ohhhh valencia

This past weekend brought my first weekend of travel in Spain. I headed to a costal city - Valencia - which is the third largest city in Spain.
We arrived at our hostel at around 10:30 on Friday and grabbed some drinks from the hostel bar. After meeting some other travelers and chatting with them we decided to join them on a pub crawl and despite the bar/club's interesting take on some classic American songs (notably Aretha Franklin's R-E-S-P-E-C-T), it wasn't a bad way to greet Valencia. 
On Saturday morning we started with a free hostel breakfast - toast, jelly, and coffee. Well, free is free. After a quick breakfast a few of us decided to rent bikes and head out for an excursion. To give you an idea of where we biked, some historical context is needed. In 1957 the city was completely devastated by a flood from the Turia River (Río Turia) and it was decided that because of this the river would be re-routed and split into 2. This left one large dried up river bed right through the heart of the city. Now the riverbed serves as a beautiful park and makes for an incredible bike ride. Along the way we stopped at numerous places to take it all in. One of my favorite places was called Parque Gulliver. To give you an idea of the sculpture it is best to look at an aerial view.

An aerial view of Gulliver

It is... well a massive playground but also has some historical context to it. I had seen the park on the map of the city but didn't know much about the sculpture until I returned to Toledo and was able to read more. Now, I'm even more impressed by it. The story behind the work comes from Part 1 of Jonathan Swift's famous work, Gulliver's Travels. It portrays Gulliver being tied up by the people of Lilliput. Upon waking he soon discovered that the people tying him were merely 6 inches tall. In the case of this scene, the visitors are the Lilliputians. 


A close up of a part of the sculpture. 

After spending a while trying to figure out the sculptures and going for a few times down the slides we continued onward to check out the renowned Science and Arts Center. We decided to just admire the architectural beauty of the buildings from the fresh air as tickets to enter were about 10 euros per person. Later in the afternoon we headed for the beach and spent some time soaking up the rays and swimming in the (very warm) Mediterranean. 
Sunday morning I headed to mass at the Catedral de Valencia with some others. After mass we spent hours and hours wandering around el casco of Valencia marveling at the ancient plazas and the beautiful cathedrals. I continue to be amazed by the contrast between ancient and modern, fast and slow.
This weekend was the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation, culture and beach, cathedrals and nightlife, reflection and talking, fast and slow. Let the bar be set for excursions. 

One of many of the Science and Arts Center Campus

Shores of the Mediterranean 

La Catedral de Valencia - not a bad place for a Sunday morning mass.

Next time I got to Valencia hopefully it will be for La Tomatina.