Oranges You Glad I Went To Valencia?

After a mere four hour bus ride, myself, Molly, and Summer arrived in the orange-laden coastal city of Valencia for carnival weekend! It was a rather impromptu trip for me, but after being sick and missing out on Prague, I was desperate to get out of Madrid and do something fun.

Our hostal was right in the middle of the historic district, so (once again) we were surrounded by super old buildings, cobblestone streets and wrought iron balconies, with one gothic church after another.

Friday night we made a feeble attempt to go dancing, but the music was kind of dumb, and the 'club scene' in Spain is way different than in America. Clubs don't even really get busy until about 2am and stay open until 6 or 7am! Crazy! And we were out at like 2 and there were men in their sixties there! Don't they have to wake up in like, two hours? It was weird.

We also tried 'Agua de Valencia', the famous drink of the region that consists of some sort of booze, sugar, and, of course, orange juice. I thought it tasted like Tampico or Sunny Delight, but Molly and Summer liked it.

Saturday! We walked through the huge sunken park that meanders through the city. Fun Fact: it is so meandering because it used to a river. It flooded the entire city in 1957 so they drained it and turned it into the beautful park that it is today. Brilliant!Spring is finally coming to Spain, so things are blossoming and very beautiful.

Orange tree grove, complete with fountain, in the park. Summer tried to eat one of the oranges, but it was sour. Oh, well. The park smells amazing, though.

The park dumps you into the super modern Academy of Arts and Sciences, where they supposedly have an amazing aquarium, but it cost like, 20 euro to get in and it was closed anyway. Besides, I'm kind of spoiled by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I want to keep it as my favorite fish zoo.To me this looks exactly like Star Trek Academy, or the painted backdrop from 'The Squire of Gothos' episode. I mentioned this to Summer and Molly and they both looked at me like I was nuts. I know, I'm a geek. Geek chic, rather.

The thing I really liked about Valencia is that the ancient and modern buildings are both so amazing, and they don't seem to compete with each other. There will be an excellent old building, but the ground floor will be converted into a really funky, modern shop or restaurant. Valencia is also way less touristy than Barcelona, although there is still a lot to see, and the beaches are actually way nicer. Not everyone speaks english like they do in Barcelona, so we got to use more Spanish. Although, like Barcelona, they speak Catalan, but everyone also speaks Spanish.

After Star Trek Academy we walked down to the beach (we walked A LOT on Saturday) and trudged through the sand, and I dipped my toes in the water. The Mediterranean is so different from the beaches in California! The Atlantic is green and murky and has those big freezing waves that vomit hunks of stinking seaweed onto the shore. The Mediterranean has tiny waves, clear water, and clean amazing sand.
Me and Molly, trekking to the water.

It felt so good to dig my toes in the sand. Lucy liked it, too.

Valencia is also the birthplace of Paella, so we ate a huge plate of it on the water front. Then we went home and 'freshened up' for our night out on the town. We donned our carnival masks, and I turned Summer's fine hair into an afro. It was one of my finer hairdressing moments.At our hostel, before we went out. Yes, we look silly, but that's half the fun!

Sunday! We walked around the historic district, and went to see the Holy Grail, the only one recognized by the Church, but on the way a Frenchman stopped us and said "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" Just kidding! I couldn't resist a Monty Python reference. Anyway, we saw it, it was ornate and old looking.

We ate breakfast in a lovely square, and since it was carnival weekend there was a big parade with music and children dressed up in traditional Spanish costumes. So cute!

The fountain in the square where we ate breakfast. It's also right around the corner from the Holy Grail church. This square also had tons of pigeons, and for those that know me, know I am a weirdo and I love pigeons. The Valencian pigeons are so pretty, they are all sleek and shiny and healthy looking, and there's lot's of white ones. Not like the grimy, decrepit San Francisco pigeons. I chased a couple.

Anyway! After going down that rabbithole, Valencia also has tons of plazas, and they are all like little parks with grass, fountains, trees, and statues. Hooray!
Doesn't this look like a postcard? I'm such a good photographer :P

On a somewhat side note, most people I know are aware of the fact that I have a unique sense of style, and I sometimes get stared at. Spaniards apparently never got the lecture that staring at people is rude. They stop dead in their tracks and just . . . . stare. Also, traveling with Summer, who is taller than me, blonde, and also has a unique sense of style, well, you would think I still had a giant hot pink mohawk or something, the way we get stared at. Sheesh. People were trying to take my photo when they thought I wasn't looking. Summer and I also both have tattoos, which I guess is not as popular a thing in Spain like it is in San Francisco. I've only seen two people that had a lot of tattoos since I've been here, and they were both men, and they looked like they might not have even been Spanish. It's just different. It doesn't bother me, I know I look 'different' and people are going to stare because they're curious. I've accepted it, it's just odd how a different culture reacts so differently, too.

Anyway! I wish I could have spent more time in Valencia. The beach, the people, the architecture, the food, everything was great. I only have four weeks left in Madrid, can you believe it? It's so sad! There's so much that I'm going to miss.

My friend Gwen is coming on Friday, I'm going to give her the Madrid tour and we are going to El Escorial, where King Phillip II built his huge famous castle that has lots of Goya. Woo!

Getting Stockholm Syndrome,
Emily

Exactly How Long Would One Have To Stay In Bed Before Developing Bedsores?

You know that twilight period of illness when you´re not quite well enough to return to work or school (you know, because you don´t want to get anyone else sick, even though you know that jerk that sits behind you in bio is the one that gave you this gnarly disease), but you´re well enough to be bored and restless? I am currently in that phase. In the last 24 hours I have:

-Been tragically forced to cancel/postpone my trip to Prague. I´m super bummed, as is my friend Andy, who I was going to stay with there. On the upside, however, it is sunny and in the 60´s here and it is below freezing in Prague. I´m glad I´m missing out on that, at least.

-Finished two books. Neither of which were books I would typically read, but when you´re in Spain and the pickins are slim and a fever confines you to your bed, you end up reading historical fiction bodice rippers.

- Discovered a great new way to cure the blues: Picture everyone you know, especially if it´s someone you hate or an uptight jerk with a stick up his bum singing "I´m Just a Love Machine" into their hairbrush in front of the mirror, complete with white-man dancing, pointing, and air guitar. This really works. I already did it to all of you.

Bilt up in my mind that me and my fella were mad at each other, only to finally break down and call him and discover that, 5€ later, I´m crazy and everything is as hunky-dory as it has always been.

-Sent "Valentine´s Day Sucks" emails to 3 friends.

-Organized my wallet.

-Went for a stroll in a feeble attempt to soak up some vitamin D. I look like The Portait of Dorian Gray.

-Examined myself in the mirror for way too long, and now I think my left eye is higher than right. I know no one´s face is perfectly symmetrical, but this borders on unacceptable.

-Trimmed my fingernails.

Not nearly as exciting as a weekend in Prague, and most certainly not what I want to be blogging about, or what you, dear reader, want to hear about, but as I said. . . . . bored and restless. . . . .

In other news, I finally discovered "The Emily Neighborhood" of Madrid! It´s called Malaseña, and it´s kind of like Valencia St in San Francisco. There´s lots of teenage posers and twenty-something hipsters and yuppies. Cool funky bars with mangled Barbie kinetic sculptures as decor flank the streets, but I was SO THRILLED to FINALLY discover. . . . vintage clothes! Ahhhhh. . . . . The feeling of euphoria that washed over me as I pawed through 70´s polyester and 50´s cigarette pants can only be likened to that of a junkie getting a fix.

Also in this neighborhood are musty little vinyl shops where old men sit and listen to 1950´s American jukebox tunes. Adorable. They had good records- I found a really great Don McLean sticker back, but it was like 19€, and how would I get it home? I could not resist a 1940 Flash Gordon DVD in Spanish, however. . . . Could anyone?

I also finally did a "Day of Beauty" I did some haircuts for some gals, I had really been missing weilding my shears. I can only imagine how shaggy everyone at home is getting.

Ew! I also finally had to break down and do my color, and there are no beauty supply stores in Spain where you can buy proffessional grade haircolor, so I had to use. . . . box hair dye. I allow all my hairdresser friends to give me 10 lashings when I return to the states. I was desperate.

I apologize, once again, for the uneventful Sblog, but hang in there, I got my ticket to go to Marrakesh, Morocco from March 7th-10th!
More fun stuff to come:
Gwen! Feb 27th-1st! We are going to visit the charming ancient city El Escorial!
Mom! March 19th-25th! We are going to yet another charming and ancient city, Segovia!

Keep Faith in the Sblog,
Emily

My Soggy and Excellent Barcelona Weekend

Yes, it was unfortunately rainy and soggy my whole weekend in Barcelona with Summer and Molly, but that didn't stop us from having a good time! Barcelona is a beautiful, beachy city on the Mediterranean (we had to use our imaginations and pretend it was sunny), and much more touristy than Madrid- But that's because there is more to see! Of course there's tons of works by Gaudi, the famous Barcelonean architect. Luckily they are right smack in the middle of the city so we saw them on our first day!This is the Casa Batllo, or "Bone House", for obvious reasons. Like everything by Gaudi, it is truly unlike anything I've ever seen. It's also right on a really busy street, so we were just walking and then, BAM! there it was. It was odd, for it being a rainy weekend in Janurary/February, there were still lots of tourists. . . . . I was one of the many fools blocking the sidewalk trying to get a photo of this bad boy. I swear I will be much nicer to San Francisco tourists from now on!

Next, we walked to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece. It's a huge cathedral that is still under construction, as it has been since 1887. They work off of Gaudi's blueprints, but, Fun Fact: lots of them were destroyed by anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, and the work that is not Gaudi's is pretty obvious. It's still amazing, however. Behold:
It looks like it's all drippy and melty and Gothic and . . . . Gaudy? I wonder if that's where the word came from since his work is pretty over the top. Anyone who finds out for me gets a Fun Fact point! Anyway, I've always wanted to see this, so it was a pretty big deal to me. We were also able to climb up to the top of one of the spires (looooong narrow spiral staircase), and get some pretty amazing views of the city and the Mediterranean:
You can see all the construction in progress. . . . Good thing I'm not afraid of heights! We found a place to eat in the downtown area, and, like I said, Barcelona is much more touristy and international than Madrid. On the menu they had pastas, meats, and . . . . . SUSHI! I had low expectations when I ordered it, but it was very delicious, my taste buds danced and sang. My sushi craving has been briefly satiated.

Fun Fact: The national language of Barcelona is actually Catalan, not Spanish. It's a strange bastard child of French and Spanish, and was actually very repressed during the Franco era, but is now flourishing. I was a little nervous about it since I don't speak a lick of Catalan, but everyone spoke Spanish, and almost everyone spoke English as well. They seem to cater to tourists a lot more in Barcelona-everyone was very patient and wanted to make sure we understood everything, and when we were walking around like morons looking at a map, locals often stopped to help. Madrid is very different- They have a "We speak Spanish, we're going to talk to you in Spanish and if you don't get it, too bad" kind of attitude, and no one has ever offered to help me in one of my pathetic Bust-Out-The-Map moments. But it's okay. I'm here to learn Spanish, so it's better they speak to me in Spanish, you know?

Day 2!
Of the four guide books we consulted, one of them had a two sentence blurb about a hearse museum. Um, AWESOME! We asked one of the girls that worked in the hostel about it and she had never heard of it, and she's from Barcelona. We did find it eventually, in the funeral home neighborhood in the basement of an unmarked building that is actually a funeral home itself. It was free to enter, and the security guard came down with us, unlocked the door, turned on the lights, waited for us while we looked around, and locked up and turned off the lights when we left. I take it they don't get a lot of visitors. We weren't allowed to take photos unfortunately, but it was SO COOL. It had hearses and funeral carriages from the 19th and 20th century that housed Spanish Royalty on their way to their final resting place. Some of them were ridiculously over the top, it almost seemed sacrilege, or just way too much effort for a dead person. My favorite was this one that was all white and enclosed in cut crystal- it reminded me of a hybrid of Cinderella's carriage and Snow White's glass coffin. But I love quirky little museums that no one knows about-sometimes they're better than seeing all the touristy obvious stuff. This was tied for my favorite thing we saw. My other favorite we saw afterward: the huge (est in Europe) outdoor market off of Las Ramblas.

The market is huge, bustling, close quarters, with everything edible imaginable: lovely colorful exotic fruits, every kind of olive you can imagine, vast arrays of stinky cheeses, every possible weird once living mammal
such as these skinned bunnies (there was also cow tongue, brains, pig feet, intestines, still twitching sea creatures, and lots of other stuff that initiates your gag reflex).Here's some of the prettier stuff the market has to offer.

Right next to the market is Las Ramblas, an outdoor shopping area that has touristy stuff like postcards, but also beautiful flower stands, exotic pets for sale like turtles and parrots, and incredible street performers that put the ones at Pier 39 to shame. Thay have amazing costumes and setups, and a lot of them are "sleeping" or hidden until you put a coin in their bucket, then they magically come to life for you!Here's one of the many street performers' "stage".

3rd Day! Last Day!
We went to Park Guell, a famous public park designed by: guess who? Gaudi! You guys are getting so smart. Anyway, it was super rainy, but that didn't stop the slew of tourists. It is a very beautiful park with men playing Spanish guitar for coins and vendors selling jewellry. I can only imagine what it's like on a beautiful sunny day, when you can actually sit on the world's longest park bench without your ass getting wet (I squatted above it, public restroom style) and have a picnic.
The entrance to the park.Me, squatting.
One of the two houses at the entrance of the park-they look like gingerbread houses-so cute!Gaudi is also famous for his mosaics- this is the ceiling of a columnar canopy in the park. All the musicians and vendors were in here.

We also walked around the Barri Gotic, or Gothic neighborhood, which had lots of really cool narrow, windy, stone streets and Gothic cathedrals that we went in, but unfortunately the rain made it kind of difficult to take photos.

I wish I could have stayed in this city longer-it has such a cool vibe and is more diverse than Madrid, which was something I was really missing. I'll have to come back in like, 30 years. Maybe then it will be sunny and the Sagrada Familia will be completed.

My next journey is to Morocco-I'm really excited! I want to go to Marrakech, but I think Molly wants to go to Casablanca, which is enticing since it's right on the water, but I've heard and researched that Marrakech has more to see and much more charm. Casablanca is just another big modern city, but who knows. So we'll see.

Til then,
Emily