us to and from school in fear of missing the train.
We were pleasantly surprised when we were early, but took our seats on the train for a quick rest before the train started to move.
Everything on Renfe was amazing:
The seats, the tray tables (which I’m using right now to write my blog), and even the bathroom (clearly my favorite part of all trips) were so high-tech and COOL.
The ride was only an hour and a half, being that this was an AVE- fast train.
We got to Valencia and with our mapquest-ed directions started our journey to the Florida Hotel.
Normally, Aliza and I are great at directions… HOWEVER, this one time we made a left turn instead of a right turn.
That stupid left threw us off completely. We had no idea where we were, but thankfully knew how to say:
“Perdon, Donde esta la Calle de Padila.”
No one knew what we were saying when we asked because the double LL is a problem for us, it just doesn’t roll off our tongues like it does for those Spaniards!
So finally, we meet a guy who tells us how to get there. We walk in the right direction, not realizing that we had passed the right street. We continued forward, just as clueless as we had been from the start.
Again, we asked a man to help us but he, too had no idea.
Even a Sanitary department street cleaner stopped to try and help us. (He gave us a map from his pocket… Gd knows where that came from!)
After going back-and-forth and passing our block about 10 times, we FINALLY got into a taxi.
Taxis here start at 3,20 euros…. Our taxi was 3,90.
Embarrassing much? I think so.
When we check in, we are surprised to see how beautiful our room is. NOT.
It is not very- Florida like, nor is it Hotel-like.
It clearly explains how we were each paying 25euros a night.
When you walk in, there’s a bed. That’s really it.
There was also a bathroom, but the room was so teenshky, that the door was a rolling door (you know, to conserve space).
We were very happy with it though. We just needed to sleep.
We started our adventure by walking toward the Chabad house to make sure we knew where to go when shabbos started (still no eiruv in this country!)
We made it there safely and stood at the door for a few minutes to make sure we got the right place. While standing there, a women (who lives in the building) turned to us and said “El ginocolejio no functiona” (or something like that).
We were cracking up – she thought we needed to go to the gino and we were too nervous to go in, but really we were just making sure that the address was correct!
We then turned back to our hotel, partly running, away from this creepy woman who thought one of us needed help… don’t worry. We know we’re in Spain, but we’re not partying THAT hard!
On the way back, we walked down Calle de Ruzafo. It was a nice quad with many stores. We walked in and out of each one, still empty-handed.
Maybe one day we’ll buy clothing in this country… one day…
Shabbos started at 9:00PM.
When we spoke to Mrs. Chabad, she told us that there is no minyan and we should come to the house at 9:00.
As always, we were prompt and at their door at 9PM (and grateful not to see the old woman again!)
It was really awkward when we got there. They have 4 kids (the oldest is 4 and a half). They spoke Hebrew and Spanish – but understood English. The communication was off, but it was okay.
When talking to the wife, she didn’t really get how frum we were or what we were. She asked if we knew Hebrew and if we were part of Chabad or ever dealt with them before…
We started to daven (because, yes, we know how) and were SO happy when other people came through the door. There were two couples who were not frum that came. There was an Israeli (like us) who was visiting her not-frum cousins, and two guys who were between 25-30 years old. (We were told that one of the 25-30 year old boys was bar mitzvahed the week before!)
After they davened, we all prepared dinner and began to eat.
Dinner consisted of: challah, Israeli-salads, and fried-fish balls.
Just goes to show that there really is no kosher food in this country!
Dinner was nice; it was definitely different from last shabbos, because in Madrid there are tourists, but here, in Valencia, there is no one frum at all.
It was nice to hear the way the rabbi spoke and gave over his dvrei torah and it was especially nice to hear the people ask questions about what he was talking about… it’s really just a totally different lifestyle from us.
Finally, at 12:40AM we left their house. The second we got into bed, we passed out.
The great thing about Chabad is that shachris starts at 10:30AM, so we got to sleep late!
Davening was quick and lunch was the same food as dinner was, so Aliza and I were quite hungry.
We quickly benched and left because the lack of communication (because we all speak different languages) was getting a bit awkward...
When we thanked them for their hospitality, because they really were so sweet, they invited us to come for Havdalah, which was great because we'd rather hear a real havdalah then have to say it over crystal light iced tea and the two candle sticks we have!
When we got back to the 'hotel,' the bathroom light and air conditioner were off. It was really annoying at first, but then we just ate (salami - thanks abba!), read, and slept, so it wasn't so bad. When we woke up from our nap and realized it was only 6, we knew we had a problem.
It was too hot and we couldn't be in our room until shabbos was over at 10:15, so Aliza chose a place on the map and we decided that we would walk to it.
It turns out, that the place we went to was the original gate of Valencia (we took the bus tours on sunday and they told us!). It looked like a huge castle and when you climbed to the top, you could see Barcelona and Madrid on its two sides. It was really cool looking over, but FRIGHTENING looking down!
By that time, it was only 745 and we had a long way to go, so we sat on a bench for a while and then decided after some time to walk around.
Walking around meant that we got lost in this huge-old city. It felt like we were walking down the roads of Yerushalyim, with cobblestone and old buildings.
As we walked through the town square, there were mini concerts being set up all over. There were churches all over the place and we saw two brides walking through the square... we also came upon a Renaissance/Medieval Fair. We walked through it and it was hilarious to see what these people were dressed as and what they were selling.
The best was a little merry-go-round that was being moved by a dressed up peddler... he was sitting on a bicycle and it spun the merry-go-round.
At about 8:30-9, we started in the direction of the Chabad House.
We didn't know what to do with ourselves and were nervous to go to Chabad early because it might be awkward!
We found a little grassy area near a gorgeous fountain and sat there for a while. There was a nice breeze from the fountain, so thankfully it wasn't too hot.
A little before 10, we arrived at Chabad. Thankfully, Rabbi was davening and Rebbitzen was saying her pirkei avot. Aliza and I played with the kids, which meant we just laughed at them because they were making up stories and just walking in circles.
A girl who had been at the Chabad house came for Havdalah, too. She is originally from Colombia but her and her family made aliyah to Israel 5 years ago. She was in Valencia visiting non-religious cousins, so she was at the Chabad for shabbat (like us).
When she showed up, the atmosphere was a little less awkward because she spoke both hebrew and spanish, so it was nice!
When havdalah ended, Rebitzen insisted that we stay for Melava Malka, so we did.
Again, we took out the salads - but she also made us omelets, which were great!
We spotted a Heinz ketchup bottle and were so confused because Aliza and I didn't think that the Heinz here was kosher - so when we asked her where the OU was and she showed us, we felt so dumb!
(now all we want is to buy ketchup!)
Sunday morning, we met the Columbian/Israeli at our hotel. She had no one to spend the day with, so we invited her to come along...
Originally, our plan was to go to a museum and then the beach, but the two were too far from each other... so instead, we went on the Valencian bus tours (I know, lame - right!?). But, it was actually really cool to see different parts of Valencia and then... one stop was the BEACH!!!!!
We spent four hours there and Aliza and I are burned to a crisp.
It's just so great how we could probably fry eggs on our thighs because there is so much heat radiating from us!
But it's okay, because Abba - my thighs are no longer the same color as Edward Cullen's white face -- it is now a gorgeous shade of rosey-pink.
Hope you all had as great of a weekend as I did!!
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