We finally arrived in Valencia after about 20 hours of transportation and sitting, waiting for transportation. To say the least, we were tired. But we were finally out of Nice and France and in Espana! We found our hostel, dropped our stuff off, and went back to the bus station to see if we could book our ticket from Barcelona to Prague. We had decided to skip Munich and replace it with a few days in Barcelona. The guy in the office seemed rather confused with us and told us we had to wait until we were in Barcelona, but that there were plenty of spots. So we headed down towards the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. This is basically a series of five buildings that house various performing arts centers and museums. They are all amazingly beautiful and unique, as they were designed by Santiago Calvaretta. To get there, we walked along an old river bed, now turned park. It was kind of odd, because no one was out. I know it was Holy Thursday, but it was almost eerie walking around and not seeing a soul.
We finally arrived at the buildings, and I stood in awe. Despite they grey and cloudy sky, they still looked amazing. After that, we headed back to our hostel, this time walking back through the city so we could see what the actual city looked like. We passed by the bull fighting arena, many popular plazas, and a few churches, and then the rain started. We ran into a small pizza spot, grabbed a slice, and headed to the hostel to avoid being completely soaked.
The next day we woke up to begin the day wondering around the city. In our wondering, we ran into one of the local parades for Good Friday. There were was a small procession, beginning with a few men holding a cross and banner, followed by a few man carrying a cart, for lack of better words, with Jesus on the cross, surrounded by flowers. All of these men were wearing bright purple robes with white, pointy caps. Following the robed men were a line of drummers, then parishioners, each carrying a candle. It was really interesting to see. Easter is such a big part of Spanish culture, and I loved being able to experience it.
After stumbling across the procession, we headed down more towards the heart of the city. We ran across loads of markets and small little shops selling a bunch of items for rather cheap. It was pretty cool. We then came across one of Valenica’s churches. Attached to this church is St. Michael’s tower. After walking through the church, and feeling slightly as though we were intruding, for a service was moving about in the church (yes, the service was literally moving around the church), we went up the tower. Valencia is a rather short city, so the tower allowed us to look over the entire city. We could see down to the City of Arts of Sciences, to the ocean, to the old gate to the city. With the beautiful weather, it was quite lovely. In addition, atop the tower is the oldest bell in Spain.
We then climbed back down the long, windy stairs and headed towards the arch. From the arch, we found our way back along the park. We strolled past the Museum of Music, which has a fountain that is set to music, a playground set up inside of a giant body, and many, many bridges. We finally made our way back to the City of Arts and Sciences, first approaching the Palau de les Arts, which is a performing arts theatre. Next to the Palau de les Arts are two awesome bridges. All of the buildings and bridges, and even the parking garage, connect, and yet have their own elements. You next approach Hemisferic, which is a museum full of giant IMAX’s that show a range of educational films on crazy enormous screens. To me, this building almost seems like a simpler version of the Palau de les Arts. Next to Hemisferic is the Museo de las Ciencias, or the Museum of Science. I read online that this museum was designed after a whale’s skeleton. Personally, I just enjoyed the points and lines of the building. We went inside the museum, bought our tickets to both the Science museum and the aquarium. We strolled around the science museum, trying to avoid the small children running about. My favorite part of the museum was probably the newly hatched chicks. They were so fluffy and adorable. They also had a model of the complete City of Arts and Sciences, which still has a few crazy looking towers and smaller buildings to be built. It should be amazing when it is all done. What’s sad is I was probably paying more attention to the interior of the building than the actual museum, but what can you expect? I’m an architectural engineering major.
After the Museum, we ran across the street to a mall to grab some lunch. We ran into this place called Mondito’s which serves cheap, small sandwiches. We grabbed some late lunch, then headed off to the aquarium, of which the guys’ were way too excited to be going to. The aquarium was pretty cool. There were tons of different areas housing some pretty unique and interesting fish and sea life. We not only saw fish, but penguins, seals, and walrus’s. The shark tank was probably one of the coolest parts of the place, housing an extremely large tunnel in which the sharks, manta rays, turtles, and other large fish could literally swim around you. There was also this weird fish that had two fins at the top and bottom of its body that resembled sea turtle legs, and this awkward, half circular back fin. It not only looked awkward, but looked like it felt awkward. One of the other highlights of the aquarium was the Artic area, which housed Beluga whales, walruses, seals, and penguins. By then, the aquarium was closing. It was time to head back to the city. The day before we had bought a few things to make ourselves some dinner. We had some hamburgers and way too many peas. We hung out a bit in the hostel, meeting a few new people, and then headed to bed.
The next morning we started our day with a crazy delicious breakfast of giant omelets. We then went to meet up for a free walking tour of the city. We learned all about how the city was originally conquered by Muslims from Africa, who began its history. Due to this take over, the city still has its small, narrow, winding streets. Eventually it was taken over by the Christians, who also gave it some its history and culture. It is the mix of these two cultures that gives Valencia it’s unique culture and traditions. We walked by the old city gates, past some old and important churches, over some Roman ruins (the Romans were everywhere), past old palaces and castles, and into squares where ordinary men declared war on one of the world’s most powerful conquerors, Napoleon. I also learned a lot about Spain’s more recent history, including Franco and the current leader of Spain, that I had not known.
After our tour, we caught a bus down to the beach. There, we goofed off and played around, enjoying our last day in Valencia. The sand of the beach literally felt like silk. It was crazy. We also met a few local teens who told us a bit about their city from the eyes of a teenager, which is a bit of a different spin on things. On our way back, we stopped at another Mondito’s, got a few sandwiches and a few drinks. I found out that a local beer mixed with Sprite is actually tasty. I also tried another local drink of which we still aren’t quite sure as to what it is exactly. We then went back to our hostel, grabbed our stuff, and walked to the bus station to wait for our 2 am bus back to Barcelona.
The three of us have been talking about how this experience has taught us so much new history about cultures that we probably should have known previously, but didn’t. We have come to the conclusion that although we didn’t know it beforehand, at least we open to learning it and that learning it through personal experience and actually seeing the sites where these important events happened has to be one of the best ways to go about learning about these cultures. Instead of reading something out of a textbook and trusting the judgment of the writers of the book to give me a good understanding of what happened and how it has affected a community, I am getting the opportunity to see it firsthand. I must say, I am incredibly fortunate to have this chance to witness so much firsthand and see and interact within other cultures the way I am. It’s truly remarkable.
Santaigo Calveretta’s new stalker,
Jessica
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