Knowing the noon heat  would be too hard on us, we ventured out earlier today and headed east to explore new roads in our neighbourhood.  We found many small cafes where people sat outside with coffees and sweets and some, to our amazement, drank beer. Everyday people doing everyday things! We came across a tobacco shop and decided to stock up on bus and metro tickets but the lady that worked there didn’t speak English so she yelled something to someone in the back and a nice young man came out and helped us.  Between his limited  English and our hand signals – I knew Charades would come in handy one day – we managed to buy our tickets.  There are dozens of churches in Valentia and we passed a beautiful one, St. Josephs, as well as a lovely convent.  It was nice to see an English learning school as well.

Years ago when I was in Africa with my oldest son, he decided to take pictures of all the beautiful doors on the buildings we saw.  I have seen many of the same types of doors here and have decided to do some kind of art project featuring 100 Valentian doors so I have started the project.  I took about 10 pictures today so have a long way to go.

I never leave home without my map which is getting pretty tattered but, for some reason, it got left on the kitchen table.  We got a little disoriented as the streets here do not run in a straight grid but have lots of angled streets running off the main streets and we took a few of those, getting completely lost.  Thank goodness for the sun to give us direction and knowing if we head north we will eventually meet the dry Turia river bed.  We didn’t have to go that far today as we came across a street we recognized and we felt relieved to get our bearings again.

We came across a very large, modern grocery store and we spent a lot of time there, partly because there were so many interesting items to see and partly because we were enjoying the air conditioning.  Shelves lined with spices intrigued us and we tried to guess what the Spanish words meant for each spice. Cookies were in abundance but crackers were not. A small package of octopus sold for about $40. Rows upon rows of wines and liquors called to us,  many of them costing 1-2 Euros or about $1.50-$3. Knowing we had to go out in the heat again we bought a few things and headed home, stopping once more at the green grocer for our fresh items.

I had a nice surprise the other day when Jason and LJ called me on Facetime and I had a nice visit with them and got to see the twins.  I feared that the girls might forget me after two months, but my fears were put to rest as Isabella got all excited when she heard my voice and Cayleigh chattered and jabbered whenever Jason put the phone and my face near her.  If he took it away to let Isabella see me, Cayleigh would get louder as if to say, “get the phone back here, it’s my turn again”.  It was wonderful to see them.  Jason put the phone close enough for one of the girls to reach out for it and it looked like she was reaching out for ME, but once she had it in her tiny hand, she simply put it in her mouth.  So much for wanting her grandma!  Joey said she was just giving me kisses – ya, I’ll go with that!