Historia.

Historia.

Story. 

I hope you are seated comfortably, this story will be over a few lengthy consecutive posts, so sit tight, but comfortably tight. As with any good story, there will be pictures, a beginning, a middle and an end and some snappy dialogue (to make up for the lack of any real plot). 

The major characters: 

Myself -The protagonist (I know this is self indulgent but it is my blog...)

Katherine - The organiser (you know Katherine by now)

Sarah - Katherine's friend (I hadn't met her until a few weeks ago)

The setting: 

Once upon a city called Valencia, a few weeks ago, we began our summer travels. Valencia is the capital of the region Valencia, where as well as Spanish  they speak Valencian, which is a kind of Catalan (they're next door to Catalunya). It is the home of paella and traditional Valencian paella contains white beans, and I had chicken in mine as well. They also set the world record for the world's biggest paella in 1992. The city is also marked by a long green strip running through it with parks and tennis courts, which is actually a dried river bed and it is on the coast, although I did not venture to the beach.

Our hostel was in a less well off area, where a building under construction had been graffitied before it was finished and there were also women, whom we presumed to be prostitutes, waiting on the corner by our hostel. But our first day trip was to a a place most distinct.... 

THE FUTURE! 

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias is super modern, super clean and super white/turquoise in colour. It is home to Europe's largest aquarium (Oceanogràfic) and a science museum. The science museum was highly interactive and a great excuse to make noise and push various buttons. The toilets proclaimed confusing similar gender symbols that Sarah used the men's, after I nearly walked in and then a woman walked out before her. I had hoped things would be simpler in the future...

I had a few scares, like when I clasped the plastic hands on a machine that promised I would conduct electricity and it made startling noise the moment I touched it; Katherine and I both thought I had been electrocuted. Also, when I entered a dark room and there was a great flash, I screamed and Katherine naturally thought I'd  lost a limb; it turned out that the flash preserved your shadow on the wall behind you for seconds.

Shadows of our former selves...

It was on the whole a slightly odd experience, with a tank of chicken eggs hatching into chicks, a section about wood and some random flying contraptions hanging from the ceiling.  The aquarium on the other hand was really out of this world. There was a dome aviary with an iguana and spoonbills, lots of eels for Katherine to gaze upon and several of my beloved guitar-fish. It also boasted an Arctic section with seals, walruses and 2 beautiful beluga whales. Beluga whales are a 'threatened' species according to National Geographic and the first calf to be born in captivity was born in Valencia, although it died after 25 days due to heart problems. They have a bump instead of a dorsal fin, are the only whale species to be able turn their head in all directions and have curiously animated/human facial expressions. 

Waiting for the grate to open; it connects to the seal tank and they mingle as they would in the wild.

On the opposite side of the city, the old quarter was delightfully, well, old. There were lots of mazey streets we got lost in, especially when asking for directions to the Catholic University (where our restaurant was near), which no one had heard of despite it being advertised on buses. There was, however, some fantastic and artistic graffiti to brighten our search, the best and most abundant I've seen on my travels. Here's one of my favourites: 

An anecdote to end on, we saw 2 men with a camera and a tall cocktail walk out of a restaurant in the afternoon, only to place it on a table and spend several minutes deliberating different angles to photograph it.