weekend trip to valencia and terragona

Bonjour! The weekend was pretty sweet, even though IES made us wake up at 8 a.m. or earlier everyday. And walk for miles and miles and miles. But everything was beautiful!

Friday we set out for Valencia at 8 a.m. and arrived around 1 p.m. We were randomly assigned roommates for our hotel rooms. My roommate was a girl from BC who talked constantly about her hair straightener and had a best friend who thinks "America is great, Spain sucks." No big deal because all I did in my room was take naps from 7-9 and sleep from 3 a.m.-7:30 a.m. After a teensy nap, we got split up into our bus groups again for a bus tour and then a walking tour of the city. I reconnected with a boy I met the first day of orientation. His name's Luke and I guess we're pretty good friends now. Anyway, Luke and I become obsessed with our tour guide, Jorge, for whom we created an entire tragic back story. The love was completely requited. At night I went to Calle de los Caballeros with two of my roommates and another girl that lives on Avenida de Sarria in Barcelona. It was a little bit of a bust because the street is famous for bars and clubs, so naturally, it's pretty expensive. We found a bar that was reasonable and then I met up with Luke and three of his friends who took me to a cheaper bar. So I kind of ditched my roommates, but I wasn't really down for another night of going to a club and watching them make out with Eurotrash. And Luke and his friends are awesome and more my kind of people.

Anyway, pictures from the city tour of Valencia:


Just a beautiful apartment building I saw.


The bullfighting stadium. I'm really into those sunflare thingys in pictures, can you tell?


Bullfighting stadium, again.


Another pretty apartment building.


I believe this is a Valencian Generalitat (government) building.


I don't remember what this building is, but it's amazing against the sky.


Valencian oranges -- kind of. According to Jorge, the oranges that grow wild are bitter and bad. I wanted to try them for myself, but chickened out on picking one.


This giant gold thing is inside of the Catedral de Valencia. It was a gift from some other government. Pretty sweet regalo, no?


Also inside the Catedral.


Outside of the Catedral.


Inside of an ancient merchant's market.


The sky was so pretty, all day and all night.


I guess I was a bad student in Valencia -- I don't remember what this building is at all.


On Saturday we went to L'Oceanographic, which is an aquarium. It's a part of La Ciudad del Arte y Ciencia, a huge complex of art and science museums. Then we went to the science museum, which was kind of a bust. Luke and I slept on chairs in the science museum because we were so completely exhausted. After our 9 hour day of tours, I caught a quick nap at the hotel before getting pizza and with Luke, Lisa, Drew and Anar. Found a dirt cheap bar close to the hotel later in the night where we ran into three of my apartmentmates. Lisa drew portraits of people on napkins. Headed back to the hotel kind of early to go to sleep.

Here are some pictures from L'Oceanographic and the science museum:


Luke and I fell in love with this beautiful seakitten!


I got such sweet pictures of these glowing jellyfish.


Right?


Anar swore this would be a good picture despite the aquarium's no-flash policy. Didn't really end up that way, though.


The Ciudad del Arte y Ciencia complex. I forgot to mention that the complex also includes an opera house.


Inside the science museum.


This exhibit was an optical illusion involving a mirrored view of the DNA double helix that made you feel like you were going to fall to the center of the earth/rise to the sky.


This morning we took a three hour bus ride to Terragona, which was back in the direction of Barcelona. We took a tour of Roman ruins and then had some free time to eat lunch. Terragona was beautiful and much less of a city than Valencia or Barcelona -- in a good way. The people didn't hate us for being American or stare at us. It was a really relaxed seaside town.

Pictures:


Morning flea market outside of a huge church in Terragona.


Part of a Roman amphitheater.


Entrance to the amphitheater. There was a cat rolling around in the dust of the ruins. What a life.


Terragona and the Mediterranean.


Terragona, with the GLADIATOR arena ruins!


Arena.


Inside the arena, where some guy later built a church.


Classes start tomorrow. I'm excited to have more alone time and less of a group schedule with my roommates. I like them and all, but it's annoying having virtually no privacy for two weeks straight.