Valen-ths-ia, España...el frío polar!

for the Toussaint holiday (aka All Saints Day) i decided to go to Valencia, Spain with anne and stephanie, two other assistants in laon. it was a little last minute and so my flight was more expensive than i would've hoped but you live and you learn so i'm planning my next holiday much sooner. i blame this on my parents who got my hopes up by telling me that they would come to paris for my vacation and then backed out. i will never forgive them for that gigantic tease.

so, i flew to valencia with stephanie (anne doesn't like flying as much so she decided to take the train) via ryan air which was an experience. and yes, those are the obnoxious colors that marr the interior of the plane. since i am a chronic overpacker and i didn't want to check any bags (last time i did that i was without clothes for nearly a week), this presented a slight conundrum cause ryan air only allows one carry-on bag (purses included) that is only 10kg (or 22 lbs). this is not very much and they also have a ridiculous size restriction - european carry-on suitcases are comically tiny. now, ryan air also prides itself on being the most on-time airline in europe and when you land they actually play a little trumpet fare to signal on-time arrival. their on-time slogan isn't really accurate however since they're actually mostly early. sneaky sneaky. they totally over-estimate the time it takes to get to the destination. no wonder they're always on time.

either way, we all got in on monday two weeks ago and stayed until the following monday. a nice week-long vacation en espagne. we were also lucky enough to have a place to stay! a friend of stephanie's (sunny) is doing a semester abroad and has a 4 bedroom apartment all to herself since all the other girls wanted to do home-stays. so we each got our own room! how incredible is that?? sunny, you are the best! she showed us around and was an incredibly gracious host.

the first day we mostly walked around and sampled some valencian cuisine. on the right is the three french musketeers (anne is on the left and stephanie is on the right) tasting the valencian specialty: paella! this a a rice dish that is traditionally only eaten during lunch-time. the rice is stir-fried/baked (i'm not sure which, possibly both) with local vegetables and spices. you can have seafood paella, paella valenciana (chicken and rabbit), lobster...the list goes on. it was delicious! lunch is supposed to be the largest meal of the day, eaten sometime during the siesta hours (2-5 pm, when everything is closed). dinner is really late at 9:30/10:00 and is usually some form of tapas...lots of fried goodness. there was this particular dish of fried cheese with strawberry marmalade that i will be dreaming about for years to come. spanish cuisine passes my test :)















plaza de la reina: this is one of the main square. on the top left is one of the churches in valencia - looks a little less obtrusive than the huge cathedrals in france. on the top right is an...intersting fountain where the pigeons like to flock. my favorite is the solitary and ever-present pigeon on top of the head. and on the right is the night view from the highest point in the city.

one of the coolest things i found in valencia is the enormous number of parks. in fact, there used to be a river that ran through the city but in the 50s they drained it, in order to avoid flooding, and turned it into a 4+ km park! i thought it was pretty cool. in our wandering of the many parks i managed to take some fun pictures that are probably some of my faves. in addition there were many stray cats which i always enjoy photographing.

during the next few days we explored the city some more, going to the Biopark and the Oceanografie and the City of Arts and Sciences. the Biopark was the coolest zoo i've been to. the idea is that it's more of a free range zoo where you could either get really close to the animals or they were literally running in front of you like the lemurs. i even managed to pet one, illegally of course. the Oceanografie is a big aquarium with the typical marine animals you might find in any aquarium, basically it wasn't as cool as the Biopark. it's also right next to the City of Arts and Sciences which was pretty sweet. it's a collection of museums with some cool modern architecture - an effort by valencia to blend the old with the new.

these are the highlights

gangsta giraffe and gorilla. i really like the juxtaposition of my reflection here.


one of the best pictures i took is this beluga whale watching the people watching him. what an interesting role reversal. makes you wonder who's really watching whom.

the city of arts and sciences. futuristic and very alien looking :)

the next few days of the trip we decided to go see a futbol game in spain which was bound to be exciting. and it was. exciting and rainy. actually, we almost missed the game. we had originally thought that the game was on sunday so we decided to buy the tickets on saturday to make sure they didn't sell out and avoid the long lines. that saturday as we were having a relaxing night in, after a number of late nights...the spanish are crazy - after sleeping during the siesta hours, they have all kinds of energy to party into the wee hours of the morning. so, we made dinner and were watching some futbol replays on tv...or so we thought. as the second game came on we noticed that the teams playing were the exact same teams that were supposed to be playing tomorrow. the thing is, there was no date or time on the tickets we bought. so, after some discussion on whether it was a replay or not (also gauging how heavy the rain was falling), stephanie and i decided to check it out by taking a look outside. the triple parked cars and cheers of the crowd were pretty obvious. we were watching the game on tv. oh mon dieu. we ran back in to get anne, umbrellas and some plastic bags...have i mentioned that it was raining? hard? we managed to get there just before half-time! phew. even though it was pouring, the fans still showed up, with umbrellas and parkas :) this was also when i found out that my umbrella doesn't really perform it's key function very well: it's a leaky umbrella. wtf. needless to say, i got pretty soaked during this game and valencia lost 4-2, kicking the last two goals in themselves. whoops!

since i was on vacation i was of the mindset that i would be sun-bathing on the beaches of valencia and so packed all wrong. i brought a couple skirts, tank-tops, flip-flops, no socks, a swimsuit and only one pair of pants!! that was stupid. after the futbol game, i was forced to get creative so i could wear dry pants the next day. there are no dryers in europe and jeans aren't air drying overnight. so, i used a blowdryer for a while and presto! dry jeans.

the last day in valencia we finally got to the beach since it turned out to be a pretty nice day. well, at least it wasn't raining ;) i imagine during the warmer months i could've made good use of that swimsuit...

one of the most interesting discoveries during this vacation is that i've become spoiled. in france i can communicate! in spain...not so much. it was so strange to feel so helpless and not speak the language. in addition, not many spaniards speak that much english. sunny was great in helping us out, without her there would have been even more hand gestures and miming than there already were :) either way, i'm looking forward to returning to spain in february, especially to travel with jonathan again. we're going made a tour of some key cities like madrid, barcelona, sevilla and potentially check out lisbon as well. i can't wait, it's going to be absolutely amazing! not to mention the food. yum yum. have i mentioned the paella?

here's another shot for posterity's sake...

this time being more metally prepared for spanish. also, if you ever find yourself in spain it's grathias not gracias. thinco not cinco. valenthia not valencia. why they gotta make it complicated?

if you're interested in seeing some more pictures of valencia go to the facebook albums here and here.