Easter Hols: Valencia Day Five

Weather: Cloudy, Light Breeze
Wake Up: 09:00
Sleep: 01:00

We woke up in the morning by alarm, and went down for breakfast. We then took the 11:30 bus out into Valencia, where we browsed through a couple of markets. The first market we went to was indoors, and was huge! It was a genuine food market, and I thought it was wonderful the way local people had set up stalls to sell their goods to local Valencians. It's something I think we lack here. The second market we visited was arranged in a circle, and sold clothing, knitting items and other related bits and bobs. There was even a pet store!

Afterwards, we took a visit to the city's local Post Office, which was huge! It had at least ten desks where people thronged and a beautiful glass ceiling which had a pattern on it. As I went to take a picture, I was told by the local security guy to not take a picture of the surrounding desks, and only the ceiling.

After we had finished in the Post Office, we went for a drink and some food outside a Tapas bar before getting a Taxi back to the hotel. When we got back, it was just before 3 o'clock, so we stayed in our rooms for an hour generally relaxing, before taking the 14:15 bus back into town fully kitted out for the evening.

We had a couple of drinks in a local Irish pub, not Finnegans which was packed with Chelsea fans, and casually watched a Spanish news-reporter interview them on the Spanish TV. Then we were extra glad we weren't there! When we had got bored, we decided to walk and find where the stadium was. To get there we had to cross a bridge, except not over water, but over a park. Valencia has a central area that looks like it should hold a river, but has been turned into a large park that meanders through the city. Bridges stretch over the park as well as providing ramps and stairs down into the park.

We soon found the stadium (quicker then we expected), so we searched for a local restuarant or bar. Finding none, we crossed back across the bridge and stopped outside a small cafe, where we waited until we needed to leave for the stadium. On arrival at the stadium, we went through security, and sat at the top. It provided a nice view (from my point of view) as you could easily see exactly what was going on, although it was a little too high to tell who was doing what.

The Stadium itself is called the Estadio de Mestalla, and it is a magnificent stadium that can hold just under 52,500 people. Being away fans, we were stuck high up in the corner of the stadium, with the majority of the supporters being Valencian. On nearly every seat in the stadium were orange coloured posters, that the Chelsea fans turned into paper airplanes! Although most of them just floated around the stands, a few special ones found themselves on the pitch, much to the delight of us Chelsea fans!!

The experience was electrifying, filled with songs, cheers and determination to win. It was unlike any other match I have been to. Chelsea started off poorly, and by half-time we were 1-0 down. The Valencian fans had a drummer who was constantly drumming away to some unknown rhythm, which the Valencian fans often sung and clapped to.

After half-time, Chelsea came back with determination and soon equalised. Yet, victory was still not certain. By the 90th minute, we were still singing as determinedly (and still making paper airplanes!) and hope that we would win before extra time was fading. But in the 91st minute, Michael Essien took the ball and slammed it past the keeper.

The stadium went wild. And by the Stadium, I mean the Chelsea fans, as the Valencian sides (all three of them) were silent, including that drummer! From then on, the singing was relentless as we cheered our team to victory.

After about an hour from the end of the match (or it felt like it) we were allowed to leave, and we made our way to the nearest taxi, which took us back to the hotel. We stayed around in the bar until about 00:50, when we went to bed and slept.

This entry was posted on the 11/04/07 and represents today in my trip to Valencia. Please see the Valencia Summary for general information on my trip.