When we got off the plane at Valencia airport in Spain, we walked around the whole airport looking for a model of the plane that we had just flown on. But we didn’t find anything. Never mind!
Daddy found us a taxi, and we drove to the apartment in the city, where we were going to live with Daddy. My room was small. At least, lots smaller than my room in New Zealand. It had two beds in it. At night I could look out my window at my own ‘TV’ – the traffic and the lights and the people in the main street below our apartment. There was a hotel across the road, and there were often taxis and police cars driving on the footpath and across the pedestrian crossing!
The next night, it was New Years Eve. I went to sleep and Mummy and Daddy woke me up for midnight. I saw some fireworks coming up from the buildings across the street into the sky, and I ate 12 grapes. It is a Spanish tradition to eat one grape for every month of the year, for good luck. ¡Yum!
While Daddy was at work during the day, Mummy and I walked to the shopping mall which was really close. When we did our food shopping we put it in a trolley to take home.
One day we walked all the way to Daddy’s work at the port. When we got there, Daddy showed us around and we met Daddy’s boss, who is from Argentina. We looked at Daddy’s desk which is quite cool. After that we had lunch in the lunchroom.
One night we looked out the window and saw the lights of a fair in town. So we walked to the fair one night.
First, Mummy and I went on a train ride. There was this guy who batted your head with a rubber club and sprayed us with water. I dodged it when he sprayed me, so it went on Mummy. ¡Ja ja!
Daddy did a game that means you have to try and hit three balloons with darts. And Daddy got all three of them and won me a crocodile toy. Then we went on the ferris wheel, which was really big. From the top we could see the apartment, and Daddy’s work and Port Valencia.
Then Daddy did the game again and this time, he had to hit six balloons, and he did it! And I won a huge toy Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants. Spongebob is called Bob Esponja in Spain.
Next, Daddy and I went in the fun house. And there were bits that you had to put your feet in that moved up and down. When me and daddy got to the second floor, we had to move on a platform that was moving the other way, and some round tubes that rolled around when you walked on them. Then we walked on a rope bridge, and we walked across a circle that was moving round, and then went down a slide. Then we had to walk through a big barrel that was rolling around, so that we could get outside.
After that, we went on a train which took us through a haunted house, that had scary robots. When Mummy was taking a movie of us, a scary man came up and looked in the camera at Mummy and she went “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!” and almost dropped the camera.
Then, I won a soccer game. I knocked over both of the pins, and I won a cap.
A couple of weeks later, we went to the Valencia Science Museum. At first, we saw a 3D movie about water dinosaurs. I really liked that but it was scary, too.
Then, we saw an Indiana Jones exhibition. There were games you could play and watch videos. They were all about the movies and being an archeologist. I liked it because of the games. Outside the door was a HUGE rock like the one in the Indiana Jones movie.
Then we went to a playground, that was built like ‘Gulliver’ from the book Gulliver’s Travels. He is lying down like when he was tied up. There are lots of slides and places to climb on. I like that playground a lot.
When we went home, we realised we had locked ourselves out of the apartment.
Then we went to look at the house that we are living in now. There is a spiral staircase that leads up to my room, Mummy and Daddy’s room and the bathroom. Downstairs, there is a pool, a big lounge, a medium sized kitchen, and an office. There is an attic room at the top where you can sleep as well.
Outside, there is a well, and a fishpond and a ramp.
We’re number 1 in the street.
There is a skinny little black cat that comes to visit us. We call her Amy. She still won’t let us pat her, but she eats dinner and breakfast with us every day. and sometimes lunch, too.
Three days later we moved in.
Then I started school. It is called El Plantio, and they teach the lessons in English. I wear a uniform to school every day, and my lunch is made by the lunch ladies and I eat it in the cafeteria with lots of other kids.
A while after I started school, it was carnival, where you dress up. It was funny catching the bus to school and seeing all the kids dressed up in costumes.
A couple of weeks later, me and Daddy went to a La Liga soccer match between Valencia FC and Sevilla CF. We went to it in the Metro train, and it was really crowded with people going to the football match. Lots of people were cheering for Valencia and wearing Valencia uniforms. Sevilla won it 2-1. We came home very late on the train.
The next week, we went on a school trip to the Museo de Historio (museum of history). I liked that trip because I learned a lot about Valencia.
Also that week, the Fallas festival began. It meant that there were fireworks all day and all night, all over Valencia. We drank hot chocolate and ate Churros at school.
The weather was so cold that we got really thick ice on the fishpond and the bird bath sometimes. Our landlord said that he had never seen ice on the pond in 35 years!
We went into our local town that night, and there was a big parade through the streets. All the people in the parade were dressed up, even babies and dogs! They were dancing, playing instruments and singing and having lots of fun.
Lots of people had come to see the parade, and some old ladies had set up chairs so that they could sit together and drink drinks while they watched the parade. The kids on the floats were throwing out toys and lollies, and I got a whole bag of stuff. One truck threw a toy castle off, and it hit Mummy on the head, so we grabbed it.
That next weekend, we were invited to a street party by some men that worked with Daddy. It was in the old part of Valencia town. There was a paella making competition, and Daddy’s friends came 5th out of about 27 groups.
The festival (and all the fireworks) went on for three weeks!
On the last night of the festival, we went into town again, to see them burning the Ninots, which are really big paper mache statues of funny people, and painted bright colours. To start them burning, they put a line of fireworks and lit one firework. And the Ninots went on fire. The Ninots were really close to the houses in the narrow streets, and all the people were standing near them. The fires were really big and hot, so each town had to wait for a fire engine to be there, before they could burn them.
The next morning it was so quiet, because there were no fireworks!
To be continued…………
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