After much contemplation on whether I should do this trip or not I finally pushed myself into going. I had been thinking about going away and wanted to go with a friend, having asked and no-one being able to go, I decided then that I would go alone. In this situation it was easier said than done. I started with booking off my holiday from work, one week later it was confirmed; I then started to have doubts and thought ‘what was I doing’. I held off from booking my flights and accommodation, believing that I wouldn’t actually go. As time drew closer, the 3 things that kept going over in my head were ‘you have nothing to lose’, its only 3 days’ and ‘I can survive’. I logged onto easyjet and found direct flights to Valencia in Spain for £28.99 return. I found myself booking my flights as they were so cheap. My flights were booked two weeks before flying out. At this point I was still not convinced. Now into the week that I was supposed to be leaving, I pushed myself to book my accommodation; this is the point where it all became too real. I am committed now.
My departure airport for my flight was Gatwick Airport, my flight departure was for 07:40AM (GMT), I always try to leave 3 hours before my flight so I split my time into an hour or so for travelling to the airport and having time for delays and other circumstances out of my control. I left at 05:15AM (GMT) and caught a bus to Finsbury Park Station. As soon as I walked to the entrance, me being me thinking the underground was open to my surprise it was not. I had to wait 15 minutes until it had opened, by then I had missed my train to gatwick and started to panic as the next train would get me to the airport an hour before departure and half an hour before the gate closes. As the next train for me to get on arrived, I felt a mix of emotions; happiness mixed with being worried because my solo trip was just beginning and worried that I wouldn’t make my flight.
As I turned up to the airport I was still in the mindset of what have I gotten myself into. When it got to the point of boarding the plane and found my seat I was still nervous as thoughts of being by myself started to occupy my mind, that there was no-one that I was meeting on the opposite side of this flight. Further thoughts of being in a city and not knowing the language was a factor that also worried me. The challenges that I would have to face would be to adjust and be able to learn whilst I was experiencing this
As the days went by I was getting more used to being my own company and not relying on somebody else to get up and go explore Spain. Leading into the third day I was used to getting up and doing stuff throughout the day and felt more settled about this solo trip. After getting into a routine when it came to the last day I didn’t want to leave. By the end of the trip I felt a sense of accomplishment. The freedom of experiencing this solo trip allowed me to do what I wanted as and when I wanted , the freedom of not having to rely on somebody else to decide what we would do for the day , it was a challenge indeed, but I enjoyed it. I can definitely say that it has been an experience and wished I had taken it sooner. It was my first and certainly won’t be my last solo trip.
I arrived in Valencia at 11:00AM, I made my way through passport control and was met by the owners of the Airbnb apartment that I was staying at. They waited with a sign for me and drove me to the accommodation. The Airbnb apartment was a shared flat, my room was a double room and shared kitchen and bathroom area. They showed me how to unlock the doors with the given code. I then took a nap as I wanted to explore the city centre for the night and grab dinner. As the apartment came with individual fridges in each room I walked to the closest supermarket and bought some basic stuff such as water, juice, bread, eggs and some snacks. The metro was a 5 minute walk and cost only €3.90 The stop to get to the city centre was Pl. Espanya, it included shops such as Primark, Mango, H&M, Kiehl’s. It was about 9PM now, I stumbled across a buffet restaurant called Muerde La Pasta, it costs a total of €10.95 and had a variety of pastas, Pizzas and salads as main courses and cakes, ice cream and pudding for dessert.
The first night wasn’t so bad, I woke up and had the realisation that I was no longer in London. I wanted to explore the town centre’s attractions for the day. Waking up at 9:00AM and leaving by 11:00AM, I got the train to Companar. The first landmark I visited was the Valencia Cathedral. After visiting the Cathedral I walked around and found a small coffee shop. I ordered the Thick Hot Chocolate and Banoffee Pie. I ended the night with going for dinner and tragically the place I wanted to go was fully booked due to its popularity, I then had to quickly find elsewhere to eat dinner. I found a small restaurant 10 minutes from my apartment which was fairly priced; I ordered the salmon and prawn tagliatelle with a glass of Sangria which came to a total of €12.90.
For day 3 of my trip I had planned to go to L’Oceanogràfic and The Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, which was the Aquarium and Science Museum. I left at 11:30AM and got the metro then the 99 bus straight to L’Oceanogràfic and arrived roughly around 1:30PM. I had not bought my ticket online so waited in the queue which took roughly 15 minutes. You can either buy a ticket for just L’Oceanogràfic or you can buy combined tickets for The Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, Hemisferic and 4D Cinema. I bought just a combined ticket of L’Oceanogràfic and The Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe which came to a total of €28.00 roughly.
The first three days of my trip it was heavily raining and on the last day the sun finally came out. As my flight was not until the evening, I planned my last day to be spent at Valencia Bioparc. I got up at 9:30 AM and left at 11:30AM. The journey roughly took 40 minutes from the metro station Benimàmet, roughly getting me to the Zoo at 12:00PM. I queued to buy my ticket as I was not sure earlier in the week when I was going to go to the Zoo, but in hindsight booking my ticket online would have cut the wait time in the queue although it was roughly 15 minutes of waiting. The ticket cost €23.00 equalling to an estimate of £18.00.
NashkaTravels 