Viva Valenciaaa!

This past weekend, our entire program took a trip to Valencia, the third largest city in Spain behind Madrid and Barcelona. Despite almost missing the bus (I neglected to set an alarm), I miraculously managed to pack my back, get dressed, grab some food, and run 6 blocks to the bus in under 10 minutes. Pretty impressive, if I may say so myself.

We first visited La Ciudad de Las Artes y Ciencias. Here we had the pleasure of visiting El Oceanografico, the largest aquarium in Europe! We visited all ten areas reflecting different marine habitats and saw a dolphin show.

Pinguinas!

Shark Attack!

Amigas at the Delfinario

Jellies....

We then headed over to El Museo de las Artes y Ciencias, where we saw all sorts of interesting displays. They had many exhibitions on the human body, and a few random ones as well. We got to see baby chicks hatch from their eggs!

The Chickadees

Valencia is an absolutely beautiful city. We were able to walk around before enjoying a lovely tapas dinner, complete with the one and only "Agua de Valencia." It was really nice to have our entire program together for the weekend. We woke up early the next morning for a tour of the city. We visited El Mercado Central, tried some Horchata, and had yet another lovely serving of the true Valencian paella.

The largest (covered) market in Europe

Proudly showing off their Valencian oranges

The Horchata was super sweet, but very good! 

Paella Valenciana

Plaza del Ayuntamiento

English....and Accents!

Having never traveled before, I never had a need for a passport, and since arriving in Spain, I haven't made much use of my it, either. However, this past weekend was a Valencian holiday, therefore, we had a five day weekend! My friend Haylie and I took advantage of our vacation and headed to London, England and Dublin, Ireland.

We flew to London on Tuesday night, where we received our first passport stamp. We then took a train from the airport to London Bridge, where we were supposed to use the Tube to travel to our hostel. Unfortunately, we arrived after midnight, so the Tube was closed. Fortunately, we were in an English speaking country (thank goodness!) and the employees at the train station directed us to which bus we should take. We even got a free bus ride (mostly because the driver didn't have any change for our 20 pound bills that we got at a terrible exchange rate)! 

We used a tourist map we picked up on the way into town to plan out our 48 hours in London...and we just about did it all! That map went through a lot...

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

The National Gallery - one of my favorite museums thus far!

Buckingham Palace

Kings Cross Station - aka Harry Potter Central

SPAMALOT

Notting Hill

Natural History Museum

The British Museum

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Globe Theatre

After two jam-packed days, we took three trains, two buses, and a ferry to Dublin! We pretty much covered every form of transportation possible during this "holiday," most of them being in that one night! On the way into the city, we were hopelessly lost and asked an elderly woman which direction we should go. She proceeded to walk with us to the center of the city, pointing out buildings and giving us tips along the way. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture with Bridget, but she was a sweetheart! 

Dublin City Hall

Dublin Castle

St. Patrick's Cathedral

On our second day in Dublin, we took a train to nearby Howth to explore the Irish coast. It was beautiful, but freezing! 

Fish and Chips

Dublin Nightlife

Although there were plenty of clouds, we managed to escape the majority of the rain. While in Dublin, we encountered a Spanish-speaking family, and it made me realize how much I missed Spanish, even though it had only been four days! Going home in December is going to be quite the adjustment...

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

What started out as a fun weekend trip to Andalucia quickly turned into a trainwreck of a situation! Luckily I made some really great international friends along the way.

We left Alicante at 2am Friday morning, only to arrive late (a whopping 7 hours later) in Cordoba. The group I was traveling with didn't have the tickets to enter the Mezquita, and we had missed the free entrance times. The group disbanded and we went on our own, exploring the tranquil city of Granada.

Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos

My international friends telling me to "look American!"

That evening, we left Cordoba to head to our hostel in Granada. However, our "tour guides" failed to mention that our hostel was at the TOP of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and that we wouldn't be able to get food while we were there! We all stopped at a nearby supermarket to get microwaveable dinners and started our journey up the mountains. THREE HOURS LATER we came to a bridge at the top of the mountains, which the bus was unable to cross. We tried to find an alternate route to the hostel, but it was unsuccessful. We had no choice but to walk down the mountain in the freezing cold weather, only to arrive at the hostel and not be able to find the keys. Talk about a disaster!

Mis amigos y yo trying to enjoy the impromptu jam session while looking for the hostel keys. 

The next morning we trekked back down the mountain to enjoy our day in Granada. Again, our tour guides were unprepared, so mis amigos nuevos y yo explored the city solo! It was a long day...but we got a great feel for the super welcoming city of Granada!

La Alhombra in the background (from the outside...just in case we never made it in)

On Sunday morning, we were pleasantly surprised with entrance tickets to La Alhombra....the highlight of the weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I am so thankful that we were able to see it while in Andalucia.

Amigas - Day 3

Amigas nuevas! 

Needless to say...it was an exhausting weekend. Anything that could have possibly gone wrong did. I am so glad that I met so many nice people on this trip, but it is safe to say we had NEVER BEEN HAPPIER to be back in Alicante :)