Valencia

This all happened on Saturday, Jan 16 (yes, I am still almost a week behind)

We went to Valencia, which is about a 1.5hr drive from Denia. There is a bus that runs directly there from Denia, but we had a private bus that then also drove us around the city a bit.

Valencia is the third biggest city in Spain, and it has buildings that range from medieval to millennium architecture.

The day consisted of: drive to Valencia, see the train station, walk around the city and see the market, cathedral, basilica (where they were having a blessing of the children while we were there; there is a picture of it in this blog), roman ruins, graffiti, old medieval city doors, and city hall, go speed shopping, eat lunch, go to the aquarium and see a dolphin show (outside because it was 65F outside), sharks, belugas, walruses, seals, and the Red Sea exhibit (who knew it had its own ecosystem), drive back. It was a long day, but my favorite parts were the market and the aquarium (which is the biggest aquarium in Europe).

The market was very reminiscent of Pike’s Place, just add fruit, scarves, bread, vegetables, sweets, nuts, etc. There were venders everywhere and people yelling all over the place. It was really fun. My favorite part was the seafood though. They had everything: lobster, shrimp, mollusks of all varieties, octopus, live eels that they would pull out of the tank for you, salmon, tuna, and lots of other stuff that I didn’t know. I was walking around, and everywhere I was seeing these weird white things that look like big heart shaped pillows with frills on the edges (except that they are clearly made of fish flesh…don’t ask where my mind gets these things from). I have put a picture of them in here so you can decide if you agree with me. Anyway, Emma said they were octopi because they did have little leg things coming out the bottom, but they really didn’t look like them. Finally, I saw a guy who was cleaning something that looked kind of like them. I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was taking the eyes and out and getting them ready to be peeled. They are sepia, which are cuttlefish in English. He showed me how to peel them and what they look like when they are peeled: white, heart-shaped pillows of flesh with flesh frills. Now I know, and you do, too.

My other favorite part was the aquarium. The aquarium is part of a section of the city that they call “Ciudad de las artes y ciencias” which is: “City of the arts and sciences.” Basically, the river overflowed so much that the city decided to reroute it. Then, they had to decide what to do with the space, so they turned it into a bunch of parks and built a center of the arts and sciences in it. There is a huge concert hall that looks like an egg that is starting to crack open. There is a botanical garden which looks like the rib cage of a gigantic dinosaur. There is an art center that looks like the back of a giant purple fish/whale that is breeching. And there is an aquarium which is mostly outdoors and underground, and the parts that stick up are very wavelike. Anyway, the architecture is phenomenal – very “millennium style.” We went to a dolphin show where the dolphins were lifting the people up with their noses and throwing them into the air. I had never seen anything like it. Then we went through one of those sweet tunnels where you can see the fish all around you. I saw an animal I had never seen before: Mola Mola – it’s a Sunfish in English and “Pez luna” which actually translates “moon fish” in Spanish. At first I thought it was a turtle swimming on its side, then I realized it had to be a fish and got really confused. I found the sign for it, but it didn’t really say anything, so I Googled it later. It is seriously the ugliest fish I have ever seen. It’s the size of a great sea turtle, has fins only on the top and bottom of its body, has this funny flowery looking stub of a tail, and a really blunt face. I could have sat and watched that thing for ages – it’s not very often that I see an animal that I have absolutely no memory of ever seeing before, or of ever seeing anything similar to it before. I love going to aquariums! Seeing an aquarium the size of the front of an auditorium and seeing all the fish suspended in it is so gravity-defying. It’s awesome – kind of like watching fire.