Valencia Extravaganza!

So let's see, I left off on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night was fun because the whole group went to Max Max. I met up with Viciente there, who was one of the guys we met on Tuesday night at New Orleans. So I enjoyed just getting to talk to him and his friends in Spanish most of the night.

On Friday we woke up early to go to the City of Arts and Sciences, which was incredible. They're all of these modern buildings in the middle of the rio (it's a park now but it used to be a river until they changed the route of the water due to a huge flood years ago). First we went to this museum thing but it just had all of these fun brain experiments and weird activities. I could've spent so much more time there. It reminded me of the Science Center in Baltimore where we used to go on field trips.


City of Arts and Sciences

Then we went to the dolphin show, which obviously I loved. They were so cute and just the happiest looking animals on Earth. I decided my dream job is to be a dolphin trainer haha. After the dolphins we got to go to the aquarium, which was more like a zoo with different exhibits that you walked to. We saw the sharks and you got to be underneath a long tunnel where they swam overtop and around you. Then we saw the Arctic Exhibit with penguins, belugas, and walruses. The penguins were so funny and would come hang out at the glass with you and follow you around. The last one we saw was the Caribbean exhibit with all of these tropical fish.


My penguin friend


Hola, mister tiburon!

After the aquarium, most of us were really tired, so I most definitely went back and took a good 2 and a half hour nap. I had to wake up at 5 though to get my Pilgrim Passport for the Camino. Byron and I walked to this place like 20 minutes away that is only open on Fridays 5-8:30. Random hours. But it was really simple to get my pass and now I'm so excited because everything for our fall break trip is coming together. :)

When I got back I went shopping with Marie because we needed some parachute pants for Kelly and Jacob's themed birthday outing. It was parachute pants for girls and lumberjack shirts for guys haha. I ended up getting zebra pants at h&m. I left the tag in them all night because I thought maybe I'd want to return them, but I actually got really attached to them and want to keep them. Totally going to rock this fashion in the US haha.

So Friday night was definitely one of my favorites. We all got dressed up and then walked through the rio to this bridge near where they were lighting off the fireworks. At midnight they started and it was literally the most incredible fireworks display I have ever seen. 4th of July has been ruined forever for me haha. It was a competition between 2 different firework professionals and they did things I've never seen before. I literally could've watched for hours.

After the fireworks we all left for New Orleans. The last time I was there it was basically empty, but it was pretty packed on Friday. Since it was Kelly's 21st birthday, she had all these funny tasks she had to complete like "convince 21 people you're famous and give them your autograph" and anytime someone wishes you happy birthday you have to say "can't touch this" (in honor of MC Hammer and parachute pants of course.) So after New Orleans we went to Fox Congo and hung out for a while. I obviously danced on the bench that we always form into a stage. The next place we went was Ghecko. After Ghecko a lot of people were feeling pretty done, but about 8 of us went to Pacha, a discoteca, afterwards around 4.

The 8 of us just danced for so long and I had such a fun time. I just love dancing in general though. Most people left around 6, but Jordan and I stayed until about 6:30. Our taxi driver (who also turned out to be the most creepy taxi driver on the face of the Earth) asked us why we were going home so early. Haha frickin Spain.

I only got to sleep from about 7 am until 11 because that's when we got up to see all of the Valencia Day festivities. The 9th of October is kind of like our 4th of July at home, but just for Valencia. So at 12 there was this parade and then there was a political riot. It was probably slightly dangerous, but it was so cool to see. The riot police were out and everything. It's kind of a long story, but basically Cataluna wants to separate from Spain and there's a small group of Valencians who think Valencia should split with them. So all of the other Valencians were basically throwing stuff at this one group and everyone was screaming at each other. It was intense.


Beginning of the riot

The next event didn't start until 2 so we went to "duffin dagels" after the parade. Duffin Dagels is the Dunkin Donuts of Spain and it's hilarious. Their donuts are so weird. It's basically the biggest ripoff ever haha. After that we made our way back to the main plaza for the daytime fireworks display. Now I know that sounds strange, but it was literally the craziest thing I have ever seen. Like I can't even really describe it, but it was definitely something they wouldn't allow to exist in the US. In the middle of this plaza they had all these strings of fireworks hanging and they would light a string and in a huge chain reaction they would blow up and shoot into the air. There were all these explosions and we were basically surrounded by smoke when it was all over. It was an amazing thing to see.


Haha


Smokey world


Remnants of the daytime fireworks after all the explosions

After that we went back to the study center and I took a nap for about an hour. At 5 there was another parade so we went back out to the plaza. This one was filled with tons of people dressed up in all sorts of traditional outfits and war costumes. There were also weird people dressed up as birds on stilts. Not really sure what they signified, but they were cool.

We all walked to this potato world restaurant that we love at 6:30, but turns out their kitchen didn't open until 8:30. Nonetheless we sat there and shared some pitchers of beer and sangria. I ended up leaving at 8 because Erin invited me to dinner with her parents, but I think 3 people managed to champ it out until 8:30.

Just after I got back to the study center, it began to pour. I've only seen rain one other time in Valencia thus far, so this was a pretty crazy sight. It was the kind of rain where it was just cascading down the steps of the towers and I imagine you could barely drive through it. The walk to the restaurant was rough and I was drenched by the time we all got there, but the food was good. It was a pretty fancy, expensive place where we wouldn't normally go on our own, so I'm glad I got to enjoy that despite the rain.

Luckily at about 10:30 when we were done eating, the rain had ended. I really wanted to go out when we got back to a disco or something since it's my last weekend in Valencia for 3 weeks, but nobody else wanted to go out. Lamesauce. But I probably needed to sleep anyway since I didn't the night before. So my Saturday night consisted of me reading my book and going to bed around 12:30.

So uneventful, but at least I'm feeling good today. I woke up at 10:30 and went and got a coffee and some toast from the cafe near us. This past weekend it was humid and probably still 80 degrees, at least on Friday. But I guess the storm last night brought in colder weather because I was actually quite chilly sitting outside. Time to break out my jacket for the first time since Amsterdam!

Feliz Domingo!