This weekend I decided to make a spontaneous trip to Valencia. Well, it really wasn’t that spontaneous; it just took me a while to decide whether or not I was going to go. A couple of the Fulbrighters living in the city of Valencia invited everyone in the region to go to “La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias,” or “The City of Arts & Sciences,” which is a very famous tourist destination in Spain comprised of an art and science museum and Oceanogràfic, the largest aquarium in Europe. I really wasn’t sure whether or not I’d go based on the fact that I had no idea where to go to catch the bus to get to Valencia and I didn’t want to wake up at 6:00 in the morning just to catch it. At the last minute I decided to drag myself out of the piso and go to the Valencia. Essentially, I went because I really wanted to socialize with the other Fulbrighters and make friends; especially since I am one of the only Fulbrighters living in a town alone.
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| Valencia |
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| "La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias" |
I arrived in Valencia at around 11am and met everyone at Starbucks. I must say, after being in Jávea for over two weeks, it was so nice to be in a city. I had never realized how much I missed hearing the sound of cars, smelling smoke, seeing people everywhere and being in an environment with an abundance of shops, chain stores and tons of buses, metros, and taxis. An escape to Valencia was just what I needed.
After talking about my experiences with everyone else and happily consuming my caramel macchiato, I made my way to Oceanogràfic with the group. Spending the day at the aquarium was very nice. I’m not going to lie, I’m not the biggest fan of animals, so I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else did, but it was still nice to see new things and get out. I must admit, however, that I did enjoy the dolphin show. I never realized how cute dolphins were. They are now probably one of my favorite animals along with panda bears. Hey, maybe I can like animals after all! La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias is beautiful; I loved looking at the architect of it all: with its big meticulously-crafted buildings and the perfectly-colored water that surrounds everything. I would definitely like to visit again. Maybe next time I will visit the museums.
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| Oceanogràfic |
After Oceanogràfic, we were all pretty tired, so we went back to the other Fulbrighters’ piso and rested for a couple of hours. Later that evening, we went out to have dinner and, joined by others, we went back to the piso to watch a movie. We were actually planning to go out that night, but we were all still tired so we stayed in. As much as I tried to hide my sleepiness, I started falling asleep as soon as the opening credits appeared. I spent the night there and slept great.
My trip to Valencia was very quick but it was definitely a good opportunity to spend time with fellow Fulbrighters. I’m really glad that I pushed myself to go.
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