Valencia and my final week in Madrid

I'm not really in the mood to blog, but I need to chronicle what I did in my four days in Valencia.

Well, firstly, I had my very first trip to the Mediterranean! I'd never been there before and now I hvae. I filled up a water bottle with sand, shells, and water and when I get back to the states I'll transfer it into something nicer.

Also, they have this AWESOME museum there called "Ciudad de los artes y ciencias" which means City of the arts and sciences. And it is indeed like a city! It has a huge three story science museum, an imax theater and the largest aquarium in Europe! The aquarium is called "L'Oceanografic." That was definitely the coolest part. It has leafy sea dragons, a couple beluga whales, HUGE aquariums where you can walk under tunnels that make it look like you're inside the aquarium and all sorts of stuff like that. They had a different building for every major body of water in the world. (pictures on facebook)

I also went to a museum called Museo de las Fallas. Which commemorates a yearly celebration they have in Valencia which involves big floats being made. At the end of the parade they are all burned to represent a cleansing for the new year (though it's in March). The best of the floats are saved and put in this museum. They were definitely pretty cool.

We went to the Lladro porcelain factory. That was cool. It's a really luxurious kind of figurine. I got some great pictures of those too. The cheapest piece you could buy with like 175eur, for a small little mermaid or dolphin or something. We got to go 'behind the scenes' and see how the porcelain is created (the molds) watch how they glue every piece together (with liquid porcelain) and then we could watch them paint it. It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.

All in all, I LOVED Valencia. It was just as cool as Andalucia because the weather was GREAT and it had the beach, but it was nicer than Andalucia which was a little ghetto. Valencia was gorgeous, I got to wear flip flops and a dress, a spent two days at the beach, and I could definitely live there. In general I think beach communities are just happier places to be. Everyone is laid back because of the large amounts of sunlight taken in.

I am currently in my last weekend in Madrid. I leave next Friday. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, honestly. I go back and forth. I really miss my family and my boyfriend. But I also have gotten quite settled here. I have my regular spots, my routines, I love the living with the whole 'euro' vibe. It's very comfortable yet stimulating all the time...But then again, the moment I leave my senora's house will NOT be too soon... I can't wait to get out of here in that regard.

We'll see what happens!