Valencia, España

As I shared in my last post, Genna and I bought flights to Valencia while at the airport waiting to go to Stockholm. It was a quick turnaround as we landed in Edinburgh Monday morning and then left again early Thursday. We got to our Airbnb and met our host, Teresa, who was possibly the sweetest person I met while there. She welcomed us into her home and showed us around and gave recommendations of places to go. Teresa speaks no English, but we were able to communicate well enough with my Spanish skills (thanks to Ms. Yount for teaching me to love the language, and for introducing me to Duolingo to help me continue practicing after I graduated). She's now my adopted abuelita and I plan on staying with her again if and when I return.

We began by walking to the bull ring and stopping to get frozen yogurt with fresh fruit along the way. Genna and I walked around the entire ring, only to find that it was closed and

we couldn't enter, so we ventured on to the city center where we found the beautiful Catedral de Valencia and walked through it. The cathedral was absolutely stunning, and was ornamented throughout with gold accents and paintings of Biblical scenes. Also housed in the cathedral is the Holy Grail, which I was unfortunately not allowed to photograph. We finished up exploring that area by getting some gelato, Auga de Valencia and some dinner at a local cafe.

Friday began with breakfast made by Teresa and a stroll through the Turia Riverbed Park, which as the name suggests, used to be a river. We were on our way to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) when we stopped by the coolest playground I've ever seen in my life. The artist who designed it based the structure off of the scene in Gulliver's Travels where the little people are climbing all over him and is designed to look like Gulliver laying down with ropes all over him. The little people are of course the normal sized humans crawling over the large structure full of slides and ropes courses and tunnels.

The City of Arts and Sciences (top left below) was a fun place to visit and enjoy the architecture of the buildings and fun science activities located outside. We then rented bicycles and made our way to the beach for the afternoon where we laid in the sun and ate Valencian paella (the city is home to the dish) at a restaurant called El Trompo which our Airbnb host had made a reservation at. We returned our bikes once the breeze became a little chilly and visited the Silk Exchange, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We strolled the city streets and enjoyed some more gelato and sandwiches from a small cafe, and ended our night by getting sangrias to toast to a wonderful two days.

We were back in Edinburgh and home by 10am, so I took a good nap and then worked on homework for the rest of the day. Valencia was by far my favorite city I've been to while studying abroad. Everywhere you turned there was a beautiful building or park to look at, the people were all very friendly, the food was delicious, and the weather was unbeatable.

This coming weekend we will be traveling to London to ride The Eye, have tea with the Queen, and even visit Baker Street. I'll post another update after that trip, but until then, I hope everyone has a lovely week!