The last week in Valencia has been yet another entertaining experience in a new culture and city. A week ago today, a large portion of our group navigated our way across Valencia to spend a day at the beach. After much deliberation and consulting many maps/metro routes, we decided taking the tram to the beach would be the best option. The Valencia tram is a large "street car/trolley" system that winds through the city and stops at the places the underground metro system does not. It reminded us of the monorail at Disney world as we snaked through the crowded streets until we reached our final destination at the beach. The Mediterranean was calm and quiet that afternoon and we found a nice spot on the beach to sit, relax, take pictures and, play a few games of pick-up football (never soccer here). The sand was very fine and provided for an interesting experience when playing football on the beach. January is not a big tourist season here in Spain and it was refreshing to have a large and spacious beach to enjoy ourselves. After a couple of hours of relaxation and socializing, some of us decided to sample the local cuisine. Several little restaurants were nearby and we assumed they would have good paella/seafood. Paella is a Spanish dish and is also closely associated with Valencia. A smaller group of us (Nikki, Ryan, Grace, Chelsea, Hope, Greg, Ryan, Diego, Lauren, Joe, Sean and, myself) broke off from the main group that went and we searched for a moderately priced place to eat some paella of some kind. Since it was only 6:45 most of the restaurants were closed/had not opened yet for dinner. The place we choose was opened and the waiter explained all of the specials to us right as we requested to see a menu to look at the prices. After some discussion and comparing our lack of other options we decided on this place (I forgot the name of it.) We wanted paella and the only way you could get it at this restaurant was to order it family style. The waiter informed us that the kitchen would have to specially make our order for 11 people. He said it would only take 45 minutes (which we didn't believe). Most of us thought it would take about an hour, no longer than that. Little did we know that it would end up taking more like 2 hours. The waiter would tempt us that it might come out by repeatedly telling us that it was almost ready. Or he would periodically bring out the plates, then come back with the silverware, then another time with the cast iron plate to hold the paella dish. At one point, some of us took out our iPods in the hope of distracting ourselves from the God awful service and constant lies we were being told. When the Paella Valenciana (rice, chicken, rabbit, chick peas and, green beans with saffron) finally came out, it was like Christmas morning for us. We marvelled at the size of the dish and took pictures and then proceeded to pile it on our plates and feast.
Paella Valenciana
After our beach adventure concluded, it was time to get ready for another week of classes. All of us have been assigned different dates for presentations and homework is slowly becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately. Some of the the highlights of the cultural activities from this last week were Churros y Chocolate and the tour of the Mestalla stadium. On Tuesday, our activity to learn more about Spain and Valencia required us to sample churros. These fried tubes of sweetend dough are a great afternoon snack to enjoy with some nice conversation. To compliment the churros, each person received a melted cup of chocolate served in a coffee mug. This decadent dessert is typical of a light delicacy here to hold oneself over until a late evening dinner.
On Thursday, the afternoon activity was a tour of the Mestalla stadium. The Mestalla is the name of the staduim where the Valencia CF team plays. CF stands for Club Futbol. The Mestalla is about 90 years old and definitely shows its age when seen from up close/behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the tour was a great way to see parts of any professional sports facility that even the best seats cannot show. For only 5 euros Diego, Ryan, Sean, Taylor, Dave M, Greg, Leah, Rebecca and Ally got to see the locker room, chapel, trophy room, the press room, VIP seats/boxes and, go down to the pitch. The tour guide told us about the players and how most of them are very short. We noticed the small number of sponsors of the club and quickly found out about the financial problems the franchise was having. The facilities paled in comparison to the Real Madrid stadium but it was still a very fun tour of a place not many people get to see.
After our tour of the Mestalla, we were so excited about the stadium that we purchased tickets to go watch Valencia play Real Vallodolid this past Saturday. 20 euros got you into the nose bleed seats but that was fine with us because a large group of us wanted tickets and we wanted to sit together. The only bad part to the game was that we didn't all arrive at the same time so some of our seats were occupied. The very unhelpful and incompetent security/usher staff did nothing to help us out in our predicament. They either told us to sit down and kick the person out or to find another seat without moving up towards the vacant seats (which for some reason you could not sit in). The morons then complained that we were not sitting even though they were the reason we were blocking the aisles. Despite these problems, we eventually found places to sit and enjoyed the game and all the crazy fans that were there. Valencia triumphed over Real Vallodolid 2-0! Just another week in Valencia!
On Thursday, the afternoon activity was a tour of the Mestalla stadium. The Mestalla is the name of the staduim where the Valencia CF team plays. CF stands for Club Futbol. The Mestalla is about 90 years old and definitely shows its age when seen from up close/behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the tour was a great way to see parts of any professional sports facility that even the best seats cannot show. For only 5 euros Diego, Ryan, Sean, Taylor, Dave M, Greg, Leah, Rebecca and Ally got to see the locker room, chapel, trophy room, the press room, VIP seats/boxes and, go down to the pitch. The tour guide told us about the players and how most of them are very short. We noticed the small number of sponsors of the club and quickly found out about the financial problems the franchise was having. The facilities paled in comparison to the Real Madrid stadium but it was still a very fun tour of a place not many people get to see.
After our tour of the Mestalla, we were so excited about the stadium that we purchased tickets to go watch Valencia play Real Vallodolid this past Saturday. 20 euros got you into the nose bleed seats but that was fine with us because a large group of us wanted tickets and we wanted to sit together. The only bad part to the game was that we didn't all arrive at the same time so some of our seats were occupied. The very unhelpful and incompetent security/usher staff did nothing to help us out in our predicament. They either told us to sit down and kick the person out or to find another seat without moving up towards the vacant seats (which for some reason you could not sit in). The morons then complained that we were not sitting even though they were the reason we were blocking the aisles. Despite these problems, we eventually found places to sit and enjoyed the game and all the crazy fans that were there. Valencia triumphed over Real Vallodolid 2-0! Just another week in Valencia!
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