Valencia...Que Bonito

So this week nothing exciting happened. I went to classes all week and then Friday I had our midterm exam for, which means I have been in Spain for over 5 weeks now…time is going by so fast. Hopefully, my exams went well but I have to wait till Thursday to find out how I did. This past weekend we went to Valencia, which is on the Mediterranean Coast of Spain for the weekend. For some reason a we couldn’t get a flight for Friday night so we had to fly out Saturday morning at 6:45 in the morning, which was an adventure. I arrived in Valencia without a problem and checked in to the hostel, which was called the Purple Nest. After getting settled a group of us walked around the city to explore and find some place for breakfast. Unfortunately, it was raining on Saturday and that was a bumper. However, because it was raining we wanted to find indoor activities, which actually turned out to be a ton of fun.

First I went to the Mueso de Fallero or the Fallas Museum. One of the things Valencia is famous for is this huge festival in march where artists spend an entire year building these multi-story floats that represent a social problem that Spain is currently facing. The floats are judged and then at the end all the floats are burned, except for the winner, to represent the ending of the social problems. Clearly, since the floats are huge and burned I didn’t get to see the original ones at the museum but I did get to see smaller recreations. Some of the floats were a little weird, especially the ones that were created over 50 years ago, but overall it was cool to see them and I liked how the floats represented social problems so to educate the people.

A replica of a float

After that we went to the aquarium, which is the largest aquarium in all of Europe. There were so many cool exhibits and I got to see a dolphin show, which I always love seeing. I was done with the aquarium around 6pm and we were all tired so we went back to the hostel for a nap before dinner. After napping I felt a lot better and was ready to go find some paella, which Valencia is famous for. We walked around the area for a little before finding a place that could seat all 7 of us. . The paella was delicious. I had chicken paella because I am not a huge fan of shellfish. After dinner we went to a pastry shop for dessert and then headed to bed.

Paella

Aquarium

The next morning we woke up and went somewhere for breakfast. We actually found a place that had pancakes and waffles. I got a waffle and even though it was a little different if still reminded me of home and was a nice treat. After that our hostel advertised a free walking tour so we decided to check it out. I was so happy we did. The tour guide was a girl from England who studied in Valencia and decided to move back. She showed us a lot of the important buildings and told us some great fact, for example that the symbol of Valencia is a bat because it is said a bat woke the king up one night and ha saw troops coming to attack the city so he was able to prepare for the attack. The tour lasted 2 hours and then we went to go get horchata, or tiger milk. Basically it is this drink made from tiger nut, water, and sugar that Valencia is known for. It kind of tasted like a vanilla bean shake but not as creamy.

Horchata

Then we decided to take the tram to the beach even though it was cold just to walk around and check it out. The beach was beautiful I wish I could go back there when it was warmer but it was still nice to see. By chance this intense sailing race called the America’s Cup was going on. We couldn’t see any of the boats but there were huge projectors showing the race on the beach. There were boats from all different countries and tons of people were there for it. After walking around the beach we went back to town so check out the cathedral and bell tower since it was closed early. The cathedral was breathtaking. It still amazes me how beautiful the churches are. Then we climbed all 206 steps of the bell tower to see the most breathtaking views of the city. After that it was dinner time but we had to make it quick so we went to this restaurant that has a menu of 100 sandwiches, which was actually really good. Our flight was at 10pm so by the time I got back I was exhausted but I would say the trip was extremely successful.

Also, since this Wed was Ash Wednesday I went to mass to receive ashes after class. The only mass that was at night was held in the cathedral, which turned out to be amazing. The cathedral like all cathedral in Spain was absolutely beautiful and the bishop ended by presiding over the mass, which was a great experience. Even though I only understood what he was saying part of the time it was still interesting to be hearing mass in Spanish. Just like communion everyone just rushes up to get ashes there is no lines or order. However, the different priests gave ashes different ways. I got a priest who did a cross on my forehead, which I was used to from home. Some of the priests just sprinkled the ashes on your head, which I was not expecting. Also, the ashes were a light gray color and were not as noticeable as the ashes in the US. Overall, I was glad I was able to make it to mass to receive ashes.