Valencia

Friday. We had to be at the Universidad de Barcelona by 8 am. We traveled by bus for about 4 hours to Valencia. What a different city from Barcelona. It is a much calmer, quieter, more serence city than Barcelona. We got there at about 1 o´clock and had two hours to explore the city. We quickly dropped our bags off at the hotel and in our rooms and walked around. Valencia was very clean and had tons of beautiful buildings and fountaints. I had delicious froyo for lunch and then we met back at the hotel at 3 o´clock to go on a three-hour tour of the city. We saw some churches, the Cathedral, one of the smallest buildings in the world-with a width of only 105 cm.

My favoirte part of the tour was the arts and sciences section of the city. It was like being in paradise: beautiful opera house, aquarium, IMAX Theater, and open pools of bright blue water. We took a ton of pictures there and I got a hot chocolate there and it was one of the best hot chocolates I have ever had. After arts and sciences, we headed to the port and got off the bus to walk the beach for a little bit and explore the strip of authentic restaurants along the beach. We ended up finding a restaurant called El Coso, where we wound up eating dinner later that night. We got back on the bus and went back to the hotel to nap and shower. At 9 o´clock, we took one of the public transporation buses down to the port and got a little lost. We were romaing around for about a half hour and then finally headed in the right direction towards the port. We had not been all the way down the strip of restaurants and we realized that we were at the far end and had to walk towards the beginning. We finally got to El Coso and we ordered a pitcher of Sangria and shared mixed Paella (chicken, vegetables, shrimp, lobster). It was the best paella I have ever had. We were pretty exhausted from being on a bus all day, so we just went back to the hotel and got a good night sleep.

Saturday. We woke up at 10 o´clock and had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was a decent breakfast. We had the option to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes or just to explore the city by ourselves the whole day. My friends and I decided to go to the museum. We left for the museum at about 11:15 and were there by 11:30ish. Bellas Artes means fine arts, so there were a ton of paintaings along with some scultpures and artifacts from long ago. The museum used to be a church and had a beautiful perriwinkle blue ceiling and many of the balconies still in tact that the bishops used 100s and even 1000s of years ago. Most of the paintings had relgious contexts and a lot of them were described the crucifixation of Jesus, the virgin Mary, but also some pink in some of the painting to represent the Jews. Most of the paintings had a lot of gold in them also. We got to see some of Goya´s work, who I learned about in my AP Spanish class.

After the museum, we returned to the hotel and had the rest of the day free. We walked all around Valencia and did a little shopping. I got a shirt at Mango and my friends got things also at Mango and Zara. We also went to the Roman ruins of the city, tried horchata, a traditonal Valencian drink made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts. It tasted very starchy and kind of cinnamony. Horchata very different from any other drink I have tried before. After this long day, we went back to the hotel and napped. We met downstairs in the lobby at around 8:30 and went to the Tapas Festival being held by the port from February 15-17th only. We got really  lucky with timing that they had this at the time we were in Valencia. There were 24 different tapas booths set up with 1 to 3 tapas per booth and 2 drink booths that had beer, wine, soda, and water being served. You had to buy tickets for tapas and drinks, but it was an incredible deal. It was $1.50 euro per tapa and $1 euro per drink. We were pretty hungry and probably went a little overboard with the amount of tickets, but I got 7 tapa tickets and 2 drink tickets. These were some of the best tapas I have ever had. I had paella, toasted bread with roasted eggplant, peppers, and sauteed onions, goat cheese with frizzled onions and jam, shrimp with guacamole, patatas bravas, and chcolate pudding. We also got some free drinks from the bartenders, which was pretty awesome. We were there for about 2 and a half hours and then we went to calle de caballeros, a section of valencia with tons of bars. We went to a few different bars, none of them really comparing to how crazy the Barcelona clubs and bars are. We were home by about 3:30am and went to sleep

Sunday. We woke up at 10 and had to check out by 11:30. We again had a quick breakfast  at the hotel and got back on the bus towards Barcelona and we were back by about 4:30. Valencia was a beautiful city and I would love to go back.

Staying in Catalunya for the weekend of February 8th: Tarragona, Torres Winery, and FC Barca Game

Friday February 8th, Tarragona and Torres Winery. We woke up at 8am to meet outside of the Universitat de Barcelona to take a bus to Tarragona at 9. The bus ride was about an hour and a half. We arrived with about two hours to tour the old Roman city of Tarraco. We saw many different walls, the Cathedral, the amphitheater and the Circus. We went to the top of one of the old Roman buildings and had a breathtaking view of the whole city of Tarragona and the ocean. The amphitheater was one of my favorite parts. It was awesome to go inside and sit where sports used to be played thousands of years ago and spectators used to sit and watch where we sat down, We left Tarragona at about 1 pm and went to the “Masia” for lunch.

The drive to “Masia” was about 45 minutes from Tarragona. We were served many different tapas from toasted bread with tomato, garlic, and garlic paste to white beans to french fries to sausage. The main reason why we were there was for the calcot, which is the name given to a local variety of spring onion, which is cultivated in a very particular way in Tarragona. They are eaten by brushing off the outer layer of ash and dipping the vegetable into romesco sauce, a spicy sauce made from peppers, crushed almonds, olive oil, tomato, parsley, vinegar, salt, pepper, and other spices. They are kind of sweet tasting and more mild than a white or red onion. They are very popular and one of the most renowned symbols of catalan gastronomy.

At about 3:30, we left “Masia” and drove 30 minutes to the Torres winery. We toured the enire winery and learned all about the process how they make their wine in one of the most important wine cellars in Europe. At the end of the tour, we got to taste on their white wines. It was very fruity and very refreshing. After the tasting, we had the opportunity to go to the gift shop and buy wine ourselves. I bought a bottle of rose and sauvignon blanc. We were bak by about 6:30 from Torres.

We cooked a quick dinner at home and then went out to Shoko and Opium for the night, which are always a great time.

Saturday was a very busy day. My friends and I went to many different parts of Barcelona. First we went to La Boqueria on Las Ramblas, as one of my friends had not been there before. It is one of my favorite spots in all of Barcelona. After La Boqueria, we continued down las ramblas and walked around El Born and the Gothic Quarter and came across El Call, the Jewish Quarter. We also made our way to the port and ate paella and drank sangria at el Mar Magnum, the mall in La Marina. We were out until about 6 o’clock and took naps. For dinner, we went to a sushi conveyor belt restaurant right near CEA main Campus. It was such an overwhelming experience with a ton of food. We were in such food comas after that meal that we were unable to go out.

Sunday morning, FOOTBALL. One of the best days of my life. I always dreamed of going to an FC Barcelona game and I finally had the opportunity to go. I wore a Messi jersey and a Barca scarf. I was in full game attire and ready to go. FC Barcelona played Getafe and completely dominated them 6-1. I could not believe I was seeing Messi play right before my eyes. I have played soccer since I was 3 years old and it was absolutely incredible to see the best team in the world (constantly debated) play. Messi had so many opportunities to score, but only scored one goal. He is so creative on the field and is one of the best I have ever seen (most people would agree). After the game, we decided to go to Parc de La Ciutatdella. We walked all around the park and saw a beautiful pond, the big elephant, the Zoo, and the fountain. It was a very pretty park.

It was great being in Barcelona for the weekend and seeing new parts and revisiting some places I´d already been to. I am not going to have another weekend in Barcelona until March 7th for Abroadfest, so I am glad that we took advantage of going around the city. You can never get bored in Barcelona, it has so much to offer.