A WEEK IN GANDÍA

Today I am going to tell you about where to go when you visit the city of Gandía in the Autonomous Community of Valencia. We will organise the week into the next couple of places, of which I will talk to you about so that you can see whether it will be worth it to visit them:

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GANDÍA BEACH AND THE NIGHTLIFE

The truth is that we have stayed for a week in summer in an apartment very close to the main beach in Gandía and the truth is, is that I had never been on such a large beach like this one. To begin this entry, I am going to give you some advice for visiting this beach.

• Go a couple of hours earlier so that you can find somewhere to put your towel down, as if you go any later and you're part of a big group (a big group being more than three people) it will be an impossible task to find a space.

• Don't think that you will be able to spend the whole day at the beach. Maybe this is a Galician thing, but the Mediterranean sun and the temperatures are practically unbearable... When you get into the water, you will be able to stay and live there, but you will come out of it burnt to a crisp.

• Wear shoes that don't let the sand inside, the sand burns you because it is so hot and sometimes you can burn the soles of your feet, which isn't advisable in the height of summer.

• Never, ever forget your sun cream as the high temperatures make it so that you want to stay in the sea for two or three hours, so then it makes a kind of magnifying glass with the rays of sun, this doesn't benefit your skin very much.

• Bring a litre or two of water with you to drink on the beach. As well, you can bring something frozen with you so that you can cool down the room-temperature water whilst it melts, and you can enjoy that little by little and also drink the other.

Despite being so close to the beach, the apartment has a swimming pool in it and it's in the shade. For this reason, we prefer the pool over the beach a lot of the time due to the heat. The beach has an area where you can walk and do many activities: dance, aerobics, etc. There are bars, souvenir shops, corner shops, shops where you can buy buckets and towels for the beach, and whatever you could want for the sea or the beach. It's rare not to find something on the beachfront: there are restaurants, banks, clothes shops... Everything that any tourist would want to find on the limited area on the beach, and that is why, when all is said and done, the city of Gandía is thoroughly touristy and bustling with young people in the evenings.

Apart from being a city with an active nightlife every day, we don't go out much. To avoid conflict between older tourists and younger ones, they have created "anti-noise patrols" (who aren't police) who pass through the city and warn loud people that they will call the police. If anyone annoys you then you can call the patrol and they will take charge of everything.

For the people who are looking to party in the evenings (I recommend it even though I haven't enjoyed it), there are many local places like Cocoloco. All of the clubs are found more or less in the same area, the same street basically, but it is quite long. People usually go for "botellón" (pre-drinks) in some parks or even on the beach (but that is prohibited they told us) and then they go to the clubs and don't come out until the sun rises. If anyone is interested in the local bars in Gandía then you don't have to look further than Youtube to see "Gandía Shore" (a program on MTV) and you will see the places they go. Don't be scared by what you see, there are still many normal people on the streets on Gandía...

Once in the city of Gandía, one of the days we decided to go to the water park in Benidorm that, although it is quite far away (forty-five minutes by car) from the city of Gandia, it is one of the best water parks in Spain, so we could not miss the opportunity.

BENIDORM'S WATER PARK

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I would sincerely recommend this to everyone of all ages, sexes and tastes! It has a lot of variety of slides, activities, pools to relax, pools for kids, etc. For young people like ourselves, I will just say that they have the highest free-fall slide in Europe, the second highest in the world! On this one, I have to confess that I wasn't able to do it and I am usually quite daring! I will explain how it works:

First you climb the stairs until you can't anymore, you will arrive at the top as if you have run a marathon. In this attraction there are two slides that are the same but the only difference is the altitude that doesn't seem like much when you're far away, but when you're there it is amazing.

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When you have finally reached the top of the stairs you will find yourself faced with a type of capsule, as if they were going to freeze you, in which they open a door for you to get in and then close it for you so you can't get out. Once they have you there, enclosed in what's like being in a sardine can, they open the floor suddenly and... ZAS! You come out like a shot at almost a hundred kilometers per hour.

One of the inconveniences about going so fast in these water parks is that the water feels like it is going in the opposite direction of down, so your swimsuit, and your whole body is destroyed. This is not the worst thing, but there are also other negative things about going to a water park. I'll tell you:

• If you're a girl, there is always the dilemma of wearing a bikini or a swimming costume: comfort vs aesthetics. If you go in a swimsuit, it means that it won't move around, but also your tan lines the next day will be a lot less sexy. I always choose things that don't leave tan lines and if you show your bum on the slides, well it doesn't matter... We all have one.

• Where to leave your towels! This is an eternal debate amongst friends... You always want them close to you so that you can watch them. In this park it is impossible and the lockers are by the entrance, that is to say, quite far from where you will be in the park. You really just have to trust and that's it, we didn't have any kind of problem, nor did we hear anything over the loudspeaker that something was lost.

• Queuing. It is incredible the amount of time you waste in a water park for just two minutes of the ride, but in reality it is worth it. It is advisable to have good organisation in the queues and if you see when you are walking towards a slide that there is a shorter queue, use it to get in.

• The awful swimming pools for little kids. The truth is that it was quite disgusting to see that pool, I do not know if it was because it did not have the blue background and you could see all the dirt, or because it was hot and it gave me a dirty feeling to be not cool.

The reality is that there is little more I can tell you about the water park... The entrance is a bit expensive but it is worth it. It costs around 30 euros and you can buy them for a day or combine it with other things, but this is the cheapest only if you are around the area for a couple of days. This year I think that they are opening on the 24th May, so put charge your batteries and prepare your trip, it will be great!

If you go by car, there aren't usually any problems finding parking, but I'll give you the same advice I did for Gandía Beach: go early and everything is much easier!

Finally, I will leave you some little bits of advice for when you pack your backpack for the water park:

• Don't forget your sun cream! I think that once you're there, there isn't anywhere to buy sun cream.

• Bring various swimsuits or bikinis, we are going to quite an "aggressive" water park where you could break your swimming suit at any point

• Avoid wearing expensive things that you don't need: bracelets, earrings, computer, tablets, etc. You have all kinds of entertainment there and we are not going on any trendy ride.

• A small towel. The less space you occupy, the less space you need and this, when you are searching for shade in midday for your siesta, is vital.

• Snacks and food. The water and all the energy that you will be spending walking up and down and up and down will turn into hunger and, although the place is full of places to buy snacks and healthy food, you can just imagine the prices of them...

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