Ok so I haven't posted in a while, so this will be long because I've done a lot of cool things recently.
First, last Tuesday we went with my culture class to the History Museum here in Valencia. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures with flash so I didn't really take any pictures because they never turn out as good. But, we learned so much about the history of Valencia. One of the cooler things we learned was that the Cathedral used to be a mosque but when the Christian Inquisition happened during the Renaissance era, it was turned into a Cathedral. I think it's interesting because although the Renaissance has a huge art/science influence, the religious aspects were still really intense, as anyone who was basically non-Catholic were exiled. Also, the museum was built where there used to be an "aqueduct-like" structure in Valencia (to take water to the town from the river); so, the museum is beautiful inside because it looks like stone water-ways, it look almost like a really nice cave, with hardwood floors. Our culture teacher is so cute, but the museum was dark and cold so we were pretty much falling asleep during the videos they have around the museum!
Then, last Wednesday, the Advanced culture class went to a farm right outside the city and invited us. Half of my class went with them and it was amazing! It cost 20 euro plus a metro ticket to go to this farm, where we had like a 5 course meal complete with homemade paella, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, freshly made Sangria, they had EVERYTHING. It was fabulous. Then, we got to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride to a house near the farm (the owner's grandparent's house). Also, since it's a farm they have animals that we were able to see, like goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, dogs, and horses obviously. It was seriously one of my favorite days here easily. The man who owned the place was so funny and the Culture teacher was awesome.
This weekend we went to Barcelona with ISA. Since I had been before with Mom and Aunt Donna I didn't really know how much more I would see, but we ended up doing a lot! We walked SO much, my feet are going to be three sizes bigger when I get back from here, all of my closed toe shoes are a little tight now because my feet must be swollen. We left here Friday morning at 8 AM, that was fun waking up early... We take a charter bus when we go on excursions and we are required to stop every two hours for a 30 minute break. It's a law in many countries in Europe that truck/bus drivers have to stop and take a rest every 2 hours, if they don't the car won't restart because it's on a time card. When we arrived in Barcelona, we took a 2 hour panoramic bus tour around the city. We went up to the mountain where the Olympic Stadium is, the 1992 summer Olympics were in Barcelona, so they have a huge tourist destination up there. We weren't able to go into the stadium, but I took pictures as we passed it. We then stopped at this landing that over-looked the whole city, it was beautiful. We drove by La Sagrada Familia, Port Olympic, and lots of other landmarks. We had free time after our tour and a couple of us went and walked over to La Sagrada Familia to just look at the outside and drink Starbucks :) I had already been in with Mom and Aunt Donna so I didn't plan on going in again. No one went in that time but we had a couple people go in on Saturday afternoon. After we drank our Starbucks, we walked over to Las Ramblas. La Rambla is a famous street with vendors, shopping, food, etc. It's all pretty expensive though so I didn't buy anything. We then walked down to the Port, past the statue of Christopher Columbus, and walked along the port. We ended up seeing a little concert while walking, it was a woman and man singing/playing the piano and guitar. They were awesome. We then walked through Barceloneta, our tour guide recommended that we eat somewhere in there because it's cheaper and way better quality than dining in Las Ramblas. We went to the small vendor shops near there, I got a pair of parachute pants (they're all the rage here). Then, we ate dinner at a restaurant that had all kinds of seafood, etc. It was really good. Since the nightlife is one of the major features of Barcelona, we had to go to a discoteca. So, we all got ready in our hotel and headed out around 1:30 to a club on the beach. It ended up being that you had to be on a list to get in, so we walked like one block away to another club that let girls in for free--that was great! It was really fun, but there were way more creepy men there than I have seen in any other club I've been to. We got home around 6, as usual and had to wake up at 9 to eat breakfast and be ready by 10:30. Although I was exhausted, I got to eat cereal...so it was ok :) The cereal, wasn't up to par with our other hotels, but I guess I'll deal with it. Can't wait for Moroccan hotels to see what kind of cereal they have!
So, Saturday began with a tour of the ancient city. Our tour guide was awesome! When she spoke English, it was pretty much perfect and her Spanish to us was slower than we are used to and more clear. It was cool because I couldn't even really tell when she would switch from Spanish to English because I could understand her so well. We first went to the Temple D'August, which is like a little hidden room basically that a lot of people don't know about, it has columns and paintings inside. Next, we went to the Cathedral in Barcelona; the outside used to be simple she said but they changed it in the 1800s, I think, to be more extravagant. Inside and out, it was gorgeous. One of my friends and I bought and lit a candle next to one of the statues/portraits. Very cool. We then went to the Jewish neighborhood, our guide told us that when the Jews came to Spain, the economy flourished because most of them were doctors, wealthy people; but when the Christian Inquisition happened, anyone non-Catholic was exiled, causing the economy to be poor again. She was funny because she was like, well duh obviously it would be poor again, those idiots. We then walked to the Picasso Museum but we never entered. We went to a few more places and although our tour was so amazing, it was super long and with 45 minutes to go everyone was getting very restless. Anyway, after the tour, we went to this tapas restaurant which was pretty good. Then, we went back toward Las Ramblas again and got Gelato and walked to our hotel (which is like a 5 minute walk from La Sagrada Familia) so like 30ish minutes from the end of Las Ramblas. We all took a nap then because we were so tired, and it was great. We went to a Tex-Mex restaurant for dinner, we were craving Mexican food. Once again, we got ready to go out and we wanted to go to the famous shot bar, but it ended up closing at 3 and we ran into girls from Erasmus (the European version of ISA) who spoke English and they were going somewhere else and wanted us to go with them. They couldn't figure out how to get there so we went into another bar that had shots for a dollar, as opposed to the 2.50/3 it would cost for us to go to Chupitos (the famous shot bar). By the time we left there, it was around 4 and we were all so tired, so we split from the other girls and headed home to our hotel. There were 4 of us who went out together and then we decided to sleepover in my hotel room with my roommate as well, 5 of us in a king size bed, it was so funny.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Park Guell. It is a park that Gaudi built, with his mosaic designed architecture. It was really cool, but so crowded! Also, there were so many of those illegal vendors with their stuff on blankets ready to be picked up if the police come. We actually saw them all run away because the police came, it was so funny. After we left the Park, we went to the Calle Gracia. There are two major buildings there designed by Gaudi, our tour guide (a different one from Saturday) loved to talk though, so we were there for a while. Then, we had free time until we had to catch the bus back to Valencia so a few of us went to Los Cuatros Gatos, a cafe/restaurant that Picasso supposedly hung out at. It was super cute inside, and although a little more expensive than we wanted, it was worth it to sit in there! On the bus back to Valencia, we all passed out before we stopped at the 2 hour mark. The bus was literally silent. I did love Barcelona, but I like Valencia more. It was hard to speak Spanish to people in Barcelona because everyone pretty much speaks English, so I'm really glad I didn't study there because I would never learn as much as I am here. Also, while the nightlife is cool, it's too hyped up I think. The best places cost a lot of money to enter and/or you have to be on a list to get in.
I took tons of pictures so I will just have a post soon that has most of my pictures from the farm and Barcelona.
Tomorrow, we are going on another excursion with my culture class; I'm not really sure exactly what it is that we are doing/where we are going, but I'll post about it soon. Then, on Friday, we are FINALLY going to the City of Arts and Sciences and we get to go to the Oceanographic (Aquarium)! So excited!
The rest of this weekend we are in Valencia and then in 3 weeks from today, those of us going to Morocco leave for Sevilla (that is where we have to meet to catch the bus to Morocco). I can't believe it's already October 3. We've been here for just about a month, and while it feels like I've been here for a year, it's equally like "I can't believe we've already been here for a month!"
Buenos tardes!
