I guess there will still be a change of plans - HappyErasmus (the same
organization that organized the Oceanogràfic-visit) is organizing a riding excursion on Saturday 16th! I really want to go there! and I haven't paid for the Barcelona hotel yet - there's a free cancellation-system with the room.
If
the riding trip is in the morning - I will keep my reservation and take
a bus to Barcelona later that day. And if the trip is in the afternoon -
I will modify my reservation and go to BCN on Sunday.
Remember the post about realizing that I haven't seen some of the most popular tourist places of Valencia even though I've been here for 4 months? Well, yesterday I continued to fill my cultural responsibilities, and now I can say:
L'Oceanogràfic: ✓ check!
I've really wanted to visit it for a long time, and now that HappyErasmus (an exchange student organization) offered a possibility to get a discount of 50% on the entrance, I definitely had to to seize the chance, finally!
the design of the buildings is quite imposing!
So, l'Oceanogràfic is a marine park in Valencia, more accurately, situated in "la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias". It's the biggest one of its kind in Europe, with 45 000 animals of 500 different species - sharks, dolphins, penguins, sea lions, etc. There are ten different "areas" in the marine park (for example the marine areas, the islands, the Red Sea aquarium and the dolphinarium). (Thanks wikipedia!)
First we went to see the dolphin show as it started soon after we got in (long lines, a lot of tourists!). In my opinion, the dolphin show was the top thing in the park - it was amazing!
After the dolphin show, we went around the other areas - I can tell you, it's easy to spend hours in that park!
my favorite one - it looks like it's smiling!
it was really hard to take accurate pictures of those!
the only ones of which it was easy to take pictures because they stayed still :-D
Definitely a place worth visiting! Lastly, I want to share one video with you:
i'm supposed to give an English presentation tomorrow. i still haven't decided what i'm gonna talk about. i think i'll take the easiest way and give a brief presentation about Finland. the teacher doesn't really care about the topics (she said we can talk about anything we want), the main thing is the fluency of the speech. the presentation is supposed to take only 3-5 minutes. easily done.
in exactly four weeks i'll be back in Finland. i'll possibly spend my last weekend in Barcelona, i'm not sure yet. i miss that city.
David Villa is not playing in the EURO 2012 tournament. that piece of news ruined my day. that's not good for the Spanish team as Villa is definitely one of their best players.
(written yesterday, I just didn't get it published)
Just to avoid school work (French oral exam tomorrow - I'm gonna die), I came to tell some random things. Just to ramble something.
Firstly, it's weird how Spanish (and some other foreigners too) find it sooooo weird that I live on my own in Finland. For them it just doesn't make sense that I'm only 20 years old and I live alone. I always have to explain that no, I don't mean I have an own room, and no, I don't mean that I live in a student dormitory / residence because of school, and no, I don't mean that I share an apartment with my friends - I seriously mean that I live on my own, in my own (rental) apartment, only me living there. Usually that's enough of explaining, then they just look at me a bit weirdly. They can't see why people move out of their parents' apartments so early. One day I had this conversation going on again, with a Spanish guy. In addition to these basic questions and explanations, he asked "but who cleans up there?" and "but who cooks?" :D He just couldn't imagine that I would do also that kind of things by myself. hahah the astonishment on his face when I was like "ehhh... me?". And when it came to the fact that I also have a job and I also work along with the studying, that was far too much for him to handle :D "what! why!!"
So yes, foreigners, just to clarify that at least in Finland (a) it's quite common to live on your own at the age of 20, (b) if you live in your own apartment, you cook and clean up by yourself (no housekeepers or personal chefs, at least if you're not rich & lazy :D), (c) we do have domestic education at school (during the junior high school - basic education about housekeeping skills and knowledge, including cooking), (d) almost every student (at least at the university / academic level) is working along with the studies, just to earn some money for living (even though we also get some student allowance, of course).
Another thing I wanted to tell about is HOW IRRITATING IT IS THAT SOME TV PROGRAMS FINISH THEIR SEASONS WITH TERRIBLE HAPPENINGS AND THE WATCHERS ARE TORTURED TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON THAT IT NOT COMING OUT IN A WHILE. I'm sure that many of you agree with me on this one. And in this case, I'm talking about Grey's Anatomy - they have made it too many times. I shouldn't watch season final episodes before the next season has already started because I can't handle the waiting. On Friday I watched the season 8 final (that came out in the U.S. on Thursday, in Finland it's gonna come out in a month or so) and _they_did_it_again_. I warn you, be prepared if you're a GA watcher and you think you've already seen it all during the 8 seasons. You haven't. And now there are too many months to wait.......
(written today) As you can see, I was quite bored with the school stuff yesterday. I went out for a while just to clear my mind. I went to "Jardin de Ayora", a little park I had passed by a few times when cycling to a shopping center - every time I passed it I thought that I have to go there one day, so yesterday I did it. There were a lot of older people spending their Sunday :) The sun was shining when I went there - but just out of nowhere, the sky looked like this:
So I decided to go back home. The thunderstorm came but it took only 20 minutes or so, and then the weather was sunny again. wtf :D Later I got so stressed about everything that I though I was gonna blow up.
Today I've been just nervous because of the French oral exam. And I still am, I can't concentrate on anything right now. Me and my partner's exam is at 7pm, and we'll meet at the university at 6pm, so soon I have to get going..! Please, fingers crossed that everything goes well. I will probably come and update something after the exam - if I'm capable to do that and not too angry or disappointed etc because of not passing..... I will pass it! I WILL!
Usually when I go to a new city or place, I make a plan or a list of the things I want to see (monuments, places etc) and the things I want to do there. For example, when we went to Barcelona with my sister in March, our list included at least visiting the Camp Nou, Park Güell (=finding the mosaics that I missed when I was there a few years ago...), Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's buildings, Barri Gòtic, going to as many shopping centers as possible (thanks to M), the Aquarium, seeing the Fountain show, etc.
In Málaga, there were at least Castillo de Gibralfaro, Alcazaba, Picasso museum, Jardin Botánico-Histórico, Cathedral and Plaza Mayor (and maybe the most important for J: KFC or Burger king) in the list. We missed only a 2-hour cruise we had planned to go to - and IKEA!
The point is that when I came to Valencia, I hadn't planned anything - I didn't actually even know the places or monuments that you should see when you come to Valencia. Usually I check the information about the destinations before going, but not this time. I don't even know why I didn't search for more information before I came here? Maybe I just counted on the fact that I will get to know everything when I'm actually here. And yes, of course it's partly true; I've found and I've seen many places by just going around. But still, one day I started to think which places/things are the "must-see"s of Valencia and I came up with some popular ones (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Bioparc, Plaza de Toros, ...) but I ended up reading a tourist guide and Internet hints. That's when I realized that there are so many things I haven't seen yet - even though I've been here for four months! The top things that tourists go and see when they spend a week (or even less than a week) here - and I haven't managed to go and see them in four months. Pathetic...
Well, it's been a few weeks since I realized that. Yesterday that fact hit me again, as O sent me an email and asked if I have seen the Holy Grail that is kept in Valencia. I hadn't even heard about that; I searched some information and found out that it's kept in the Valencia Cathedral. And yes, that is one of the places I haven't visited.. UNTIL TODAY. Today I decided to take a break from school work and fill my cultural responsibility of visiting the Valencia Cathedral. I met a friend in the city center and we went to the Cathedral, to the bell-tower (El Micalet; the stairs to the top - I almost died..) and visited a few tourist shops nearby (I finally found proper Valencia-postcards!!). There were also some performances going on at the Plaza de la Virgen (see the video at the end of the post!). Here are some pictures (you can see them bigger, just by clicking), enjoy. At least we had a nice day as tourists in Valencia!
The museum-part of the Cathedral
O: there is the Holy Grail!
And finally, a few videos:
i almost got a heart attack when the bell began to ring..!
and that's what we saw at the Plaza de la Virgen, good timing! and i don't know if you can see it, but the second performers, they were very young!
