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Valencia - Feburary 1 - Day 1

Wow, we have finally arrived at destination after 4 flights and being up since 4:45 a.m. yesterday. We walked in our apartment at 1:30. It is nice enough and quite big for a European apartment. The shower works well. Not too sure yet how I will do laundry. The heater for the water is gas and everything is in Spanish.

Good sized apartment, including the kitchen
I was so glad that I had learned a bit of Spanish before coming. The caretakers don’t speak a bit of English or French, nada. Last night after Jacques tried to plug the computer to the adapter, there was a big pow and then nothing the whole apartment was in darkness everything was out including our internet. We tried calling the caretakers but with 1,400 words I had not learned the words lights, electricity, or any that I could use to explain. They couldn’t understand. As we had understood that they were coming we waited but nobody showed so after about half an hour, I put on my shoes and went out on the street asking if anybody could speak English or French. After about a dozen tries, I found a woman who spoke a bit of English. I asked her to call Roberto and Elba with my phone to explain what was going on. No answer, so I came back to the apartment. Within a minute my phone rang. It was the owner calling from France, Roberto and Elba had called to tell her that they couldn't understand but that we had some sort of problem. Problem solved in 2 minutes and now I have a marvellous new web site called “Whapsapp’’ that I can talk to anyone on my cell for free, text or even send pictures across the world cellphone to cellphone. Already talked to Odette on it as she was already hooked up. She sent me a picture, but I have yet to figure out how.

We went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 9:00. Slept like a log but my back is very stiff, probably a combination from the plane, the heavy backpack that I was carrying and the very long sleep.

After breakfast we are heading out for the day to visit the famous world market with over 1000 stalls. Groceries are much cheaper than home. Cauliflower (large) are 2 for one euro. That’s about 75 cents apiece. Strawberries fresh 1.99 a kg.