oh, valencia!

I spent all weekend singing one of my favorite songs, "O, Valencia" (which, if you are not familiar with, get ON it) because, as you probably guessed, I spent Friday and Saturday in the city of Valencia, which is about two hours north of Alicante and the capital of the Comunidat Valenciano region of Spain, which is where I am living. Valencia is known for its antiquity while also being an extremely modern city, containing The City of Arts and Sciences, which was funded by the EU and contains all sorts of modern buildings, and cool things like one of the world's largest aquariums and an IMAX theatre, both of which I went to!

Much love to everyone in Alicante that I am stealing pictures from in order to document this trip (*cough* Lauren *cough*) because, as you know, my Canon has gone to the great Camera Place in the sky, where all lens errors are remedied and every camera becomes a digital-SLR. (Tech joke. Anyways.)

Ready to go on a bus trip at 9am! Woo!

We arrived in Valencia on Friday morning, after a two-hour bus ride from Alicante's centro. We dropped off our bags, and headed off to sight-see. First stop: La Lonja de Seda, which is where the ancient silk trade of Europe used to be centered.

The stained-glass window!

My Spanish professora Raquel, me and another one of the CIEE staff walking us to the rest of the group. We got a little behind taking too many pictures with graffiti.


Like this.

After, we went to the Torres de Serrano, which was really pretty to look at as well.

Torre de Serrano. We climbed up to the top of that. It's taller than it looks!


The view from the Torre de Serrano. Looks pretty normal, doesn't it?


Playing princess in the castle.


Lauren's rendition of a princess, calling for her Prince Charming. (We missed you, Trevor!)


The girls in front of a fountain in the Plaza de La Virgen.


The best travel partners around!!

We had a little bit of free time next, and spent it walking around Valencia and exploring. We went into the Mercado Central, which is basically a huge indoor market of all the different Spanish foods. If you don't like meat, stay away! There's a ton of fish, bloody cow flanks, huge legs of things, etc etc. However, there's also so much fruit, vegetables and Spanish treats that its cool to just go in and look around!

Inside the Mercado Central. Lots of Spaniards doing their daily shopping.

Spanish strawberries. Mmm!! Note that its all in euros!

Good ol' meat. Very typical Spanish set-up -- meat just hanging out there until somebody buys it. I wonder how all the Spaniards don't get sick all the time?

We are pro at the jumping pictures by now :)

Next, we went to the Catedral, which is huge and absolutely beautiful, like everything I've seen. I don't know if I'm starting to get jaded about all this beauty around me all the time! Apparently, a relic of the Holy Grail is found inside of this Church, a fact which I contested highly, but after a little bit of research, it looks like a lot of scholars actually do believe that it is possible Jesus interacted with this cup in some way or another during the time of his death -- so, I guess I've seen a piece of the Holy Grail! I'm still somewhat skeptical, but whatever it is, if Jesus touched it, it is still pretty darn cool.

One of the many doors to the Catedral of Valencia.. this is outside of the main door.

The Holy Grail??

Next, we climbed the Torre del Micalet, which looks out over all of Valencia. It was part of the Catedral, with this incredibly tiny turret that we had to climb up. Some people counted and I think it was about 200 something stairs? However, these aren't your typical stairs -- its a round turret, so its a winding staircase, that gets narrower at the top. If you get claustrophobic, I wouldn't recommend it: its either all the way up or all the way down! There is no inbetween, or landings! However, the view ... well, its worth it.

View at sunset over Old-Town Valencia.

The bell at the top of the tower. This decided to ring while I was standing under it taking a picture. Cool experience to see it actually ring, but very loud!!

Lauren and I overlooking Valencia.

My CIEE group of all the students.

This is the top of the staircase, just to give you an idea of how narrow it w as! Imagine climbing up at least seven stories of that in a line of 30 people!! Scary! No windows or doors or anything either. All or nothing!

Afterwards, we had more free time where Lauren and I went back to the hotel and hung out for a while. I got to take a BATH, which, I know, I know, does not sound like a huge deal, but seriously guys, stop taking baths for granted. I do not own one, so taking this bath was basically like arriving into heaven. I don't know if its cheating, but I LOVE traveling with CIEE because we stay in these 4-star hotels that feel just like America again, with a bidet. You know, sometimes, I don't have to be a legitimate Spaniard...which is why we got CHINESE WOK for dinner!

We are so excited about this chinese take-out. YUM.

And then, just to make sure that we were truly Spaniards, we went to a Valor chocolateria (remember our epic trip to the chocolate factory? Well, same company.) and got ourselves some chocolate con churros. For Jeana, who didn't really get to experience the magic in Alicante (although, casi), here's what it looks like:

Why, yes, this IS an attractive picture. You're welcome, friends, for putting it online :)

After all of that, the girls from my Spanish class (featured in chocolate picture above) and I went to this jazz club, where we got to feel very classy and listen to a jazz band play some live music and chat it up. It was the perfect way to end the evening, and like the old women we are, we climbed into bed about midnight, just as the drunken, loud other American students started hitting the pavement and the dance clubs. Oops. So, whatever little birdies have been telling y'all that I party too much, presta atencion! ;)

Anyways, there is more to this story of Valencia and my weekend (I haven't even hit Saturday yet!) but its after midnight here and I'm tired. I've got to get up early tomorrow for class! So, I will leave you with a cliffhanger -- what will happen next!?

Thanks for reading! Love you all.

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