This was a perfect day we lazed around talking until we got hungry then walked five minutes down the road and spent three hours eating tapas in a cafe, the waiter was part french part ecuadorian who was very amused at our bad spanish.

After eating we strolled back through the old town pretending to be monsters to the perfect waitress and ordered several beers. Leigh said that he was a grown up and could drink beer if he wanted, I cant say that anyone disagreed.

We drank more beer on the rooftop terrace and attempted to arrange to meet with Tim and Gemma but they got lost. So we headed back to the cider bar and honed our cider drinking skills, there were cries of pleasure, disbelief, horror and 'dont drink it all' as I perfected the art and almost downed a whole jug.

My brother found some very enthusiastic gay germans who insisted that we drank absinthe but I wasn't drunk enough to do something that silly. After the cider bar shut we headed to a night club called Radio City which sold very cheap sangria for Joe. The enthusiastic gay germans danced very enthusiastically to slow songs much to the bemusement of the Spanish nightclub crowd.

We headed back to the hostel at closing time and I decided to lose my wallet. I had a number of cards that needed cancelling and no change for the phone and no number for the banks luckily I found a free phone number for egg and the nice lady on the other end put me through to the other banks at no charge.

We met some very strange people, Steve from dudley who spent most of the evening telling me that I wasn't enjoying myself and Jo the teacher who was very much like your odd french teacher. We also met a german girl whose name I don't know. 'In Germany we can drive at five million miles an hour and our bier is better than yours' came out of her mouth throughout the evening until she succumbed to the charms of Dan and then chunks of sick came instead.

We went to a crappy bar with fishtanks, crap music and expensive drinks.

Meeting a lovely waitress from Sheffield (I had to ask her if she worked in a cocktail bar), some cool lads from Coventry and eating kebabs on the way back to the hostel were the highlights of the night.

Richard decided he needed to find his toothbrush very loudly in the early hours of the morning..

I was awoken by one of the german ladies with who we were sharing our domitory, she had placed herself next to my head wearing nothing but a very skimpy nightie and a even skimpier thong. I cant complain about being stirred from my sleep with this sight but I really did not know where to look and where I did could have sent me blind.

We planned to walk along the old route of the River Turia, which has now been converteted into gardens, to the coast and to the beach. Whilst walking we came across a fantastically designed metro station and decided to use this to the beach. Joe had great difficulty working the ticket barrier.

It was Saturday so the beach was very busy, Dan, Edward, Leigh and Rich all took it in turns to get 'lost'. I personally think the just got carried away looking at topless ladies, Joe and I had more restraint.

We checked into our hostel and met up with Leigh who had flown in some hours earlier. After making our introductions, drinking our first beer and freshening up we decided to head off in search of a hearty meal, which we never really found. After much wandering around we ended up eating frozen paellas and pizzas in a cafe on a main road.

Dan decided he needed a black coffee, Dan then decided he needed an ice cream Dan's sugar craving satiated we wandered some more and luckily (much to Dan's dismay) we chanced upon an Irish Bar. A pint of Murphy's later and were in a much better state of mind to find our way back to the hostel. We didn't get too close to the hostel as we had our first encounter with the Plaza de la Virgen and the perfectly formed waitress that would serve us over the next few nights.

After a few relaxing beers we decided that we didn't want to go too mad on the first night and set off in search of the hostel. This plan was shot to pieces when somebody suggested going into a very grotty looking place which sold jugs of cider with a funnel so that he cider could be poured directly in the mouth.

I think Phil was regretting not coming to Spain with us this time and got up early on the Friday morning to drive us to the train station and wave us off. We arrived at Coventry Airshed with plenty of time to peruse their vast selection of newpapers, magazines and airport novels. After eating a very tasty microwaved bacon sandwich our plane was ready for take off.

Walking across the runway to the plane we were greeted by some very lovely hostesses. Dan, Joe and my Brother were all over excited and were very hyperactive throughout the whole journey. 3 hours later we landed in Valencia.

Dan dumped us with all of his bags and head off to find the tourist information in order to get some duff advice on how to find the hostel via the bus. After a short bus ride we ended up in a bus station. Joe was convinced that the bus would continue closer to where we wanted to be but when the driver turned the engine off and sat smoking a cigarette outside I was conviced otherwise. After some deliberation (and a trip to another information point) I persuaded everyone that it would be far easier and more sensible to hire a taxi. And it was, we were at our destination two minutes later.