Valencia

7 Abril

After leaving Amsterdam on Sunday I flew into Valencia for a two day solo vacation. After a little confusion, I found the hostel and checked in. The first room I was assigned, someone was sleeping on my bed so I was moved to a different room (6 girls, 3 bunk beds). Two girls from Argentina were already in there and invited me to go out with them that night. I was tired but I thought it might be fun so I joined them and we went out to a few bars that the hostel recommended (all of which were terrible!) I spoke a lot of Spanish though and did pretty well with it, although it was a little hard after being in an English/dutch speaking country for 4 days! They were very nice and I was glad I met some people to go out with.

Unfortunately they were leaving the next morning, Monday, but I walked to the city of arts and sciences. It’s a modern complex consisting of an aquarium, a science museum, a performing arts theater, and an IMAX theater. I was excited for the aquarium so I headed there first. There was a long line but I finally got in – it is supposedly Europe’s largest aquarium and it is home to more different species than any other aquarium in the world. It doesn’t look that big from above ground but most of the exhibits are below ground, like all the fish tanks and everything. There was a Mediterranean section, a Caribbean section with Sharks, a tropical coral reef section, a wetland bird section, penguins and the arctic, seals, sea lions, and dolphins. My favorite was the dolphin show – it was really cool, it made me really want to swim with dolphins and get thrown up in the air by them! It looks like the coolest thing in the world, if only I was a better swimmer and lived in a warmer place I would want to be a dolphin trainer still, like I did when I was 5 years old. I also really liked all the tanks that you can walk through – it’s so cool seeing the fish swim right above your head. It made me really want to go scuba diving somewhere warm and tropical! Later on, I went to the science museum. They had a pretty cool exhibit on biology and genetics and also a section on climate change. At this point I was pretty tired but it was raining so I headed over to a mall for about an hour and just shopped around before taking the long walk back to the hostel (my map said there was a metro line but apparently it’s still under construction which was unfortunate).

The next day, Tuesday, I got up and walked around the historical part of town, right near my hostel. First I went to this really cool open marketplace and bought some fresh fruit, there were so many different stands and tons of people, it was interesting. Then I went to the basilica, which was beautifully decorated, and accidentally attended part of a mass, then I went to the cathedral and climbed up the tower. I walked around the little square some more then decided that even though it was rather cold out, I wanted to at least see the beach. So I go to the metro stop and realize I only have a 20 euro bill. So I put it in the machine because it only says no 50’s…and nothing happens. I don’t get a ticket or change or anything, it just ate my money. So these 2 nice men try to help, I end up asking the metro conductor and he tells me to call some help number. So I call the number but I can’t hear the guy at all because I’m outside at a subway stop. Finally I figure out I need to walk to a certain station to talk to someone. So I walk all the way there and they tell me I have to go to a different stop. I finally get to the customer help office, fill out some forms, and eventually get my 20 euro back. So that was very frustrating and a waste of about an hour of my day, plus a lot of extra walking. I decide to go to this museum about Las Fallas, a very famous festival in Valencia where they build huge structures and light them on fire to commemorate the patron saint of carpenters. It starts thunderstorming and I’m glad I reached the museum just in time…and it’s closed for siesta. It starts pouring, so I run down into this parking garage near the science museum. It keeps raining and raining so I decide to go to an IMAX movie in the cool hemisphere theater. I saw a movie on the Alps, which was really cool on the massive screen and it calmed me down quite a bit since I was pretty stressed about how my day had been going. Then I went back to the museum, which was actually open, and walked around inside there. It was pretty interesting to learn about the history of such a unique festival and the see some of the figures that had been made for the parade each year. Then I decided to take a bus back to the hostel to pick up my bags but I got confused about the buses and waited for the wrong bus for like 20 minutes. What a stressful day. Finally I got my bags and walked to the train station to head to the airport. I was plenty early for my flight, unlike in Amsterdam when I almost missed my flight (they had already closed the check-in gate and had to reopen it just for me, then I got to cut half the security line). I was very glad to be back in Sevilla, although it was strange to have so many people walking around and lots of people dressed up for Semana Santa. I saw one of the processions last night and I’m planning to see more tonight – I will post more pictures and explanations later on this week!

Enjoy the Valencia pictures and expect more soon! Thanks <3

Valencia