The Hostel itself was fine, more than fine even. They had a 24 hour open reception with at lest two members of staff there at all times who spoke a number of languages, English included, and I was kicking myself a bit as I wanted to try and check in using only Spanish but being an international hostel the first thing that they said was hello and like an idiot I forgot where I was or what my plans were and said hello back in English and from that moment on there is really no going back or pretending that I know Spanish.
It is a bit like the old comedy sketch / film with Rik Mayall and Stephen Fry, where they were always going on about the way to trick a spy into giving away their nationality is to punch them in the stomuch, and the language which they use in obsenities as they stuggle for breath is their native language and thus also shows from where they come from.
At the hostel I was given a security card for the doors and a purple business card that had my details on it and I had to show it every time I entered or reentered the building. There was a pool table, a bar, a laundrette { only available form 8am to 10pm after which it is locked up even if it has your clothes, which I found to my cost on the first night }, separate showers and toilets on every floor for the guests and the common room had lots of fliers and brouchers not just about other hostels but also about things to do in the region which was good.
A great idea that I had not really seen much in other places was fliers with perforated tear of mini strips at the bottom which had all the key information on them, the logic being that if you liked the advert you could just take a tear off strip that would give you the name, address, telephone number and email address so you could did not have to try and write it down or worry that you took the information down incorrectly.
It was an idea that has taken off a lot in both Barcelona and Valencia, and often I saw in shop windows the same or fly posters in alleyways and short roads the same style of advertising, so I can see that it really works and I would suggest that it be adopted at least in every good hostel around the world.
No, the only bad thing about my stay in Valencia was that I was in a ten bed dorm and all around me were a bunch of party animal Germans who being a group and clearly speaking only German I could neither understand a word they said nor really intrude or tag along with them. When I went down to the main hangout and chill room there was no one staffing the bar that I could see and the pool table was in poor shape and really could do with having a new cloth as it as frayed in many places, the cushions were unresponsive and also it has not been levelled recently either so there was a slope to one side that prevented soft shots from going down.
Everywhere I looked there seemed to be either big groups or couples, no single person of either sex just sitting there doing not much that I could go up to and start a conversation, so for this reason I did not stay that long in the bar and instead decided to go for a wander down by the beach.
Purchasing a ticket for the metro underground was not a problem, but finding the metro station was as there is not that many stations in Valencia, and the ones that are are in very much the same area so you might have at least a ten minute walk to find one.
My biggest moan, if you can call it that, about Valencia is that although it is very beautiful to look at when you find a great big building, fountain or park but there are also many broken down houses and streets, and more frustrating is that there are so many small streets and sidings that they are not all shown or labelled on the maps, as to do so you would need a double A1 size map. I am so very glad that I took a compass as well as a map as here more than in any other city I noticed other visitors staring blankly at their maps and trying hard to see where they were.
At one stage I managed to travel along five different roads and none of them were considered big enough to include their names on the map, or even on the road index and so for awhile I was totally lost even with a map and compass, and what completed the frustration was that the designers of my map had chosen to have due north being towards the left hand side of the page, not the top like most maps, and so often I would face it correctly to read the names and get my bearings and then forget that I had to reorient it before using it to get a directional heading with my compass.
But all that aside, I did manage to find the metro station, obtain a ten journey card and then head off towards the beach. There are two metro routes that take you to the beach, but only the indirect one does not include a change of trams. Thus it was that I was totally confused when I was asked to leave the bus at its termination in the middle of nowhere, only halfway towards my objective.
After a short delay I made it to the beach and was greated by a long stretch of soft golden sand, sun loungers and the typical round sun shade umbrellas. The temperature had reached about 26 degrees, the waves were lapping gentle and it amazed me that during the middle of the day, with no shops or restaurants open that the place was not packed full of locals and tourists alike. There is an old song and saying that only 'mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun', but here was a beautiful place to go and lounge for a bit, catch a suntan and have no worries for a few hours and the place was almost deserted.
I stayed for awhile soaking up the sun, not being brave enough to take a dip in the sea as I had nowhere and noone to leave my wallet, map and such with, and although they would probably have been safe as there was only a few people about it was still a beach and theives still do operate even when the place is not that packed, before deciding to head on back to the hostel and see where else I could visit.
On my way back I passed through an area that I read somewhere on the internet, whilst buffing up on my local info, was considered to be a 'notorious red light district, especially at night', however I am sure that either times had changed, the author was either incorrect about the location or else they had never been to another red light district in their lives as there was absolutely nothing there or any discernable image to suggest anything at all. Not a single neon signed bar or strip club and not a single hooker standing on a street corner.
Now not that I make it my business to visit every red light district that I can find, but having worked in London and passed through Amsterdam and Zurich I have formed a rough idea of what makes an area red light and this place seemed far from what I have come to expect from such regions.
Arriving back in the hostel I had found that I had missed my change to visit the newly built Science and leisure complex to the south east of the city, as there was no metro station along the way and I would not have enough time to find and walk to the correct bus stop that would take me there before the main attractions closed at around 6pm. However I did notice that there you could visit a cafe that were having a show of Flemenco performers, albeit not until 11:30pm, so I tried to get a bit of rest during the earlu evening in order that I could stay up late enough to enjoy the show.
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