spring break adventures, part one: españa, te amo

It's been forever since I got back, so I figured I'd better just sit down and get this done. Two months after the fact...sorry about that, but exams have kind of been more on my mind than blogging. Apparently I fail at multitasking. Anyways I have a lot to talk about, so the recap will have to be split up into several entries.

On Tuesday the 14th of April I flew from London to Barcelona to start my two week backpacking adventure. I had to take the bus to the Plaça de Catalunya from the airport, and for the whole bus ride I was looking out the window with this huge grin on my face. It was cold and rainy in London but I was in Spain, with the sun shining on everything, giving it all a lovely orange glow. There were palm trees and Messi shirts everywhere. The latter mainly because it was the day of the second leg QF between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, which I watched with some locals while eating dinner. There was also a German couple there, who were sad about Munich losing so badly but were good sports about the whole thing.

La Rambla, where my hostel was located (well it was on a side street, but within walking distance).

I was lame and kind of forgot to take pictures of Barcelona. I was also only there for a day, so I didn't get to see much of the city beyond the Plaça Catalunya. What I did see was amazing though. I really want to go back to Barça for a longer amount of time soon.

The next day I took a train to Valencia, and on the way I sat across from a family from Virginia! The daughter was studying at Valencia University for the year and the parents had come to visit her for the week. Odd coincidence I thought at the time, but I actually met a bunch of people from VA over the next few weeks. Apparently we're all very worldly.

Valencia train station. I thought it was a pretty sweet building.

My hostel in Valencia was really great, with this huge kitchen area where everyone hung out and cooked dinner and drank together (a litre of sangria was 80 cents at the local shop). I talked Canadian politics with a girl from Ottowa and a couple from Quebec, which was pretty interesting because I know nothing about it.

The next day I went to La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias (the City of Arts and Sciences), which is a group of crazy looking futuristic buildings housing museums of...you guessed it...art and science. The science museum was pretty cool, but a lot of it was only in Spanish so I didn't understand much of it. I really need to learn how to say more than "I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish", "Go Spain/Barcelona", "I love you", and "Where's the metro?".

As my friend said on facebook...this is not a building, it's a space ship.

I met up with fellow footie-lover Gina there, and we took a quick trip to the Mestalla. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but I hear that the inside is pretty awesome. Go here for proof.

Then we walked around the city some, ate delish paella, went to the very cool-looking silk exchange building, and took refuge under a building's overhang while it rained a lot. WTF, weather.
On my last day in town I took the metro down to the beach, because the weather was (finally) gorgeous. I didn't bring my towel or bathing suit with me, so I didn't actually sunbathe, but I did lay on the wall by the sand for ages.I also visited the local indoor market for lunch and to stock up on oranges...because what is a trip to Valencia without oranges?? I didn't take a picture of that but it was a really cool building. And I spoke Spanish to the girl at the fruit stand. Kind of.

Everyone heard/read my ranting about my stolen iPod, so I won't go back into that again, but here's the park where it happened. Not exactly the type of place you'd expect thieves to hang out, is it?Due to unforeseen train issues, I ended up going back to Barcelona for a night before traveling on to France, instead of taking an overnight train to Nice. Because I was effectively stranded there and my train didn't get in until midnight, I coudn't really be picky (i.e. money-conscious) about where I stayed and ended up at a hotel instead of a hostel. I didn't mind though, because it was the best night's sleep I had all trip.

Next up: Italia!