Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

Well, in keeping with the Valencian swing of things I came across this marvel of architecture. The City of Arts and Sciences is a sort of educational/entertainment centre, lets call it an edutainium. It was designed by local architect Santiago Calatrava and is divided up into several parts. L 'Hemisfèric represents an eye (apparently it "blinks") and it houses an Imax Cinema, a Planetarium and a Laserium. El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe is shaped like a whale skeleton and handles the science side of things. The other part I found interesting is the L'Umbracle; it contains plant species indigenous to Valencia such as lavender, honeysuckle, palm tree and bougainvillea (that was one I wasn't expecting). The Edutainium also has the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe.

Here's a bit of history. Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències is build on what used to be the original path of the Rió Turia but due to a serious flood in the 50's the river was diverted and the remaining riverbed was converted into a long park basically filled with all sorts of entertainment for the citizens of Valencia. Would be a great place to chillax siesta style, get some edumication and then head of for some extroverted noches partijes.

You can see the park running through the city in this map.

Here's a aerial shot of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències . See the yellow circle in the top left hand side of the picture?

It's a giant Gulliver jungle gym.

Valencia: The City of Extroverts!

This city is probably one of the most exciting cities in Spain. Its the third biggest city with the Biggest street party, Las Fallas (Needs its own post). It has many well know sights and activities and it is also on the coast, so the beach is always a winner. Furthermore, just some 38km away is the sight for the World’s biggest food fight, La Tomatina! (See our post La Tomatina)

It has been stated by an article I read, that the city of Valencia contains 700 000 extroverts. The article explains that the citizens are very social and there is always something on the go. It would also be fair to say this city has a whole lot of party animals who are friendly in nature. So I reckon this is where meeting and socializing with Spaniards will be ideal.The leisure supply that offers the Valencian nightlife is considered one of the most exciting and complete of Spain. The narrow streets of the "Barrio del Carmen" and around the street "Caballeros" are the places where you can find all the action.The night entertainment in Valencia starts at 23:00. The most visited Clubs are in the zone called "Viveros" but, the fun also can be found in places such as Aragón avenue, Canovas square , Blasco Ibáñez avenue, Honduras square, Xúquer square and Juan Llorens. Going out at night in Valencia also implies visiting the bars that are situated in the historical center of the city around the "Plaza de la Virgen".
If you go to Valencia in the summer, you must go to the beach and have fun, here you'll find a lot of bars and restaurants, some of them are very antique and are decorated in a very simple and luminous manner, most of them have balconies from which you can watch the sea, these restaurants offer traditional sea food.
It is common to begin the Party on Thursday/ Friday eve and only arrive home on Sunday morning.
In Summary, I would say this is the City for the energetic. So I reckon that this may be the highlight to my visit to Spain, and my Amigos may need to prepare!!

La Tomatina

Well, I think that most of you would be familiar with this festival. It is rather epic by any standard and to top it off, this is one event that we may very well be able to attend. Much to my delight. I have always been keen for a food fight but it has to be worth it. You can't just waste food for any old reason and this one is certainly the greatest excuse. It has history, tradition and thousands of willing participants.

How this blessed event had it's origins is anyones guess and the stories I'm sure are endless. However we do know that it started in the town of Buñol around the 1940's and now encompasses other events including a Paella cooking contest. I should start practicing. It is also done in the honour of the town's patron saints: San Luis Bertrán and Mare de Déu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless) Ironic patrons to have since Bertrán apparently had no sense of humour and the other for the vulnerable village people. Many shopkeepers have to drape their buildings with plastic to protect them from the onslaught of about 150, 000 tomatoes. That's a lot of tomato sauce of which I can't help but calculate how many meals you could make from all of that sauce. It's also not for the self conscious because the dress code is white for woman and no shirts for the men. I now have an incentive for gym.

It's a human meat ball.

click for pictures

Paella Valenciana

¡Hola! Soy Karlos and now it's my turn to add my major reason for travelling to Spain. No, it's not apples or cider for that matter of fact. Although cider has strong traditional value in northern Spain, they have festivals and everything...I might do a post for it when we lose interest in this blog and it goes dead for a few weeks. So check back in the middle of August and be educated.

Right, so as the title suggests and what you probably thought this post was all about but then forgot because I distracted you with apples, is actually about Paella. Paella Valenciana to be precise because although we have like the rest of the world jumped on the bandwagon of calling any throw together rice stew as Paella and then declaring it Spanish is in fact distorted. Fancy that. Spain recognises Paella as being a Valencian dish and it's fine citizens have embraced this proclamation with open arms. The other misconception about Paella is that it is exclusively a seafood dish but there are many versions and I am particularly interested in the meat one. It uses rabbit and chicken (or duck) with white rice, green veggies and beans. It also contains the magical credit card cancelling saffron and it's what gives Paella its distinctive yellow colouring.

That's all for me now but here's a video of how to make Paella. It's in Spanish so just pull a Pocahontas and listen with your heart.