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Kya Travels
I woke up this morning and went up to the terrace to Skype the family for Father's Day. I had a good chat with everyone (except Tiana who was judging) and even got to chat with grandma and grandpa and Max! (Woof!) It was nice to see them again! After that we went for a walk to find some lunch and wandered around the same square we'd eaten at yesterday looking at restaurants, but ended up sitting at the same place as yesterday! This time I got a salad and Darren got a pasta, and we had a chat with the waitress who had served us both days. She was from Poland and was telling us about places to go there if we made it that way, and even suggested if we went to the village she was from that she would get her brother to show us around and we could stay at their parents apartment! So nice! Not sure if we'll make it to Poland though, but we got her email anyway! After lunch we headed back to the hostel for a siesta. We didn't have change for water from the vending machine so I went a few doors down to Starbucks to swap some change then grabbed a water and went up for a snooze. When we woke up we had a bit of time until we had to meet Graham so we chilled in the room and played guitar for a bit, then when he got there, we met him out the front. We made our way out to Mestalla stadium and as we were getting closer and closer you could hear the crowd chanting and singing with each other and there was a cool buzz in the air! We stopped at a restaurant by the stadium where a girl was selling cans of beer for €1, so we bought a couple of those and had a drink and a chat with a group of guys. They had no English but we were able to communicate by saying "Go Valencia!!" After a couple of beers we headed up to the stadium and walked around through the very excited crowd to find our gate, then went in and climbed up and up around a circular ramp to the entrance to our seats, bought ourselves a 2€ beer then went up and up these crazily steep steps to where we were sitting. It was quite high up in the stands, but you could still see quite clearly what was happening on the field, which is good, because there's no big screen or anything! We were sitting in a mixed section, but as it was a home game, most of the people were Valencia supporters. So we sat there in the first half and watched Barcelona score three goals to nothing, all kicked by the same guy. Before halftime Darren and I went down to the toilets and to grab another beer each, then when we came back it was almost half time. When it went into overtime Valencia scored 2 goals in a couple of minutes, which was pretty exciting, everyone was stoked! So the halftime score was 2-3. When it came back for the second half there was a whole different energy in the air, everyone was pumped and the team had a bit of a confidence boost and were playing better. No more points were scored in the whole second half but at one stage the Valencian goalie blocked two goals in two seconds, which was pretty awesome. Then in the overtime Valencia almost scored a few more goals, but just missed, one even hit the post! Pretty exciting game all up, the crowd was pretty hyped up by that stage, but although they tried their best, the game ended still 2-3 to Barcelona. When it was all over, we walked back down the steep stairs. They were playing the Valencia theme which I thought was strange, but apparently they always play the home teams anthem regardless of who wins. We walked back into town then to find something small to eat, tapas or something, but most places were closing up as it was almost midnight. The boys got an ice cream each then we kept walking down and found a place that was still serving. I got a sandwich and Graham got some croquettes, but Darren didn't eat cos he'd had a hot dog and chicken thing at the game. The sandwich was cheap huge and yummy, so I think I won there! We had a bit of a chat to the guys on the next table, who were from all over, they were in Valencia studying language, then when we were done, we said goodbye to Graham and headed back to the hostel and went to bed.
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