ArchE Heaven

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

Sorry, You're Being Deported. Your Car Isn't Expensive Enough.

So we went to the bus station the next day, only to find it closed. How wonderful. Turns out that particular station was closed all day on Saturdays. We finally found one that was open, hopped on a bus, and found our ways there. Unfortunately, the bus we were going to take on Monday was full. Again. Our next option was Wednesday. We took it. At this point, we had to yet again go back to our hostel and book 2 more nights in Nice. It was getting complicated. Once we had it all figured out, we walked around a bit more, looked up some places to explore outside of Nice, and headed to our other hostel for the night. Now, due to our stressful situation, we had failed to look up anything about this hostel. We walked there, and found the reception in an odd, kind of creepy restaurant. This little old lady walks up to me saying, "Jessica? Jessica?" I respond in the positive and she starts going off in French. I had no idea what she was saying and I'm pretty sure that was clear by my confused state. We paid our night and I gathered that we weren't staying in a dormitory, but in a studio. She then starts moving towards the door and begins walking towards our studio, still speaking to us in French and kind of laughing every now and then. It was awkward to say the least. She finally made it to our studio, which was kind of old, but pretty cool. We went to a cheap place we saw on the way to our room, called Taco Loco, where I got some long missed Mexican food (don't judge me for eating non-French food in France). It was then off to bed so we could get up in the morning, check out of the sketch hostel, and get some free breakfast back our usual hostel (called home at this point).

Finally, at this point, we had everything squared away and could actually do something besides stare at the beach. We decided to first go check out Monaco. Monaco is actually an entirely different country that is so small, it only really fits one city, Monte Carlo. Only about 35,000 people live there, if that gives a good idea of just how tiny it is. However, it was hosting the Rolex Tennis Masters (or something like that), so the train ride there was packed. We finally got there, walked down the steps from the train station, and instantly felt a bit too undressed just to be walking around outside. There were giant yachts and beautiful sail boats in every spot in the port. Outside the really expensive boats where extremely expensive cars parked like they were no big deal. It was insane. We walked around the port a little bit more, just staring in awe. Eventually we made our way to the beach, which actually had sand on it (Nice is a rock beach). We wondered around a bit more, somehow stumbling across the tennis tournament.

We walked around a little bit more, got a little lost, but finally found our way to the Monte Carlo Casino. Unfortunately it costs 10 Euro just to have the privilege of walking in, but seeing the outside was still pretty cool. Parked outside the casino were some of the most expensive cars I have ever seen. There were Ferrarris, Roy Royce's and Lamborghini's like it was no big deal. I think more people were taking pictures with cars than the actual casino.

Right next to the casino were some fountains and a cute little park. We spent some time strolling through that area, snapping some photos and pretending we were gazillionaires.

We then headed to the Palace. Monaco has a royal family, but instead of calling the heads of these kings or queens, they refer to them as prince and princesses. The palace sits on top of a cliff, so the hike up there was a bit intense. But no worries, because we made a pit-stop at a local grocery store to grab a giant thing of iced tea and some cookies to split. We finally made it to the top, where we had a view of two sides of the city. Along both sides there were loads of old cannons and cannon balls on display. Outside the palace, a guard we patrolling back and forth. We then went in (of course, no pictures allowed), where we saw all the rooms set up in a variety of different styles. Some were bedrooms, others areas where guests are received. I also learned tons about the Monaco government and royal family. It was really interesting.

Afterwards, we headed back to the train to go back to Nice. That night, we enjoyed a wonderful three course meal (courtesy of my wonderful parents) where we got to try some delicious and authentic French food. I had some gnocchi, fish and veggies, and creme brulee. It was all amazingly delicious. During dinner, as we were sitting outside enjoying our food, this African man walks up to us and notes our laughter and how laughter comes from the hear. He then says something about how its Africa week and hands us each an elephant. We take them, still smiling. Suddenly he says, "Pay whatever you want. Whatever you have. Or nothing is fine." Being the kind soles we are, we each hand over a few Euros, but he asks for more. It was crazy, and we are all still really confused how he got the few Euros he did out of us. But now I have an African elephant I got in Nice, France...so that's interesting.

The next morning we went out for another adventure, this time to Cannes. Cannes is a town about the size of Nice, but every year, it hosts one of the most famous film festivals in the world. It also has some sandy beaches and some crazy expensive stores. Now, coming from Monaco to Cannes, the cars weren't quite up to par, but it was still way out of our league. After wondering around a bit, and not really finding anything of too much interest or importance, we hit the beach. It felt wonderful to actually feel sunlight and dig my feet into some sand. I just sat there for a while so my skin could remember what it felt like to have the sun hit it. The beach is quite beautiful. Behind the sandy coast and aqua water, there are these beautiful mountains.

Once we had enough of the beach, we went to find the sites. We first found our way to the theatre where the film festival is held every year. Along the walkway there are a bunch of little stones with handprints and signatures of stars from all over the world. To name a few stars I recognized: Julie Andrews, Michael Douglas, Spike Lee, Pink Panther, Mickey, Jane Fonda and Bruce Willis. We passed by a few famous hotels on the way to the next landmark, a castle on church which overlooks the city. There was a decent view, although some spots had some rather large trees obstructing pieces of the view. After, we headed down the hill in a different direction and stumbled onto some of the coolest streets I've come across. Finally, we made our way back to the train station. Since we were so close, we took another trip to Tacos Locos to buy some cheap, filling food.

Our last full day in Nice was, as Quinn called it, activity day. We each rented some form of wheeled transportation. Quinn rented roller blades, Santiago got a skateboard, and I got a bike (I tried roller blades at first, but after falling three times just crossing the street from the rental place, I quickly swapped). We were then off. We rolled, and rolled, and rolled, all the way until we reached an entirely different town, called Ville De Saint Laurent Du Var. We took a short break at their beach, then headed back to Nice. On our way back, we stopped at a market, picked up a snack and ate it by the beach. Once we had returned our rentals, we stopped by a small grocery store and picked up some food to make pasta at the hostel. It was a lovely and exercise filled day.

Our last part of Nice was a sad one. Although we were excited to be heading to a new and different place, we were a bit sad to be leaving one we had gotten to know so well. At our hostel, there were a group of people who had been there as long as us, along with the receptionists, who we had come to consider friends. Nice is also a lovely and beautiful place. But it we had so much more to see. It was just bittersweet. Before heading out, we walked over to the remains of an old chateau (which, ironically, we had planned to do just about every day since we had been in Nice). The ruins are on top of a large hill, giving you a beautiful view of the entire city. It was remarkable and a lovely way to say goodbye to Nice. On our way back to the hostel to pick our stuff up, I stopped in my last French pastry shop, grabbed and amazing sandwich and pastry.

We left incredibly early to ensure that we were, indeed, on the bus to Barcelona that left at 5. Twelve hours later we finally made it to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we had to wait two more hours for our bus to Valencia, which were not very fun or exciting. By 11:30 we were in Valencia. Tired, but there.

Kind of Missing Nice,
Jessica