A Trip to Portugal

Here's the video from our trip to Lisboa, Portugal. The video is in 4 parts, and goes 1-4 from top to bottom. Enjoy :)

Pelo

The hair is gettin long:

(Photo stolen from Joanna)

Valencia

So this past weekend I sort of spontaneously decided to go with a friend to Valencia. We took a bus 5 hours south, and arrived at 5 am. We watched the sun rise down at the Port de Americas Cup.
sidenote: This city is quite obsessed with the fact that they recently hosted the 150th America's Cup- an international sailing competition. They even named their major port after the event.
sub sidenote: While watching the sunrise at the Port, Ross and I were interrogated and questioned by some city police, for we were to learn that Port America's Cup
runs a high terrorist risk and is frequently monitored for suspicious people. However, after they took our residence cards, called us in to check us out,
joked about David Beckham and the Galaxy, all was tranquila.

So we spent the day walking around and seeing all of the Valencia sights, and then spent one night in a Hostel-right in the center of the Historic city (near Plaza de la Virgen). We went to cafes, tried some over-priced "Agua de Valencia" (essentially a memosa, but since Valencia is famous for their oranges, we had to try the authentic bebida, eh)
The next day, we saw the few things we hadn't seen the day before- we went to the Botanical Gardens at the Universitat de Valencia, the Mercado Central, the Mercado Colon, and a few more places. However, with our bus leaving for Barcelona so late (2 am) we had to kill some time. So we picked the worst movie that we could possibly see (since it was to be dubbed anyway) and ended up going to see Residence Evil: Extinction. The outcome was as you might expect...
Then we finished off our adventures with an EXCELLENT Valencian Pizza: Tomate, Mozzarella, Jamon, Chorizo, Huevo, Cebollo, and...capers, but I forgot how to say that en Espanol :)
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend , much needed for I have barely traveled so far. However, coming up soon is Lisbon, Portugal which I am VERY excited about as well.

So here are some pics from the trip:



This is La Ciudad de los Artes y las Ciencias...
It's a museum/ interactive experience thing with, as you
can see, crazy architecture. We walked around this for a
while, brainstorming what these buildings looked like
(e.j. Fish, Halo weapon, Alien battleship, etc.)



This is one of several bridges in the Rio Turia- a dry
riverbed that surrounds the historic city center, sort of
like a moat. Turia is filled with beautiful gardens, parks,
and sports fields...
Here are two pictures (interior/exterior) of the Mercado Central.
I have to say, it totally challenges BCN's 'Boqueria' for biggest and coolest
Market ever.

This is actually the Ceramics Museum building.
We didn't go in, but it looked really cool. It also
had this awesome Marble entryway.

(Right) An old bank across the street from el Mercado Central.








(Bottom) Plaza de Tetuan

This is the Mercado
Colon. One of the more modernist
architectural designs of Valencia...not quite as
impressive as Mercado Central though...the
inside of Colon is too much like a regular Mall.

A random park that Ross and I stumbled across...there were three separate couples being photographed around the parc in their wedding attire, so...it certainly had a romantic ambiente to it, haha.











Plaza de la Virgen, w church in the background:



















Plaza del Ayuntamiento:

Dos- Monastery

The study center arranged an excursion to an old Monastery a couple of hours outside of BCN.
It was on top of a mountain, overlooking the sea and a beautiful coastal town below.
After our tour, the group got back on the bus and drove to Girona for a very nice almuerzo.

Primero

Hola.
So I feel a bit uneasy about having a blog for some reason...not too sure exactly the format in which I should be posting, so...I think I'll just jump right in.
I've been in Barcelona now for about a month and a half. There have been so many fun experiences so far that I'm not even sure where to begin.
Let's start with the living situation- This is my room:Quite spacious, eh? I've got a balcony that looks on to Carrer d' Asturies below, and it's literally seconds away from the Fontana metro strop. The neighborhood I live in is called Gracia- its a very lively and authentic area that is definitely a bubble (us "Gracia kids" never have to leave our area for ANYthing)
(A group of swing dancers in a Gracia plaza)


What next...ah: This is the granja that belongs to Marc's family. It is in a small town called La Garriga, and the farmhouse itself is over 350 years old. A group of us spent a night in the house, and had a fantastic time playing cards/billiards/hide-and-seek, and the next morning we were invited for a special paella cooked by the housekeeper.
(Mmmm yumm. You know how much I love mariscos...)

Now I'll try and let some pictures tell the stories (although they will need brief descriptions of course)



(Our group had an excursion to the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres. We first had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and walked a couple blocks before coming upon this crazy sight.)

(The other weekend, Ross and I took a long metro ride over to "The Forum", where there was an air show taking place. We sat around for a while and watched...pretty awesome)

(A cool alien-esque shot of me and my new geeeetar. I'm very excited to own a quality classical guitar!)

(A fountain at Parc Ciutadella)

(Chilling at the beach by the Roman/Greek ruins on the way to Figueres)

That's all I have to put up right now, but I'll work on it some more and continue this pictoral presentation about my journey thus far.