Valencia!

On Thursday of last week I decided to go to Valencia with four of my girl friends. We booked tickets that night and were off my 5:30 Friday night. The train was only a 2 hour ride up the coast. When we got there we went straight to find our hostel, the Center Valencia Youth Hostel. It was a really nice place, clean and safe, and it was only 15 euro a night, not bad.

After we got all of our stuff situated in the room we decided to go out, walk around the city, and explore. This is us at the Plaza de Virgen right where our hostel is located. We ran into a british guy from our hostel and had him take the picture for us, then an hour or so later we ran into him and his friends and ended up going around with them and talking. It was lot of fun to get to know some random people.

This is the train station we arrived at. It was really big and pretty. All the walls and ceilings were mosaic. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it. I will have to do that next time I go to Valencia for their huge festival, Las Fallas. How terrible is this, we went to McDonald's to eat. Actually most of us had eaten our sack lunches on the train, but we got some fries and drinks while Alex ate dinner. Their McDonald's here are super nicely decorated and most of the time they are two stories high. Actually most restaurants here are two stories high, it is slightly weird, but necessary since they are all in small city buildings.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early, got ready, ate our free meal at the hostel and went out for the day. When we first went outside most of us didn't have jackets and it was a bit chilly but we figured it would warm up as the sun came up. Unfortunately that never happened, it got colder, more humid, and definitely not sunnier. We felt like idiot walking around the city with short sleeve shirts when everyone else was bundled up in scarves and jackets. Oh well we survived, barely but we did.

We started out by going to the Mercado Central because is was pretty much the only place that was open before 10:00 and because it was really close to our hostel.
Before we went in we passed by this little vendor that had not so little paella pans. Valencia is where paella originated so they take it pretty seriously. Seriously enough to have a pan that would make enough for the entire Duggar family plus have some left overs.
To give you a little bit better idea of the size Michelle and Sarah had to hold it and they were struggling it was so big and heavy.
In the Mercado Central they had all sorts of fresh foods, meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, cheeses, and fish. It is a chefs heaven to be able to get all that fresh stuff in one place.

Not sure exactly what this is but I thought it was disgusting and picture worthy.
For those of you who don't know Spain very well, they are famous for loving pig and eating it with pretty much every meal. It is kind of ridiculous. But this is one of the most common ways they eat it. They purchase the leg of the pig and just leave it out on the counter and cut slices of it as they need it. I really like this type of ham but it is slightly disturbing when you see it in this form.

Mushrooms. I hate them but I thought it was neat all the different types they had.

Oh man my mouth is watering just looking at this picture. So many strawberries, not just one red ripe strawberry. The big hungry bear would be loving it. He would have a lot to sniff, sniff, sniff :)
The colors of all the fresh foods amazes me. I love see all the vibrant natural God created colors.
After seeing all this fresh food we decided we are going to get up on Saturday morning and go to our Mercado Central and buy some stuff for ourselves! I am so excited!
Not only did they have fresh fruits but they had fresh vegetables too, something I haven't seen awhile unfortunately. I am thinking I want to buy some broccoli and green beans and make them for myself next week.
And of course they've got to have their fresh bread, I mean I am in Europe after all.

I loved the coloring of these, so beautiful.

Mmmmm. I love me some cheese :)

Then we went in to where they had all the fish...nasty. But the octopus looked really cool.

Don't really know what this one is.

So many different types of fish and shell fish and such.

Haha I was freaked out by this, but like I said they love them some pig in Spain.

This picture does not do these fish justice. They were a beautiful bright almost neon reddish pink. It was amazing!

Lovely chopped off heads. I was glad though cause the ones with the heads on them were freaky
These were a type of shell fish. I was surprised when I saw them moving cause I thought it was some sort of weird plant not a live thing.

More different types of shell fish.

Nuts and dried fruits.

Sausages.

Nasty, I don't know why someone would want to eat this but apparently someone would. I mean why else would they have it for sale.
Look they have white eggs! I haven't seen those in awhile, but honestly I like the brown ones better, for some reason they taste better too me.

Me and Britta at the entrance of the Mercado.

The Silk Exchange is on the right. That is where we went after the Mercado, it was literally right across the street.

Beautiful high vaulted ceilings! This is definitely my favorite type of ceiling, I wish I could have this in my house.

La Lonja is representative of European Gothic civil architecture and began being built in 1482 and finished in 1548. Pere Compte was the architect and he designed it after a similar building in Palma Mallorca.

In the center they had a little garden area with a fountain.

I don't why I came up with this idea, but it is under the staircase up to another room. I love their faces, they wanted to make it look like they were struggling to hold it up.

Then the classic Juliet and Juliet.

Beautiful girlies.

To the left of the stairs they had the outer wall with a little ledge of it and of course what to I think, 'oh I want to walk out on it!' I was the brave first one but then I came back and Michelle showed me up and went all the way to the end. Then of course the three of us decided to follow after. Alex refused so we had someone to take our pictures.
We made it there and back and didn't fall. I wasn't really worried about it but Britta and Sarah were freakin' out a little.

The fountain in the Plaza de Virgen.

I believe this is that backside of the Catedral de Valencia (pronounced balenthia :) Such a beautiful cathedral from all sides.
The Basílica Virgen de los Desamparados in the Plaza de Virgen. We never actually went in it but is was pretty to look at.
This is the front entrance to the Cathedral. Here is a little history on it: It was consecrated in 1238 by the bishop of Valencia. It is famous for being the home of the Holy Chalice aka the Holy Grail used by Jesus at the Last Supper. The Holy Grail dates back to the 1st century and was given to the church by king Alfons el Magnanim in 1436. Although many claim to have the true Holy Grail, historians say the Valencian chalice is the most likely candidate for being the real Holy Grail.
The detail in architecture amazes me. Especially knowing they didn't have machines to just press the images in, people took the time to carve every little detail.

Amazing.

In the little box are bones from someone, not exactly sure who. I heard a lot of information that day it is hard to keep track. Oh by the way, included in the entrance fee we got audio tours in English. It was really nice to know what we were looking at and know the history behind it.

Beautiful stain glass. I love stain glass.

The Capilla Mayor. Ridiculous, elaborate detail and color! So much to look at.

The Holy Grail!

I thought this was super interesting and I actually remembered it from the audio tour. It is a statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus and it is tradition for pregnant women to come, lay down flowers, pray for a prosperous safe life for their unborn children, and then walk around the church nine times, representing the nine months of pregnancy. I thought that was so neat and right after I learned that I saw like 5 or 6 pregnant women. It made me happy.
I think ceiling are my favorite part about all of the old buildings and churches. So here are a few of the ones from the Cathedral.

This one is definitely my favorite.

After we looked around the church we paid 2 euro to torture ourselves my walking up 207 very steep steps to the top of the Torre del Micalet. It is the bell tower of the church that is famous for it's view so we of course couldn't miss it. Let me tell you it was very tiring, I felt pathetic. But is was worth it for the view and I probably needed it anyway.



I was excited when I saw these cool little windows on the wall around the top of the bell tower. I thought they were perfect for my new little city through a window theme.

The lovely steep stairwell down.

Alex looks happy, but she really was not very happy.

Same goes for Michelle.

After the cathedral we walked through the Jardín de Turia (aka the Turia Gardens) to the City of Arts and Sciences. It is really neat because the Jardín de Turia is a huge park that wraps around the city and leads you from the BioZoo to the the City of Arts and Sciences, two major attractions in Valencia.

They had lots of trees and grass and fountains through out the entire park.

The City of Arts and Sciences is a group of four very modern looking builds that are different types of museums. There is an art museum, an oceanographic museum, science museum, and a hemispheric museum. We went to the oceanographic and science museum. They are a little expensive but SO worth it!

It was hard to take pictures in the oceanographic museum because we couldn't have a flash and it was really dark. AND I was so mad by the time we were done with the silk exchange my camera battery was already flashing low! I even charged it the night before! I don't know if it didn't charge all the way but I was pissed that it happened so early on in the day. So from then on I would turn my camera on take a picture and turn it off. As you will see it actually ended up lasting me all day, but it was brutal I had to choose wisely what I wanted to take pictures of.

I apologize for some of the bad quality of pictures but I tried my best. This is obviously a starfish.


Seahorse! I was crazy they had some that were the size of quarters, they were tiny. This one is about 2-3 inches big. Sea dragon. I thought these were awesome, dragons really do exist. I had never see something like this it was neat, it even looked like it had little wings.
Oh man when I saw this I decided when I get home I am getting a pet jelly fish. I had never seen jelly fish before and I thought they were the coolest things ever.

Seriously crazy cool! I want one.

They had all the types of fish split by ocean and sea, such as the arctic creatures, mediterranean sea creatures, etc. And in each ocean they had a tunnel going under ground. It was really neat. This is Michelle in the tunnel.

Sharks!

Me just chilling with the sharks.

This fish was crazy! It is a very flat fish but it is vertically flat, weird. Unfortunately I didn't see what is was called but that is ok I got a picture of it.

We thought these birds were fake they were standing so still. I think it is because it was so cold outside they wanted to stay warm.
I loved this Baluga whale. It was so sweet looking and there was a little boy that was standing next to the glass and the whale was nudging his nose against the glass at him. It was so cute.
The last thing we saw before we went to the science museum was the seals, but we didn't stand there long because it was freezing and they were outside.
The science museum was very hands on and interactive I really liked it. This was demonstrating how pullies make it easier to lift an anchor. Sarah obviously had only one pully, she was very much so struggling. It was funny. I like how Britta was lifting the anchor with such ease and a smile on her face.
Random and kind of awkward. The face whole was too small for my face and I feel like Britta doesn't know how to give a hug because that was what she was attempting to do.
This was super cool, it was an upside down globe that showed you where you would end up if you dug through to the other side of the earth. The faces confuse me they were supposed to be happy cause from AZ we would end up in Australia!
I was kind of sad seeing a clarinet I wanted to take it off the wall and play it. Kind of lame of me but I randomly miss playing the clarinet even though I really didn't like it that much while I was playing it.

Battery recharged!!!

In front of the fountain again. This time during the day.

We had a guy take this picture for us but I had forgotten to unzoom it and apparently he had didn't know how to unzoom so it is slightly close up.

It was pretty cool cause they had lots of information about the city, I think, in brail. While were there I think there may have been some sort of conference for blind people because there was a huge group staying in our hostel and walking around the city. Just a guess though.

A statue of the Catedral de Valencia.

Michelle pointing to where we were when we climbed up the Torre.


We just thought that the side of this building was really pretty.

They had Starbucks, something we have not seen in a long time. Some of the girls got drinks, but they had a very limited menu and didn't have anything I liked.
Sunday we were going to go 11 miles out of town to L' Albufera a nature park/ lake because it is supposedly beautiful, but we had some trouble finding the bus to get out there and then we thought it was too late so we just stayed in town.

There ended up being a parade in town so it worked out nicely. We plopped ourselves down right next to the fence so we would have a good view for the parade and waited about 45 minutes for it to start.


Unfortunately right before the parade started the police came and told us they were making the spot where we were standing for the bands so we had to move and lose our good spots. We were kind of mad but we moved and stood there for a little bit and realized the parade wasn't really worth it and we moved on.

The parade was literally just small bands going around one at a time. Not too impressive.
Instead we walked around and went to the vendors that were all around the city. And Britta and I got the Valencian drink, horchata. It was not bad but not good either, just weird.

On the train ride back. We were all kind of tired, especially Sarah apparently. Haha Sarah thought they were taking a bored, tired train picture but Alex didn't think so.

Michelle sitting by her lonesome. It sucks having an odd number of people but figured it out and stuck Michelle by herself.

Me and Britta.

Overall our trip was a ton of fun. I am so glad we made the last minute decision to go. I figure while I am in Spain I need to go and see the cheap cities cause when will the next time I am living in Spain, probably never.

The day after we got back we even booked train tickets to go back again for Las Fallas, the biggest festival in all of Spain! I am so excited it is going to be insane. We even get school off that day so we are leaving at 7:00 Friday morning and staying up all day and night and taking the train back at 7:00 saturday morning. It should be tiring but fun and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.