So far my favorite city in Spain is Valencia! I haven't really enjoyed and explored Barcelona yet and I don't think I'll get to it this time, but out of Madrid, alicante, Granada, and Valencia, Valencia wins! It is a beautiful coastal town a little north of alicante, about an hour and a half by car. There is this huge festival there each spring that resembles the fourth of July in the US but not for the reason of independence.. Because of the FIREWORKS! We went with CIEE as a group for the day.
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| all my girlfriends! from all different programs with CIEE, 4 are in mine. |
For a week leading up to this huge festival, at 2 pm everyday they set off a "mezcleta", which is a huge paper mâché structure about 30 feet tall in some cases, filled with fireworks strategically lined up to go off in a rhythm. A 2, someone lights it and the thing goes on for about 5 minutes! Fireworks shoot into the sky and just go and go one right after the other.
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| when the mezcleta was going off! |
The grand finale is the best. Literally, the ground shakes and it felt like a war zone! (or what I would imagine one would be like at least...) our teachers told us you could feel it in your body and your heart just pounds and they were right! The bombs felt like they were going through our entire bodies and smoke filled the air you couldn't we anything! The best part was the atmosphere though. It is a huge street party all day leading up to the mezcleta bombing. Gypsies sell beer for a euro, you can hardly walk through the street, and there are no cars anywhere. It reminded me of tailgating mixed with a fourth of July parade mixed with a constant grand finale firework show. It was pretty much awesome. Not to mention Valencia has GREAT food!! We got Chinese stir fry!!! And some bomb pizza. And churros :)
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| Kim, adding more sugar to the already sugared churros.. |
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| pretty valencia plaza! |
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| a spanish city wouldn't be complete without a fountain! |
We went with CIEE for our last trip together as an entire group. It was so fun to wander around and explore Valencia a little before starting the street party. The city is so pretty! Beautiful plazas, fountains, and these huge structures all over of some character or figurine were awesome. There is this huge aquarium that we have heard is soo cool with beluga whales, sharks, and all kinds of tropical fish! It's the biggest aquarium in Spain and maybe even in Europe? Next week I'm going to spend the day there before our flight to the canary islands from Valencia that night. It is such an awesome city. If I wasnt in alicante I would definitely choose Valencia. As the third biggest city in Spain, it is a lot nicer than alicante and has that big city feel a little more. I do love it here, I just would love a nicer, bigger city that still has a beach :)
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| the streets packed with people |
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| some statue that i'm not sure if it has fireworks in it or not.. it's all american singers! |
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| some friends from my program :) |
I really wanted to stay for the night in Valencia, but our good spanish friend Ray (who pretty much runs the nightlife in alicante and speaks English), got us on the guest list for the opening of this new discoteca in alicante that is super hip and has awesome decor. So you had to be invited with real golden-ticket-like invitations, and he got them for a few of my friends and me. So naturally, I couldn't miss that.. We came home and put on our fancy dresses for this upscale evening. All of the people there were in like evening gowns or something really nice, and we were definitely the youngest people there for sure... Drinks were really expensive for alicante (7 euro) but anywhere else that might be the norm.. We're just used to the 1 euro tequila shots so it seemed like a fortune. Lots of dancing and new friends later, we went to our go-to discoteca where the rest of our friends were who didn't have tickets to the new place. A little more our style :)
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| most of our friends before Kim and I went to the new club |
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| my crazy friends, with beer from the gypsies, sangria, and wine juice boxes.. |
Great St. Patrick's Day weekend for us! Loved Valencia, loved the festival, and enjoyed a nice 4 day weekend with Monday being a holiday in Spain-el dia de los padres, or St. Joseph's Day, so we didn't have class and I got some good sunning in.
Now off to the packing list before I study for my last test before the euro tour begins!
-k
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