So by the time we made it to Spain we were very tired of site seeing, taking pictures etc etc. So the the bulk of our time in Spain was spent going to various beaches. We flew in to Barcelona, spent a morning there and then bused to Valencia. We spent our days in Valencia laying out on the beach and our nights eating Paella and drinking Sangria. The beaches on every town we went to were full of thong wearing topless women, and lots of affectionate couples. We never gave in to those local customs though.

Candice's sister Cheryl met up with us our second day there and traveled with us the rest of the time in Spain as well. In Valencia, Jenny and Lauren also went to see a bullfight (Candice and Cheryl had already seen one when in Spain previously, and they said once was enough.) Despite all the blood, and Jenny feeling sick to her stomach, it was very interesting to see. They start by wearing the bull out with numerous fighter with pink banners. Then they have a man on a horse stab him to injure him, and poke metal things into his spine to further injure him. Then they have the one main bullfighter come out to fight him solo. There is a point system that judges the movements of the bullfighter, how close the bull gets to him, and how well he is able to eventually stab him with his sword to kill him. If the sword does not kill him completely then they come in and stab the bull in the head to kill him completely, rather lovely to watch. There was also one bull (there are numerous bulls and fighters in one event) that the whole crowd was booing at and waving white towels at. The man next to us explained that the crowd was mad because it was a bad bull, its horns were pointed up so the bull could not technically (or as easily), kill the fighter, I guess it takes the thrill out of it. It was interesting, but we did not last for the full three hours, you could only take so many times of blood squirting out of a bull's nose as he shook and died.

After Valencia we went to Benidorm, a very big tourist destination for everyone throughout Europe, and by far the most crowded beach we had ever seen. The beach also had the most umbrellas we had ever seen, though that we understood after laying out for a couple of days in the 40 degree c heat that felt like a desert and was difficult to escape since none of our accommodations had air con.

One night out in Benidorm we came across an English pub (they were somewhat common because so many British people travel there) that we decided to eat at because they had a good cheap dinner deal. It turned out there was a cabaret show that night, so we got our British cultural experience in Benidorm. The cabaret singer and the crowd loved us and knew us as the Hong Kong girls, and Jenny was referred to as "Jenny Wong." We also heard lots of British humor that we usually failed to understand.

After a few days there we went to Alicante. In addition to the beaches in Alicante there were some good markets for shopping where we learned of the large number of African immigrants that are in Spain. So we did the usual laying out and eating and shopped some too.

After a few days in Alicante we bused to Madrid and then flew back to London to end it all!