So my museum-based art class was supposed to meet at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning to leave for Valencia...In my defense, it's still dark out at 8 a.m. here and no one in their right mind is out and about at that ungodly hour (can you tell I'm adapting to the culture?). Anyway, I woke up at 8:10 to Pedro gently knocking on my door like the polite host father he is, and I leaped out of bed to call Armando (the man in charge) to see what I could do about being late. Armando said "no pasa nada," which is the Spanish response to literally everything; essentially meaning "no big deal, no worries." He said to come now and they would wait. I flew out the door and went straight to Plaza de Luceros where I found no sign of a bus or human in sight (it's the middle of the night for them, remember). Apparently another girl in our group arrived right after Armando and I got off the phone, he thought she was me, and they took off for the two-hour bus ride to Valencia. Great. I had never been to the train station before, but completely guessed the right street and wound up there checking out departure times and prices. As I was about to swipe my card to buy a 32 euro ticket, a couple came up to me asking in Spanish if I was trying to go to Valencia and if I wanted their extra ticket. Um, yes! I explained to them that I was a student here and my group left without me, which led to them asking me if I wanted to come along and travel with them since I had never been on the trains here before. How could I say no to that? Their names were Melissa and Junior, from Brazil, and I'm assuming they were in their late 20s, maybe early 30s. By the time we got on the train we ended up speaking English, because as their third language it was still less shaky than my Spanish. They had another girl friend, but I don't think she spoke anything but Portuguese and she slept the entire time...I just couldn't leave her out of the story. Anyway, we shared one of those Harry-Potter-like seating sections and got to know each other pretty well. Junior was working in Barcelona but was visiting Melissa in Alicante when they decided to head to Valencia for the day. They thought it was awesome that I'm studying in Spain for a semester at this age. When I said I was 21, Melissa said that's how old she was when she first went to the United States on her own. They strongly suggested that as soon as I graduate I should travel around as much as possible, no matter how little money I might have. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, as long as people like these magically show up offering me "extra tickets" everywhere I go...It's possible. I had been keeping in touch with Armando, but he didn't say anything to the rest of the group about meeting up with me. So when I arrived in Valencia and ran across the street to the charter bus and hopped on, it was a hilarious surprise for my friends. From there we went to the Mercado Central de Valencia, which was way cooler than any market I've ever seen in my life and puts any other's idea of "fresh" to shame...in the fish section, there were live eels slithering around and huge octopus tentacles just laying out for someone to buy (check out the photos below). I strayed over to the fruit section and bought some fresh-squeezed mango juice instead. From there we went to the Museo Nacional de Cerámica (Ceramic museum...lots of pots). Then the cathedral, the Museo de Bellas Artes, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Valencia. The first two museums used to be palaces, so to me the architecture and design of the buildings were even more impressive than the art inside them. The modern art museum had a couple huge art displays that were made up of hundreds of little metal pieces placed on the ground that appeared to form roads and a little city. It really stuck out to me because it reminded me of my brothers' Brio train tracks that used to take up an entire room when we were little. I would have taken a picture but there were no cameras allowed....and we've learned quickly that museum security is pretty serious. We're not too intimidated by police officers in Spain, but show us a museum security guard and suddenly we're on our best behavior. To sum it up, Valencia was pretty cool. The more cities I see in Spain the more I fall in love with this beautifully historic country. I missed the visit to through the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias at the beginning because of my little travel fiasco, but maybe I'll come back and check it out later. Junior, Melissa, anonymous sleeping friend, and my inability to set an alarm clock made for a more interesting time. Hasta la próxima!
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