Day 48: Valencia, Paella and the Beach

I'm not going to lie - waking up in a room other than mine was pretty much the highlight of my day. From there, everything seemed to go downhill.

Now, now... stop thinking that. I ended up in my friend's room because my roommates were out partying 'til three in the morning and I got back earlier. Rather than wait for them, I just crashed in Dave and James' room... but it definitely was amusing to wake up and remember I wasn't in my room and that this could possibly took fishy to onlookers... LOL. What's a Study Abroad adventures with people wondering about you and your moral code, hey?! ;)

We got on the bus and went to the Fallero Museum. I had never heard of Las Fallas, but apparently it's a big deal and my Spanish textbooks just always accidentally skipped this big fiesta in the "Culture" section of the book. Brother. >_< I still don't totally grasp the concept: Basically, it's an annual celebration where they set off fireworks around Valencia and artists work all year round to create giant wooden and plaster sculptures to put together a big, tall display in the plaza. The sculptures have social and political commentary associated with them (though I couldn't disipher it) and are gorgeous and adorable.

Then, at the end of the fiesta (which includes a lot more stuff - women in gorgeous, Valenciana dresses and flowers and more fireworks, etc), they light the big sculpture of sculptures on fire and watch it burn to symbolize the start to a new year or for good luck or... I have no idea... it seems self defeating? But okay... they burn them all. But they always save one ( ... or they vote for one? I'm not sure... tricky Catalan. -->

Catalan! Yes! We studied this language in my Romance Languages class, and it's like a Latin based language that took too many drugs and is now tripping. It seems to switch between Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese at whim, and unless you really focus, you can't quite grasp the whole of it. Quieres un ejemplo?

Em va agradar molt estar a València, però aquest llenguatge va ser una mica complicat, ja que semblava que era la llengua romanç en les drogues.

See??)

Anyway, the museum was really cute and I liked the quaint artsy nature of it all a ton! Below is my favorite sculpture they had; I thought it was adorable that the boy was painting a heart onto the ballerina doll and it reminded me a little of Mackenzie Thorpe, Fabio Napoleoni and EE Cummings. <3

 

After the strange but awesome museum, we were off on another infamous Fausto tour. At the beginning of this trip, these little Fausto expeditions were a hoot. But the thrill has worn off / it's about 20 degrees hotter than it was when he was first giving them / they're a lot easier with a tinier group who doesn't dawdle so much.

Next we went to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (or, okay, we were already there, but we crossed the street to the official part) to check out the cool architecture and randomly encountered a dinosaur park!

There was for real a dino park randomly in the middle of everything. Dave and I had made a Dino Dance on the bus, so we were well prepared for our poses! Us doing the "raptor dance" and the "brontosaurus dance." Classic. Classy. Classically classy.

I, of course, had to Raptor Walk by the raptors. ;) DUH. *Raptor Walking to the Raptor - wait.. what?! RAPTOR OUT!*

Weee! So pretty!! Such random archetecture!!! I wish we could swim in the pool/fountain thing 'cause it's 42 degrees celcius!!!! *atleasti'mtanningaweebit*

Sometimes in this country you see weird things... like three ladies all dressed in American colors walking strollers that match their monotone outfits with babies inside the strollers that also match. The publicity/marketing moves here are strange. I wonder if they work...? We were certainly staring, but it didn't motivate any of us to go out and buy a stroller and then buy clothes to match it. Too bad I didn't get a pic of the two buxom ladies I saw later on in the trip dressed in a tight little pleather suit that showed their bare boobs and butt and had a sexy little motorcycle helmet on distributing fliers for something. I swear... publicity "stunts" here are just so intriguing.

Next it was off to the beach. I was ridiculously starving and was not pleased when the girls I was with decided we would wait an hour for a restaurant to open up so we could dine on really expensive Paella. When the bill ended up being 23 euro for Paella, a salad, a croquete and aigua velanciana - I was a little ticked off to say the least. BUT, it was true that the paella was WONDERFUL.

Keep in mind, though, "paella" just means rice and "marisco" aka an assortment of seafood. It was a great meal but definitely not worth 23 euro in my humble opinion. Sheesh. Nor was it worth missing three hours on the beach laying in the sun and tanning... although our group of girls were the only ones to not burn... hmm...

FINALLY it was beach time. I rocked my Brazilian bikini *scandal* and plopped myself on my towel in the sand for a good few hours, snoozing away and baking. I didn't get too tan, but I did get a much needed siesta in the sunshine on the southern Spanish beach of Valencia. ^_^ Yay!

From there Dave and I strolled around the little shops by the beach and then we all went home. I showered, took some much needed solo/Kiwi compy time and snoozed early while everybody else went out, got their scandal on, and didn't return 'til 5:30 am. Aren't I a little smart cookie?! Lol. Mostly I'm just too something to be able to party it up two nights in a row. That is overkill for this little chica. ;)

XOXO

Jet-set Cupcake