Valencia 3/28-3/30

Hey everybody! So I am super behind in my travel blogs, so I am going to skip the rest of my spring break blogs for now (dont worry I will come back and do them when I have time!), and go on to my trips that I have had since then. That way, I can try to stay up to date and then when I have time I will fill in a blog or two about my spring break.


So after getting back from spring break, I was exhausted, so I had a nice week at home. Lauren’s friends from home were in town for those days so I got to meet them.
On Easter Sunday we all had an afternoon potluck at Nicole and Emily’s Apartment. We had chicken pot pie, a rice dish, corn soufflé, bread, cheese, and dessert. It was an amazing way to come home from spring break, to see all my friends that I hadn’t seen in over two weeks.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I just tried to catch up on my sleep and try not to come down with a cold.
On Wednesday, Hannah and I met up in the gothic quarter because I was going to buy rollerblades. Hannah already has some and had told me amazing stories of rollerblading at the beach, so we went and got me a pair. Unfortunately, she was locked out that day from her apartment, so hers were in her apartment, so instead of taking my new rollerblades for a spin, we walked down to the beach in Barcelonetta, and sat on the beach for an hour before I had to go to class. After class, she met me outside my school, and then we rollerbladed around there for an hour or so. Though unfortunately the area around school isn’t that good for rollerblading because it is on a slope, and I am currently trying to reteach myself how to do it, so we agreed to go down to Barcelonetta soon so we could have better blading. Then later that night, I went out with Lauren and her friends, and Emily and Nicole. We went to this Irish pub down in the gothic quarter and then got falafel. It was a really fun night hanging out with everybody again.

On Friday, I got up to go to Valencia with GSE. We met at plaza cataluyna at 9, and then had a 5 hour bus ride there. Once we got there around 2pm, we had lunch in the hotel, which was pretty decent. Seeing as though it was pasta, it wasn’t traditional Spanish food, but still enjoyable. After we ate, we all went on a walking tour of Valencia. Our tourguide spoke really quietly, so nobody really listened, but we still enjoyed being led around the city and seeing the important buildings pointed out. We also got to try Orxata! It sounds exactly like horchata, the Mexican drink, but is completely different minus the similar names. It is made with some sort of bean instead of rice and milk. It was much stronger and had an interesting flavor. I was glad to try it, but I have to say that I miss the horchata back home.

After the walking tour, we came back to the hotel and got ready to have dinner at 9, again at the hotel. One good thing about this trip was that all the food was paid for! Though it would have been nice to try some other restaurants, but hey I’m not complaining about free food. For dinner, Me, Lauren, Nicole, Emily, and Jacklyne sat at the same table with Julia, Paola, and Jordan. It was fun sitting with our program directors. For dinner, we had an appetizer plate of meat and cheese, and then a simple dinner of chicken and fries. Then since we are so accustomed to getting delicious dessert at our GSE dinners, we were shocked to find out that the fruit on the table, which we thought were the centerpieces, were in fact our dessert. I guess we should have figured that we would be eating oranges since it is Valencia.
That night, Jacklyne, Hannah, and Jaqueta, and I went out, but soon figured out that the city center was really far away, so we walked home after only being out for an hour or so. It ended up better because we had to get up early the next day for a long day of touring.

After a delicious breakfast in the hotel, we got on the bus and went down to the Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias, which is Valencia’s biggest attraction.
We first went into the Oceongraphic, which is the aquarium. It was amazing and is the biggest aquarium in Europe. We got to walk through tunnels with sharks swimming above our heads, got to watch a beluga whale and walruses, and see all sorts of fish. Another thing that I loved was the aviary because they had Roseate Spoonbills and another bright pink bird. There were roseate spoonbills at the LA zoo, which were some of my favorite, but I could never get that close to them, so when I was able to get only a couple feet away from them, I was super excited. I went back to watch them after all my friends had finished walking around and were sitting at the front waiting for lunch.
Also, we watched a dolphin show! I don’t remember if I’ve seen a dolphin show at Sea World, but I am sure it was really similar. It was nice sitting outside in the warm Valencia sun watching dolphins. I felt a little more at home in the warmer weather.
Lunch was at the aquarium, and pretty much a disappointment because it likened cafeteria food. But you cant win them all.

After lunch, we walked over to the Science museum, which is similar to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It had lots of cool hands on experiments which we could play with, and I even got to see a chicken hatch out of an egg! I had never seen that before, so it was a cool experience.
Once our hour or so of exploring was done, we went to see a movie at the IMAX theatre. The movie we watched was on coral reefs, and fit well with the science theme of our day. I can’t remember the last time I was in an IMAX theatre, so it was cool to watch a movie on such a large screen and see all the bright colors of the fish and coral.

Once our touring was over, and were taken back to the hotel, we had about 2 hours before dinner at 8:30. I took a nap because I was exhausted from seeing all of the museums. Then, for dinner we finally had traditional Valencian paella! It was pretty delicious, though I still think it was talked up a little bit too much. But it was definitely better than any paella I have had in Barcelona.
Following dinner, Lauren, Emily S., Emily Y., Nicole, and Jacklyne went out to this cute café/bar that Emily S had found earlier that day. We had to try the drink that Valencia is famous for- Aqua de Valencia, which is basically orange juice, champagne, and I believe some other sort of liquor. It was basically a mimosa but sweeter. We enjoyed sipping our Agua de Valencia while listening to Spanish music in the bar. Emily S and I even started talking to two really nice guys from Valencia, who then showed the group to the cool disco around the corner, where we stayed for a couple more hours. After dancing for a while, we headed home to get some sleep/a nap before we woke up to have breakfast and head back to Barcelona.

Overall, Valencia was a really cute city, but I wish I had more time there. I didn’t even get to see the beach, or have a chance to go rollerblading with Hannah in the park. But the part I did see of Valencia was great!

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