Los últimos días

Sorry I've been MIA recently.  Nothing super exciting has happened here.  Okay, that's not really true, but it has been calmer than normal!  Classes are really getting underway, meaning I have homework now (yuck!) but at least they're interesting and the homework isn't hard (I have to color a picture for my art class).

Parque de la Cultura

So what have I been up to recently?  Walking!  Lots and lots of walking!  I've been walking around the city both by myself and with others after lunch, going on adventures and figuring out all the different streets.  Tuesday (or maybe it was Monday?  I don't actually remember) I wandered around the streets between Calle de Jesús (two blocks to the left of where I live) and Calle San Vicente Martir (one block to the right).  First I went to a little cafe and did some homework while eating patatas bravas, which are kinda like potato wedges.  The owner of the cafe probably thought I was crazy cause no one orders tapas at that time of day, but I was hungry!  I did a bit of homework there, and then continued my walk.  I eventually ended up in el Parque de la Cultura (remember that from my previous blog post?  Maggie and I wandered there the first day we went out into the city!).  While there I sat and did some more homework while enjoying the sounds of everything happening around me.  There were people walking, dogs playing, and some kids boxing (what?).  And I did manage to get some homework done!

Yesterday, I went to a peluquería (a barber shop) at the mall with Natalia and Pablo.  Pablo needed to get his hair cut, and I tagged along to see something else in Valencia!  The mall, as expected, was pretty much like Park City, except that the level we were on was underground.  The other thing that was interesting is that the parking was underground, too, but I've come to realize that in Valencia that is completely normal.

While speaking of parking, let's talk about driving.  Valencian drivers are CRAZY!  Each major road has at least 3 lanes each direction (some have up to 5), with one of these lanes being specifically for buses and taxis.  The lanes are super narrow and drivers will switch lanes without warning, however I have yet to see any accidents anywhere.  On the main roads, there are stop lights every 20 feet or so, and you have to watch out for all of them and stop when one is red.  If you don't, you'll most likely hit a pedestrian.  Also, instead of stopping before the light, cars are often stopped at the light.  Sometimes the light to go straight is green, but if you're turning, you'll start to turn until, BOOM, red light and pedestrians.  Another thing is that a lot of the roads have a median down the middle, and the smaller roads are only one way, so if you miss your turn (which one of our taxi drivers did) you have to go all the way around to get back to where you need to go.  Speaking of turning, there are a ton of round-a-bouts in Valencia.  And no I don't mean the little round-a-bouts that you'll see at Overlook with one lane, I mean ones with four lanes that lead off to 4 or sometimes 5 streets, with stoplights at every street cars trying to switch lanes so that they can get off at the right time.  Like I said, crazy, but no accidents.

La Catedral

Okay, back from that little tangent... Last night was pretty exciting!  I went on a walking tour through the Valencia with an official tour guide and other students from UVA.  He took us into the Cathedral, el Mercado Central, and la Lonja (it's the old center for trade, merchants from all over Europe would come and it is the most important building in Valencia because it brought so much wealth - normally a city's Cathedral is the most important building).  We also saw the post office, the building for the Generalitat (Valencia's governing body), other churches (there are a gazillion), the Palace of the Archbishop, and several other places.  I have pictures, but I honestly probably can't tell you what everything was.  There are two places I'm hoping to return to, though.  One is a ceramic museum.  Valencia is known for their ceramics and there's this little museum that has a bunch of pieces that our tour guide told us were beautiful.  I think I'm going on Sunday because it's free to visit then, and I'll already be at the Cathedral for morning mass :)  Also, I want to return to L'Almoina (shout out to Ryan for reminding me of the name!)

La Lonja

Inside la Catedral

the Ceramics Museum

but instead of actually going there, I want to go underneath it!  This used to be the site of old houses, but when they were tearing them down to build new ones, they found remains of a bunch of ancient civilizations that lived in Valencia, like the Romans, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and more.  Now, there is a plaza on top of the ruins, but you can go down and take a tour of them.  Since we just learned about these civilizations in my one class (we were talking about the Iberian Peninsula and how Spain got its name... España actually means land of the rabbits).  Hopefully I'll return to tour the ruins before I leave.

Pinchos!

After our tour, we returned to la Plaza de la Reina and met other people at the front doors to the Cathedral before heading out for tapas!  Tapas are kind of like appetizers and in Spain it's really common to go out with friends before dinner to eat some and chat.  We went to a place called la Taberna de la Reina and had pinchos.  Pinchos are a small snack (or tapas) that you find in bars.  Typically they are served on a piece of bread and spiked with a toothpick.  You can pick and eat as many as you want, then we paid for everything by the number of toothpicks on your plate.  I had three - one was tuna with lettuce, egg and who knows what else,

Dulce de Leche

Today, I wandered around some more after doing some of my homework.  This time I went to find how to get into the tunnel that I drive through every morning on the way to school (it goes under the train tracks and train station).  I knew you could walk through it, too, because I see people walking every
morning, so today I set out to find where the entrance was.  Turns out, all I had to do was walk straight and I found the stairs.  So I wandered down that street (Gran Vía) towards school and turned around when I passed the Starbucks.  On my way back, I stopped at a little pastry shop, called Dulce de Leche, for some café con leche and a chocolate croissant.  Delicious!  I plan on returning some time soon, and bringing friends with me (it's only two blocks from my house!)  Now I'm home and writing this blog, waiting for dinner (sushi tonight).  I'll do a bit of homework later (I have a one pager to write for tomorrow).

Oranges! Everywhere!

Oh, one other quick tangent, there are literally orange trees EVERYWHERE in Valencia.  They cover the streets and the parks!  However, you don't want to eat their fruit.  These trees are wild orange trees, and their fruits are bitter.  So while they make for pretty decorations, go find yourself a cafe with zumo de naranja (orange juice) if you want to taste some good Valencian oranges!