Valencia

Wednesday - Sunday in Valencia I first went with my mom and Nancy, and Javi joined us Thursday night.
Valencia was pretty amazing, and it very much surpassed my expectations. We stayed in a super nice hotel on the beach, and we pooled it and beached it Thursday. The Spanish semi-final was Wednesday, and we had a great time celebrating the win.

 ^ okay I wrote this SUPER tired from Pamplona- so my writing was getting boring and I stopped--- TIME TO CONTINUE **

 Valencia is BEAUTIFUL. The beaches are the softest sand, and the water is QUITE cold. While we were there, there were fires in the south, so the air was really cloudy with ash, but everything was still supreme for sure. We visited the famous Cuidad de Artes y Sciencias in Valencia. I highly recommend it. The largest aquarium in Europe is there, and there are floors of amazing interactive science exhibits and more. You couldn't see everything in a day. We wish so badly something like this existed in the US; it's like a Disney World of intellectual materials- and it's beautiful architecturally as you can see in my video.

We ended up crashing on the beach as usual after visiting the museum - and Justine was there also!! (this was Friday).

After, we got ready, and we ate at a delicious restaurant/bar/later-pseudo-disco called Gabbana (also the name of the disco in Madrid, but they are unrelated). It has amazing cocktails and food. So good, we ate there 2 nights in a row.

The next day (Saturday), we went on a day long trip to "hot springs" near Valencia and MORE. It is led by DO-Valencia, and you should DEFINITELY go if you visit Valencia. Many of the adventure is also on my video.
We went to an area where the famous Queen's Veil is- basically a large waterfall and an area with a river and such where many people spend their weekends.
We went to the Hot Springs about 45 minutes out from Valencia. It is about 25 degrees centigrade all year, which is why it is called the Hot Springs, but the water is not necessarily... hot. We swam, explored a cave and spring area, and cliff jumped a bit! Then we went to an area where the dam nearby lets out the extreme pressure through a small hole, and it is a HUGE mass of water (also in the video). We stopped for pictures in 2 beautiful spots, and usually the trip ends with tapas in a nearby small town, but this weekend, there happened to be a bull festival with bull runs, and we got to watch it!

My next post will be about San Fermin in Pamplona- a HUGE festival for bull running and fighting, but in this city- because it was small- the bull runs consist of blocked off small streets, and cages for the people to watch. The spectators stand in the cages with bars around a foot and a few inches wide for runners to enter if they are *screwed. There are also bleachers on top for more spectators. The bulls are let out one at a time for people to try to trick them and run from them. These bulls were so fast and so terrifying, and little did I know, they were tiny compared to those in Pamplona. A bull turned its head the exact perfect way and somehow entered a cage of spectators. People were screaming, and it was terrifying. One of the men inside grabbed the bull by horns (lol) and they pulled it out by the tail from behind. The Spaniard who led our tour said he had NEVER seen anything like that before.

That night, Javi, Justine, and I went club hopping. The clubs there are very nice. We had been to Akuarela, and it was very nice and large, and it had a salsa room. We didn't stay very late, so we didn't experience all the people.

That night though, we went to club Animas then looked into a few clubs we walked by such as High Cube and others I cannot remember (close to the port/beach)..
Animas was quite fun, especially before around 3 when it got crazy (this attitude is not normal for me or others in Madrid, Barcelona, etc. Let me explain why). The people we encountered that night, got less friendly as the night got later and the crowd busier. With the experience we had, people did not dance like people dance in other towns at the clubs in Valencia. It became SUPER crowded, and the music grew louder and better- a perfect combination for super fun dancing, but the people continued to bob their heads and hold drinks in their hands. Javi, Justine and I waited quite awhile, and the break for full-on, let-yourself-go, just-have-fun, Kapital-like, Pamplona-primitive-street-dancing, vibe just never came. It was the strangest thing... comprende? BAH! Anyway. That's my one complaint about Valencia; other than that, it's a great, beautiful place with lots to do, and lots of delicious Paella to eat.

Next stop- SAN SEBASTIAN AND PAMPLONA (this past weekend) where my video camera got wrecked by the wide changing tide, and I forgot my normal camera :( - however, one of my favorite weekends since I've been in Spain BY FAR

*for lack of better word