The Holy Grail

Our small army assembled and not long after we were on the road to the holy grail. Its paved in cobblestones, has an underground car park to the side and ends in this cathedral. Went for a stroll through the place and saw all sorts of wierd stuff- A blokes arm in a box, a head in a box, statues of angels driving spikes through decapitated heads, Angels waving more decapitated heads, a 16th century canvas of a bloke alive and getting gutted while his entrails were wrapped around a roller someone was turning. Apparently early day missionaries had a pretty hard life. It was wierd seeing so much bling in this place- It was almost on par with the crown jewels display. Im told there was more before, but the silver altar was smelted to make coins to fund the Spanish civil war.

All the gore made us kinda hungry so we shot next door for some tapas- 20 euro for 20 selections which was awesome. The beers though... me and matt lost them in our hands they were that small. We had a boat cruise at 4 to get to so shot through shortly after to the port to meet up with Brad and Teresa.

We jumped onto a a huge 170-person catamaran about 4:30pm and slowly made our way out past the remains of the F1 podiums and track side entertainment and into the Mediterrenean. The water was pretty calm and we pretty much just spent the whole time lazing in the sun on the tarpaulins up front of the Cat chatting to other backpackers. We dropped anchor a while later a few hundred metres offf shore and went for a dip- It was surprising just how warm the water was compared to the indian ocean. I think we all regretted not investing in that inflatable octopus with drink holders after we were treading water and chatting for 30 mins though. It was a pretty awesome cruise hey- cold beers, warm sea and an awesome view of Valencia shrouded by the mountains in the background.

In the arvo we Left Matt and Marco at the hotel and hit the Valencia Oceanogrfico centre with Brad and Teresa. We had been recommended to see a $20 dolphin show- I got told they are fascinating and pretty. Wow- with a price and review like that... We got in about 9pm and found the place closes at midnight (haha.. the first benefit to a country that sleeps during the day) I heard there were pubs inside too so I was sorted. Inside it was pretty similar to underwater world, but many more exhibits. As soon as we got down to the underground tunnel we saw huge 1m wide crabs that grow up to 3.7m getting tangled in coral, the biggest eels I have ever seen and more marine life than you can poke a stick at (or see on the menu at Kailis). We headed into the dolphin show after a bit and werent sure what to expect. When a drum crew rocked up sporting glow in the dark sticks I got a little interested, then the laser show started, along with gas explosions in time with the drumming, and dolphin trainers getting flung a good 12 feet out of the water by dolphins. Yeah- it was pretty worthwhile. Come midnight the huge fireworks show went for a good 15 minutes and topped the night nicely. We left contemplating starting our own aquarium centre and charging people entry, then serving up the displays that night.

The night before we had a bender Spain-style. That is: cheap booze with a side of lunch, tapas, tapas, dinner, tapas, tapas, bed. The pubs near Bradlo's hotel, which is in the University district all have 3x beers for $1! We tried for a pyramid of empties between the group of us (Me, Lyn, Brad, Teresa, Michael, Lee, Matt, Marco, Wilko) but the waitress kept cleaning em before we overfilled the table. Somehow that night we: Celebrated a 21st birthday with Loiuse, Jumped in on a Pub Crawl, Joined with a birthday group with Bar cards, Hit 2 cocktail bars, 5 pubs, a few discotechas ("nightclubs" are brothels) and found a bar that has a beer font at each table. Best night out in a while, and almost every person we ran into spoke english and still had some tomato in their hair haha.

Next morning we caught a sleep in, got sorted (stole tabasco and toiletries from the hotel) and jumped a traino from Valencia to Madrid. I thought the hotel caught on that there were 3 blokes staying in wilko's room when he went to cheeck out and they demanded he pay for another night, but no- turns out they just cant count to 4 nights accommodation, and we were in the clear. Matt n Marco say thanks for the free feed and board.

2 hours left of the train ride... At the moment we are cruising through a pretty barren landscape- The tallest things are the wind farms scattered here and there, then its just little shrubs. It kinda reminds me of the wheatbelt in summer but its not as flat here and the kangaroos have been replaced with olive trees.