And so, to continue the plot of my two week vacation in Spain...
As the bus went past the beautiful Valencia aquarium, pulled by several of the camping sites, I knew I was victorious. But my heart was still nervous that I would miss the Devesa Gardens stop, so I was relieved to find some of the British girls were also getting off there. Finally I had made to the camping grounds, to some form of civilization! I was going to find my group.
The first thing I had to do was sign in, since I had missed the 2 pm shuttle and initial sign in time. It was now 7 pm. I did not have my friend's number, but I had brought the booking information and knew that Imogen said my booking was associated with theirs. I was relieved to hear that I would be sharing a tent with Jen, who I had also met in Rome and again in Barcelona. There was no one in the tent however, when I dropped off my stuff. Even so, it felt a relief to see people playing volleyball and enjoying themselves.
"Zoe!" I heard my name all of a sudden. And there they were, Imogen and Jen and a large group of Australians. The weight slipped off my shoulders. They were concerned that I had taken so long and offered me Sangria, which of course I accepted. "You're here now" was the great attitude they had and I rolled with it. Soon the guys invited us to check out the mini-zoo, and introductions were made. We decided I was the only American at the camp, and in the group Dave the New Zealander was the only other non-Australian in the group. Imogen got excited feeding the emu grass and soon her boyfriend Tom followed suit feeding the deer and a group of geese that nibbled at his fingers.
There was a mini-restaurant there at the camp, and Imogen somehow after two years remember I was a vegetarian and offered to share a cheese pizza with me. We ate in class at the dimlit tables outside, lighting compliments of Jen's iphone. She tried to help a girl who had been looking for her phone in the pizza boxes, but with no luck after dialing every variation of the girls country and area code. Then we pulled back into the tents, and Imogen, who was still hungry, offered us all peanut butter sandwiches. I accepted, and soon after decided that peanut butter sandwiches and sangria was the best combination we could have thought of.
We were feeling pretty chatty but it was time to call it a night because the next day we had to get up for...LA TOMATINA!
