Valencia

---

Last Tuesday I went out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! It seems like Spaniards know of it but don't celebrate it (they don't need an excuse to drink anyway) but there are quite a few Irish pubs in Madrid anyway. After out evening class we all regrouped in Sol and the first group went to an pub called Dubliners. Since there were six of us, Sezen, Andres, Ashley, Hallie, Jarrad, and I split a bucket of beer. Then the rest of the people in my program called us and said they were around the corner outside another pub and had grabbed a table. We walked over and pulled up some chairs and had a good time hanging out. Javier, the home stay brother of Alex, had brought his friend Christian. Javier studies history at a nearby university in Madrid and Christian is trying to get a soccer scholarship to go to school in the US, but they've been friends for a long time since grade school. We were laughing because when Christian heard my last name and that I was from New Jersey he kept accusing me of being a "mafiosa" (in the Mafia). Apparently Spanish teenagers also love The Sopranos? Allison also brought along her boyfriend who was visiting her during GW's spring break. He's from the PA suburbs of Philly and went to Bloomsburg for 2 years before transferring to GW.

Wednesday evening we all went to see Carmen. I sat next to Carmela and it was like sitting next to my grandmom...I got a full commentary on the performance! Carmela was not impressed with Sara Baras at all. I thought that she and all of the other flamenco dancers were obviously talented but they kept doing the same kind of steps and the choreography in general was unimaginative, especially compared to the Spanish ballet that really impressed me. But either way, GW paid for the ticket and I got to see one of the world's most famous flamenco dancers so it was good.

Thursday morning I woke up at 4:15 am for my 6:40 am flight to Valencia. I had ordered a cab the night before because usually I don't see any driving around my area. I picked up Ellis who lives nearby and we met Hallie and her friend Dave, who was visiting during GW's spring break, at the airport. This was my first experience with Ryanair and despite a 20 minute delay everything went well. When we got to Valencia we hopped on the metro (dirtier and less extensive than Madrid's) because Hallie had looked up which stop was closest to the hostal. When we came up out of the metro, we couldn't believe how much trash was everywhere! We were coming to Valencia for the culmination of Las Fallas, a special festival in Valencia which is a week-long celebration and ends on the evening of the Feast Day of St. Jospeh (also Father's Day here), and so I guess it had been a little crazy the night before. We walked around a little bit but couldn't find the right street so we resulted to hailing a cab after a half hour. As it turns out, the cab driver couldn't find our address on his GPS, his map, or by asking a nearby police officer and so we took a pointless 4 Euro cab ride. Even if he did know where he was going, it would've been useless because vendors were already crowding the tiny streets with tents and food stations. Finally we bought a map and found our own way.

After checking into the hotel we wandered around to find breakfast. We returned to a little corner cafe that we had passed while trying to find our hostel. We all ordered breakfast crepes with ham, egg, and cheese. Next to us men were sipping beer and it was before 10 am! After breakfast we decided to start walking around the city leisurely to get to know the area. We got a great view of the city from an old fort and we passed through the nearby Plaza de la Virgen which had beautiful displays of flowers and the largest Blessed Virgin Mary I have ever seen, also made out of flowers. Valencia's cathedral was right in between that plaza and the Plaza de Reina, the main central square where our hostel was, so only about a 5 minute walk away. Hallie and I had done a good job with the hostel because ithe location was great.

During Las Fallas, every neighborhood makes a large satirical creation made of flammable materials (usually wood, paper, etc.) which they set on fire on the last night. Unfortunately we didn't completely understand all of the satirical jabs (although we did recognize some big politicians) but the statues were amazing to see. At 2 pm we went to another large square for the last Mascleta, which was basically a huge fireworks show. I read online that a different group puts on one every day during the week of the celebration and then the best one gets to do the last one which we saw. I have never heard louder firecrackers in my life!

Then we returned to our hostel room for a little nap after being out late at Carmen and waking up so early for the flight. Later in the afternoon we regrouped and wanted to eat an earlier dinner so we would be ready to watch all the Fallas burn. We never really ended up eating a real dinner because we kept eating snacks from the vendors on the street and then found other friends from our program, Alex and Javier, Sezen, Susan, Marcus, Marion, and Edgar who had taken a 25 Euro bus from our university. The bus left at 9 am, took four hours each way, and left around 4 or 5 am after the festivities. I probably would have done it if I didn't have the chance to book a room but I'm definitely glad I had a place to sleep and a chance to see more of Valencia. We also found Jarrad who was staying at a different hostel, Ari who had already been there for a day with his mom who was visiting from Turkey, and Allison and her boyfriend Brandon who were staying at a hotel in the more modern part of the city.

We hit the streets around 7 pm and by this time it was insanely crowded. We walked around they city, ate and drank from little shops, and saw all the fallas together. At 10 pm they started setting the smaller fallas, called ninots, on fire. First they would set off a fireworks display, and then a boy and a girl wearing traditional Spanish outfits would light a string connecting to the structure that would it on fire. Within the fallas are firecrackers and so it's pretty loud at first but then everyone just watches it burn. We saw two little ones and then got a snack and hung out before the largest one in the plaza where we went for the Mascleta was. I got some paella off the street for 5 Euros which wasn't as good as I thought it would be since paella originated in Valencia but I guess you can't expect too much from a street vendor. At the stand we met another American student named Brad who is a business student at Penn State and is studying in Madrid. He was alone since he used a Eurorail pass to take the train up and no one else from his program wanted to come along with him, so we invited him to join us.

All the other large ones went off around midnight but this was was the winner of all the big ones and was to go off at 1 am as the grand finale. The fireworks display was crazy and then when they finally set it on fire the blaze was incredibly tall. The workers there had tied up the nearby trees in advance and started hosing down the area around the falla about half way through because it was so hot they were afraid it would set other things on fire. I got some video of it on my camera that I'll try to put up on facebook when I have a stronger internet connection for anyone who has an account and would like to see it. After seeing that I definitely agree that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, although I think most people only want to go once anyway because it's so crazy. Then we all sat down for a last drink (I had hot chocolate- here the hot chocolate is so thick, more like drinking a melted candy bar then American hot chocolate!) We got to bed around 3 am. Thank goodness our hostel was so close because we had been walking around for hours!

Friday morning I got up earlier than the rest of my room and took a walk past the cathedral, the big Virgin Mary, and the old fort and across a bridge to another part of the city. Since Spain is slowly becoming a dessert, a river had dried up and left the huge empty riverbed looking like a dessert. Bridges connected the two sides and underneath was kind of a park with places to walk around and soccer fields but there wasn't much growing and so it looked kind of strange. I had used Ellis' guidebook to look up popular tourist sites and saw that I was close to the Muesu de Belles Arts de Valencia (more Catalan here, except they call it Valencian). They had some really great altar pieces I got to see a lot of unique Spanish painters whom I actually learned about in my art history class yesterday. We even looked at a slide of one of the paintings I had just seen in person!

After that I walked around the gardens next to the museum for a little while and then walked back to the hostel to meet Hallie, Ellis, and Dave. They had gotten the name of a good paella place (we were dying to have it in Valencia since that's where it's from) but the place was so popular it was only taking in reservations. Instead we made reservations for dinner at 9 pm that night and then found a cafe a few blocks away to eat. I really wanted chicken but since it was a Friday in Lent I got halibut and grilled vegetables, but oddly enough it turned out to be the best meal out of everyone's. Then we walked over the desert park into the gardens where I was earlier, got some ice cream, and relaxed.

Hallie gave Allison a call and she invited us to go to the Oceanografico, Valencia's aquarium, which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe. There was no close metro stop to it and so instead of taking a taxi we decided to walk there since we just needed to follow the river bed. It took us about an hour but it was nice weather and we got to see more things. The aquarium turned out to be really cool- instead of one large building it was a few different buildings. Some were connected underground by huge tunnels filled with fish, sharks, and other sea life. The entire layout looked like a cleaner and more modern Sea World! We ran into Ari and his mom while waiting for Allison and Brandon and they recommended that we catch the 6:30 pm dolphin show. We got seats and it was so fun to watch. Hallie, Dave, Ellis, and I even chased down two of the trainers afterward and got out picture with them!

After about two hours at the aquarium we went back to the hostel to freshen up. Boy, were all the cab rides so much cheaper in Valencia! Then we walked a few blocks to our paella place. We had invited the other people still in Valencia to dinner with us but Allison and Brandon wanted to get some seafood paella so they were going somewhere else. Jarrad met up with us though and we had a delicious two-hour dinner. The restaurant had all these different Spanish plates lining the walls and was so quaint. We ordered two bottles of red wine (one was actually from Valencia but wasn't very good- I guess you can't expect too much for 10 Euro wine?) and then we split two different kinds of paella. The first one had cauliflower and an egg topping and was good but wasn't what we were expecting. The second was called Valencian and had the typical chicken, rabbit, and vegetables. As soon as we all had our first bite we knew we had finally found our ideal paella! It was SO delicious. I took a card from the restaurant in case I'm ever in Valencia again so I can go back!

We finished up at 11 pm and then met up with Allison and Brandon who had just gotten to the center of the city. We actually ran into them on the street which was funny. We found a cafe and had some drinks. Dave and I had sangria which was delicious. Everyone else went on to meet up with a friend of Ellis' from high school but Hallie and I were beat so we went back early around midnight.

Saturday was our last day. I set my alarm for 9:45 am because I wanted to make the most of my morning before our 3:30 pm flight. First I stopped for a cup of fruit and then I went to tour the cathedral. I actually meant to go to the cathedral's tower which Jarrad did on Friday and recommended but instead I only saw the main part of the church which was still cool. Unfortunately I had to pay 4 Euro but I've already learned that cool cathedrals aren't free. The one good thing was that an audio guide came with it so I got to learn a little history. Behind the altar they actually had the preserved arm of St. Vincent which was funny. There was also a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that had flowers all around her (I guess from the feast day still) and the guide said that pregnant women come and pray before her and then walk around the cathedral 9 times to signify the 9 months she carried Jesus. I also saw the old chapel that contains the chalice rumored for centuries to be the Holy Grail which was kind of interesting. Unfortunately the first day we arrive, the Feast of St. Joseph's, there was mass here celebrated by the Cardinal at noon but I missed it because we were still getting to know the city then.

I returned to the hostel at 11 am and Dave met me to go to the Bioparc while Hallie and Ellis slept in more. Allison and Brandon went the day before and highly recommended it. Basically, it's a modern zoo that doesn't have fences and cages and instead has re-created the natural African environment for the animals. It was really nice and although the animals had much more land than a normal zoo we actually got closer to the animals too.

We met Hallie and Ellis back at the hostel at 1:30 pm. We came after check-out time but luckily Hallie and Ellis packed up our things for us. We got on the metro (the correct stop this time- it was only a few blocks away! If only we had known!) and took it to the airport. Our flight was on time and very quick getting us home. The flight from Madrid to Valencia is actually only 40 minutes- by the time you get comfortable you're already descending. When I got back to my house I napped for 3 hours to catch up on sleep.

Sunday I spent most of the day studying for my language midterm on Monday and writing my art history take-home midterm essay. Luckily Patricia has a huge book on the Prado (she loves all the classical art at the Prado and hates the modern stuff at Reina Sofia, haha) and so that made my research easier since I didn't have to return to the museum to refresh my memory. Last weekend Patricia was actually away as well in Asturias (a northern province of Spain about a 4 hour drive from Madrid) looking at different apartments for her beach house. Tonight at dinner she said she saw about 20 but there was one that she really loved, but of course it's the most expensive one. It's like our apartment except it's new construction, a bigger kitchen, and another bathroom. She told me she got a loan from the bank and has the rest of the money she needs but is still worried about buying it. She's going to try and negotiate to pay the listed price but then get the garage for free.

This week I have my midterms. Today I had my international business exam and so I only have one more left: history of Spain on Thursday which will definitely be my hardest. There is so much material we have to write our essays in Spanish, so I definitely will be studying for that most of tomorrow. Then next weekend I have my last schedule trip with our program- Galicia!

---

Photos

Valencia 001
All of the Fallas!

Valencia 003
Bullfighting stadium.