Valencia!

This weekend we had Monday off, so we had three days to travel! I went with some friends to Valencia, which was amazing. We got up Saturday morning and took a taxi to the airport (which was TINY because it is the budget travel airport!) They didn't have very many chairs, so we just sat on the ground for a while and then about 30 minutes before we were supposed to board people started getting in line because seats on the plane are first-come first-served. So when it was time to board they let a certain number of people through at a time and then each group was shuttled over to a plane! Once the shuttle stopped people literally ran to get on the plane. It was kind of ridiculous. I was in the second shuttle, so I was able to sit by some friends :)

We arrived to some beautiful weather in Valencia (65 degrees and sunny!) which was a big change to the rain in Rome. We took a metro to our hostel and checked in. After that, we decided to walk to the shore and see the sea-- we thought it would be close, but we ended up walking for forever and by the time we got there it was dark :( We forgot that it is winter for people in Valencia, so no restaurants were open by the beach, so we ended up taking the bus back towards our hostel and we found a cute outdoor restaurant and I tried some paella and sangria (both known for in Valencia). It was pretty good but way overpriced for what it was... I ordered the paella with sausage, and there were only a few mini pieces of hot dog in it, a little disappointing! After eating we walked around some more, found some delicious dessert and went to bed.

On Sunday we woke up and had breakfast at Starbucks (we wanted a BIG coffee, no more of those puny ones! haha) and then walked towards the Kalatrava buildings which were amazing! We stopped at the most beautiful urban park I have ever seen on our way there. We ended up renting those 4 person bikes for a half hour and it was so much fun. Then we went and took a billion million pictures of the Kalatrava buildings. It was amazing to see what that guy could think of! Then we had lunch at the mall! Spain is so much more modern than Rome... they had malls and international food and smooth roads and everything! We had some sort of middle-eastern food that was really good—definitely a good break from pizza and pasta! After eating we went to the aquarium for the day. It was pretty fun. They had a dolphin show and a bunch of exhibits to walk through. There was also a lot of stuff to do outside, which felt so good since the weather was so nice. Afterwards we went back to the hostel to get ready and then we went out to a place called Wok to Walk for dinner where we got some delicious stir fry. We stopped at a store afterwards and bought some wine before heading an Irish pub to watch the Superbowl! The game didn’t start until 12:30am (because of the time difference) and we didn't realize that the pub closed at 2 (most pubs stay open until like 5), so they kicked us out at the beginning of the halftime show (the only thing that I actually wanted to see!) By that time all other pubs showing the super bowl had huge covers so we just went home and went to bed.

Biking around the park!


Kalatrava building


Kalatrava building


Part of the aquarium (also designed by Kalatrava)


The inside of the aquarium


So pretty!


The dolphin show

On Monday morning we got up and went shopping at a market and a couple of cute stores and then we checked out of our hostel and got some lunch before heading to the airport. I got home and unpacked/uploaded pictures/ did some laundry/ got ready for classes after our 5 day break!

Today we had studio from 9-5 and we worked on drawing a section through the neighborhood that our studio is in. I thought it was going to be a long day after getting back from vacation, but it was actually pretty fun. Then we had a history lecture until 6:30 and headed home for the night.