¡Vamos a Valencia!

Sorry again for being horrible at posting blogs, I have had these next few on my computer for a while but it took me a while to get the pictures in order! Oh, and this was the first trip I had my new camera on so enjoy the pics, and always you can check out my facebook for a full assortment of them :)

In front of the City of Arts and Sciences

We went to Valencia October 22-23, it was an overnight trip paid for by USAC. We left early Friday morning and drove a couple of hours to the north to get to the city. Our first stop was at the City of Arts and Sciences, which if you know anything about architecture I am sure you have heard of this place. It consists of 5 buildings all designed by the same architect- Santiago Calatrava. He is from Valencia. He designed these buildings after animals and they are pretty incredible and very modern. We had access to two locations. The first place we went to was the Oceanographic. We were able to see some amazing creatures from the ocean including beluga whales, dolphins, sharks, all the fish from Finding Nemo and some seahorses! My least favorite was the spider crab… ick! They are HUGE and, as the name implies, they look like giant spiders. It gives me the chills just thinking about them! There was a dolphin show so we went to that. In all honesty it was kind of weak and did not even come close to comparing to the one in Benidorm. Nonetheless, I was happy to see the happiest creatures on earth again!

Nicole with a spider crab,
they are ginormous!

  From there we headed to the Science museum. Nicole and I had fun exploring the activities and acting like kids again. There was one part where we had to test our memory, well that did not go to well for me! Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus and head to the hotel.



Enjoying our night "in", "out"



After getting settled we decided to go hang out in the city and just see what life in Valencia was like. So, of course, we went to Starbucks. (I swear Alicante is the only city without a Starbucks… but then again, that is probably a good thing) We sat by the window watching the people and delighting in pleasant conversation with each other. We headed back to the hotel to meet up with Colleen and Maggie for dinner. I had been craving paella so we found a little restaurant near the lively square and sat down for our meal. We discussed what to do that night; we are not really the “go out” type like many of our classmates, so we decided to do something that was fun for us. We found a cute little wine shop and Colleen and I purchased a bottle while Maggie and Nicole preferred the caramel vodka. The little lady that was working was so nice; she let us try it before we bought it! Colleen and Maggie always end up with the best rooms somehow and that was no different in Valencia. They were on the top floor with a huge balcony. We decided to go up there, drink some wine and listen to our favorite country songs that we were missing. All in all it was an absolutely splendid night with great people and I would not have wanted to do anything else.



Valencia Cathedral



The next day USAC provided us with a tour of the city. We went to the Cathedral of Valencia (which was breathtaking, the ceiling in the picture had been stuccoed over and they discovered it by chance a while backe. They uncovered it and it was perfectly perserved!), the Mercado central, and La Loncha (the architect that I discussed earlier designed the Chicago Spire based off of the columns, however it is still a project and not yet constructed). Our last stop was an arch/castle. It was very cool. We were able to climb up to the top of and see an amazing panoramic of the city. The day after we got back I went on the NAU study abroad site and saw a picture of this! I was like "hey, I have been there!" We also looked down upon the old river. They redirected the river to the outskirts of the city and the old river bed was converted into a giant park. Overall the tour was pretty boring; I loved seeing everything but the guide kind of put me to sleep, so I did not learn very much. We had some free time afterwards so we wandered the streets some more. We sat down by a fountain and ate lunch while Colleen braided my hair. We went on a quest to find some cheap postcards and then found ourselves back at Starbucks.



Nicole and I at the Castle/Arch



Now this time around, we met Russ. Russ was from England but he came to Valencia for his job in construction. He was very excited to meet some English speakers. Well he was a pretty entertaining fellow and he made friends with all of the USACers who came into the coffee shop. He did have an eye for Nicole though. He decided he wanted to give us a tour of the city and walked with us to places we had already been too. However, it was getting close to leaving so we headed back to the hotel snapped some photos with him and met up with our group. Russ was certainly a character and he was the cherry on top of a great trip. Oh and he said, “it’s not my cup of tea but…” which made me LOL because it makes SO much more sense when it comes from a Brit!! Thanks for tuning in, I hope you LOLed just like I did!

Much love!

Me with Russ, Nicole and Maggie

P.s. We also visited the Port of Valencia, but we literally got off the bus, walked along the port, and got back on to head home, so it really did not seem worth mentioning. There will be pictures on facebook though. This port is also hosting America’s cup (which I am still not sure what it is, but from what I understand it is a Yacht race, and rich friends to verify this? Jk) J