Valencia

I was told the bus trip to Valencia was going to be roughly 5 hours. so i was thinking, 'what a push over, i'll blink and i'll be there'. well, turns out it was a little longer than 5 hours infact i didn't get into Valencia until midnight. i wandered the streets of Valencia until i found my hostel and collapsed in a heap on my bed, hoping to fall into a deep slumber. unfortuately the guy in the next bed had other ideas and snored his head off all night long. it was then i realised i was back in the land of living in hostels once again.

the next morning, with the little sleep i had, i dragged myself out of bed and got straight into it. Valencia is a really cute little place. in some ways it reminded me of Barcelona but only a smaller, Mini me, version, less night life and not as busy... after reading that you must be thinking, 'whats he on about? it sounds nothing like Barcelona' but i think the buildings in the city centre are quite similar to the ones in Barcelona, minus the Gaudi's of course, i also spied with my little eye a number of beautiful frescos around town. its really clean here in Valencia, i suppose being smaller makes it easier to keep clean, but i have noticed that the Spanish seem to at least make an effort when it comes to recycling, they always have mulitiple bins so you can sort your rubbish. who knows if they really use it to its fullist.

apart from Valencia Oranges, (orange trees seem to be everywhere you look, but taste horrible by the way, very sour) i didn't really know what Valencia had to offer so i did a walking tour to get a better idea. our tour began out the front of the old Cathedral which, like most things in europe, was built on top of another old church which was build over a mosque. quite a nice cathedral really, very old and all that jazz, it has a belltower that they seem pretty proud of. but i think the more interesting thing about it is that the catholic church have come out and said that its in this church that the holy grail lives. geez, if Dan Brown was going to go to all that effort of writing the DaVinci Code, you'd think he might do a bit of research before hand. something pretty important happens on the steps out the front of the cathedral, every so often there is a meeting by 8 guys who get together and chat about what will happen with the water around Spain (i think, spain, it could be just the area) they are voted into the position and have an incredible amount of power, other they are aloud to talk about it, the president and king can be invited, but its whatever they say, goes. not even the government can over rule it. supposedly its been going since there was a mosque on the site. hence the men point with there feet, because pointing with your fingers is considered rude.

the topic of water seemed to pop up quite a bit in Valencia. originally the town had a big river running around it, but after a flood they decided to block off one of the rivers. the government were going to put a highway in, but the people of Valencia didn't want a bar of it so they began planting trees and plants in the river bed to create gardens. the government got the picture and let it as park land. its actually really nice to wander around in, again, plenty of orange trees, but also fountains and other varieties of plants. thank god they did, it would've been hideous otherwise. if you follow it, it takews you right down to 'The City of Arts and Sciences' which is this group of ultra modern buildings designed by local hero/architect Santiago Calatrava. apparently he's quite famous, but it don't think i've ever heard of him. they tell me he's currently working on something for Ground Zero in New York, so he must be a big deal. apart from 'the City of Arts and Sciences, there really isn't much outside of the city centre, unless you want to go to the beach.

when there was a river that ran around the city (which i think acted as a moat) they had walls and towers to keep invaders out - they must have had a few invasions becuase there are some dints that look like something a cannonball would leave behind. anyway, the draw bridge would close of an evening and if you didn't make it back in time you were stuck out there for the night, these days its not really a problem if you get locked out, you'd probably just go on a massive bender until the doors openned in the morning. but, in those days i heard it wasn't the best place to stuck becuase rapist and murderers who hang out the front and if you managed to fend off them, there was also a crocodile that lived in the river that would eat you, or so the legend goes. eventually they pulled down the walls but kept a couple of towers to use them as prisons.

something i thought was kind of interesting was there was either a town hall or church not far from the cathedral. anyway, it burnt down but the only thing that was saved was the roof, which was apparently its best feature. the towns people loved it so much that they put the old roof onto of another building not far away. it is a really beautiful ceiling so i understand them wanting to keep it. the building that put it on is quite interesting too, but it wasn't what was on the outside that i thought was interesting it has various gargoyles on the outside of the building, i spotted one in particular that seemed to be, lets say, 'enjoying himself'. the weather in Valencia was quite good so i didn't get to see the full effect. before your mind starts heading toward the gutter, when it rains it looks like he is drooling.

the market in the centre of town doesn't have anything over the one in Barcelona, food or atmosphere wise, but the building itself is quite nice, in some ways it reminded me of a giant glass church, but thats just me. though i have to say, seeing some of the skinned animals staring back at me brought the inner vegetarian out in me. speaking of food, Paella is said to be invented here, so i had to give it ago. it was good, but i could taste any overwhelming difference to any of the ones i'd had in spain, perhaps my tastebuds aren't finely tuned. as i mentioned the weather has been great here in Valencia, but apparently its hard not to get a nice day, its sunny most days of the year - which makes it perfect sangria drinking conditions. good times, good times!

something i didn't realize about spain its divided. there set up is similar to how UK is made up with Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales having there own parliments. the same is here in Spain each region has its own seperate governments. also gay marriage is legal in Spain, which surprised me a bit because they are quite religious here. but it made me think, is same sex marriage legal in Australia?

i really enjoyed Valencia, but i think a couple of days was more than enough, off to Madrid for a couple of days, where i will finish my Spanish adventure.