Valencia, October 4

That's right--I've decided, since I'm going to be here so long, to dispose of this whole "Part 1, 2, 3" business. On Thursday I had the pleasure of my first trip into Valencia, and wow, it was amazing. . . my pedometer read 26,000 steps at the end of the day, but the tiring effort was well worth it.

Valencia is a feast for the lover of architecture. I'm not just talking about the Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical buildings dotting the place (which are incredibly awesome, but scattered all over Europe, after all), but some of the amazingly streamlined modern buildings of the city as well. They have a concert hall, for example, that looks like a spaceship suspended over a crystal sea. It's in the middle of a complex of beautiful, futuristic buildings which oddly mix well with the well-tended gardens next to them. It reminded me, for some reason, of the Ghetti Museum in Los Angeles.

The Valencia Cathedral was really cool, too, though. The first part of it was built in the 300's--it blows me away to think that there's really churches that old that have been worshiping continuously for such a long time, and still do. I soaked in the mix of Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical styles, and climbed the tower of Micalet. Wow, that's a lot of stairs, and I feel really sorry for whoever had the job of ringing bells there before they were all mechanized (talk about mixing athleticism with musicianship), but the view from the top was well worth it. To take the trip with me, check out the video on the website.

At the cathedral door, we got to witness the Council of the Waters, where anyone with a water dispute can come to the judges there, and they will deal with it on the spot. They do this every Thursday, and anyone can come. No one had a water complaint this time out, and no wonder--if they do this every week, they must be very efficient at dealing with it.

After that, we saw a very old Gothic-style bank, the best-preserved in Spain, and then got turned loose on the city to enjoy all kinds of free time. I had the joy of trying Spanish horchata for the first time, which is nothing like the US version--it's much thicker, much richer, and made from almond, not rice. And it's GOOD. We also had some gelato, and went shopping--as in looked in all the shops without buying much.

We had Friday to recuperate from this and go to class, and Sabbath morning to enjoy church, then we had another fabulous adventure. At the bidding of our Folklore class, we walked all the way to Sagunto to see the Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos.

Okay, we have parades in the States, but nothing like this. When our teacher said it was a relatively short parade, I didn't expect a 2-hour spectacle with hundreds of participants, all kinds of amazing, glittery costumes (which unfortunately didn't photograph well in the poor light), and all kinds of marching bands. And this parade was only the first half of it, where the Moors come in to conquer the city--this morning (which I missed) was when the Moors and the Christians are supposed to fight, and the Christians win with the help of St. James. Just seeing the half I did, though, was absolutely amazing. The marching was far more precise than almost anything I've ever seen in the States, and there was dancing as well--they used a lot more people just walking and showing off their costumes than they did parade floats, though there were a few of those, too.

There were all kinds of instruments, some of which even after a life time of hanging out with a music teacher, I can't identify. All in all, I have to reflect--they do spectacle way better as amateurs than Disney does as a professional company. Go figure.

Anyways, as you can imagine, I slept a solid nine hours after I got back. Between the festival and the trip to Valencia, we've all certainly had an interesting, and a physically exhausting time of it. Hope life is treating you well, and that you've had as good a time this weekend as I have.