My first move was to find the bike store. There were several people in the store and as nobody was paying attention to me I approached the mechanic who was working on a bike and told him that I needed a big size box for Spithas. He heard me but his facial expression did not change, as if he had not heard me at all. At the same time he walked towards the man in the counter at the front and told him that he would go out to find a box. He did not wave to me to follow him, but I did follow him anyhow. We went around the block and opened the door to another smaller store that looked abandoned. When we entered, the store was full of boxes of all types. He picked a big size box and emptied it from all its content and asked me if that would do. I told him that this was perfect and asked him how much it would cost. He just smirked and told me that there was no charge and walked away. I had hardly any time to thank him. Overall this man was very polite and the way he expressed this generosity, I must say, was unusual.
Jubilant I carried the box to the hotel. Finding a box the day before my departure to Greece had been on my mind since the beginning of the trip and with good reason, if one considers the trouble I had finding a Spithas box the last time in Alexandria, where I finally had to put together my own box by taping together small carton boxes I bought in the market.
Now that the most important issue was behind me, I deferred the disassembly of Spithas for tonight reasoning that the best use of my time would be to tour the city now, during the day, and do the Spithas work when it was dark. So I went out and started my tour with the center of the city leaving Lonja, the closest monument, for last. The hotel was not far from the center where most sights are. I started walking and a bunch of girls all dressed in something that looked like a uniform passed by me. They turned out to be Belgian girl scouts. I decided to follow them as they would probably know more about the city and the sights than I did.
Following them I ended up at the train station “Estacion del Norte.” Evidently they were on their way out of the city
I went in the station to take a look. It was a really modern train station for a high speed trains. The building was beautiful and next to it was the “plaza de torros,” where the bullfights take place.
I was really taking it easy. There was no rush for anything so after walking around the station and the “plaza de torros” I headed towards the center. The town center is impressive.
At some point I decided that I should also be in one of my pictures and I asked a lady to take a picture of me with the center in the background. She conceded in a very obliging way. I showed her what button to push on the camera, went across, and posed. As she was pointing the camera at me she lowered it and from her signals I understood that she did not take the picture because there was a bus passing behind me that was blocking the view of the center. So we tried again. The same story. The center, as expected, is frequented by cars and busses of all sorts that kept passing behind me or stopped to discharge passengers, blocking the view of the center all along. To make a long story sort, this lasted for more than ten minutes and I started feeling bad for her and told her that it was OK, the picture was nothing as important to merit all that of her time. She, however, stood firm and waited till the right moment, which she finally, ten minutes later, got. I thanked her a lot and she walked away. If she is a typical Valencian, Valencians are very good people.
I walked back towards the hotel and decided to buy some food. The central market (“mercado central,”) was actually almost right across from the hotel. The central market is a very cool and neat place
I did my food shopping and then went to the hotel to consume the goodies.
After eating and taking a rest I went out again to continue the monument hunt. It was time to visit “La Lonja.” Lonja is an impressive medieval building. I entered and toured the different rooms, wondering all the time what the building’s purpose was. It looked like a medieval government hall. This view was confirmed by a couple of tourists who told me that they were not sure but thought that indeed Lonja was the government building for the local government. Finally on my way out I asked the guard, just to make sure I had it right. That fellow seemed to be waiting for someone to ask his questions. With a lot of eagerness went on and on talking about the building. The upshot was that the first story was wrong. The building was actually a commodity exchange and was in operation till the late 80s, when the digital age took over and rendered it obsolete.
I went on the tour again, this time with a mission. As I had found out, taking the subway was the easiest way to the airport. However, in the morning I would have to carry the bike box w/ Spithas to a subway stop, a cumbersome task. It would make sense to find the closest subway station. I asked around and ended up next to the “Estación del Norte” where I had started my tour earlier this morning. I went down and asked the lady at the ticket booth if I indeed can take the train to the airport and if taking Spithas w/ me would cause any problems. She confirmed the airport question, however, regarding Spithas she thought it was Ok but was not sure so referred me to control booth at the other end. I went there and got the OK. So, the final obstacle had been removed.
I continued walking around in random directions taking pictures
The last place to visit was the plaza I went yesterday night in my first and futile attempt to find a hotel, “plaza de Reina.” It is a really neat place.
I entered all the monuments and churches around it. As I was exiting the last church,
I heard a very loud voice in Greek. Someone was apparently talking on his cell phone saying things like “I am in Valencia now, I’ll call you back when I return to Greece.” I passed by this man and told him in Greek, “how are you doing compatriot.” Costas, that was his name, a little surprised ended his phonecall and turned to me. He was there on a business trip w/ a colleague that had the distinguished and very noble name of Vassily, and who soon joined us. We all agreed that Valencia was a very beautiful town and that it was really worth visiting. We chatted a little longer and then said goodbye wished each other to enjoy the rest of their trip and went on.
It was time for me to go back to the hotel. I went up to my room and I started taking Spithas apart and putting his parts in his box. The only thing that gave me trouble was unscrewing the right pedal. Removing the pedals is crucial. W/o unscrewing them, even one of them, Spithas would not fit in the box. The allen wrench I was using was very basic, to make it small and light, meant for light duty work and did not provide the needed leverage. I shed tons of sweat in my effort to no avail. I arrived at the point of working out different plans in my head, like going to the bike store really early tomorrow morning and buying a wrench that would work there. However, how early would the bike store open and then how long would it take to put Spithas in the box and arrange all my other stuff? Would I be able to make it in time for the flight? Necessity is the mother of invention. This is very true saying and was once more proven to be correct. By looking at the tool in a different way than I always do I realized I could use both hands and provide more leverage. In this novel way lurked the risk of injuring/cutting my hand but “who cares!!!!!!” It did work. I put Spithas in his box along w/ all the other stuff and kept the very basic out for my knapsack. I went for a night shower that I really deserved w/ all the sweat that I had shed and then went downstairs and had an interesting conversation w/ Hilberto, who is a very nice and dependable man. Before leaving I asked him to knock on my door at 8:00 in the morning, and went to bed. It was already 2:30 in the morning.
that looks like the "porcfest" tee shirt that you're wearing in the commodity exchange ......kind of appropriate
ReplyDeleteb