Today was awesome. I woke up at 11:30, showered and met about 10 members of the group down in the lobby before we left for the science museum. The walk to the aquarium was awesome. It was probably the warmest it has been since I have been here, the sun was shining, and the sky was bluer than ever. Since all of the science buildings are at one end of el Rio, we took a long way through the river to enjoy the day even more.
The cafeteria had made sack lunches for us to eat of the way, but about four of us forgot to sign up for them. Instead we stopped at a little sandwich/café place in el Rio. I had a ham and cheese bocadillo (sandwich), an orange soda and some French fries. When I ordered my fries they asked me if I wanted salsa, thinking ketchup, I said sure. Much to my surprise and like, the fries were actually covered with hot sauce and a garlic aioli that was absolutely delicious.
After we took about thirty minutes to eat, we set off to the Aquarium called L’ Oceanographic. The science buildings are like out of a science fiction museum. The same architect did all of the buildings and he went for a very natural, futuristic approach using curves, natural shapes and white buildings. In the shadow of every building there are hundreds of square yards of wading pools with pristine, Caribbean appearing blue water.
Walking in, we saw a huge crew working in a huge wading pool that they had just drained. I found out that an MTV crew was building a huge stage for a big free concert next Saturday that they give every year in Valencia. This year they are hosting the Artic Monkeys. They aren’t my favorite band in the whole world but the opportunity to see such a huge concert in that venue would be absolutely awesome.
The Aquarium was really cool. It was open air and organized into pods such as Tropical, Sharks, Artic, Mediterranian, etc. If you went to each pod there were steps down to the actual exhibit. Everything was so cool.
Each corner we turned was a new mind blowing fish I had never seen before. We all met up at 3:30 for a dolphin show which was great. The trainers (who were in the water) would have the dolphins put their snouts under the feet and propel them across the length of the pool. Then when they got to the edge the dolphins would shoot them up out of the water and they would land perfectly on the edge of the pool, almost as if they had taken a step right out of the water. We laughed to each other because we realized dolphins here speak Spanish because of their trainer’s commands. The dolphin show was by far the coolest part of the day.
The science museum was pretty bad. I pictured huge hands on activity place that I could go back to and relive my youth trips to interactive museums, but in reality It was pretty lame. I played with the tornado creator exhibit for a while but decided to leave the museum after about an hour and a half. Some of us that went on the museum trip wanted to go to the Valencia soccer game but by the time we finished both museums, it just wasn’t feasible to get over there in time.
Some of us went to get a drink at a bar that we just randomly found and watch the first half of the Valencia game. The bar looked like it was owned by an Eastern European family and the crowd looked the same. We got to the bar just in time because about 15 minutes after we arrived, it was slammed with everyone looking for a good spot near the TV. Valencia scored two great goals in the first half and both times the whole restaurant would roar and cheer.
Since we were kind of tired and far we decided to take a taxi back. Of all the taxi drivers and people needing a ride in the city, we found our same driver from Thursday night. He didn’t recognize me at first but I remembered him for sure. After I asked him he remembered everything. It was really funny to talk to him again. He said he would see me next time and I just laughed and said of course. We were starved and flocked into the cafeteria at 8:00.
Everyone hates on the hamburgers here but I really like them. I have been putting onion on it, which makes it taste incredible. I also had a potato and cheese soup that was to die for. After dinner we all took a two hour nap, woke up and got ready to go out for the night.
Most of the Spanish kids went home for the weekend to see their parents so it was just a group from the UGA trip that we went out with. We went to an older bar called La Negrita (the same place I had gotten an espresso and baileys a few days prior). It was a welcomed change because there was a lot more of an older crowd, which was fun to hang out with.
A few of us went to Radio City and danced until about 3:30. It was fun but that bar just gets so packed that no one can move at all. As we were leaving, we stopped at Doner Kebab but I resisted and saved my money. It looked really good though.
I went to sleep not too much longer after we returned home, exhausted from a long, fun day.
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