They speak Flemish in Spain?

Spain has always been on my list of places to see, but I really didn't know anything about Valencia and neither did William, so we left the hostel to go have a look around. We heard there was a large indoor market so we went there first to get some breakfast. It was a large beautifully decorated building full of stands selling fruits, vegetables, fish and everything else.

Willy bought some fruit while I picked out some pastries, then we tried to find some leche, milk. Now I don't know much about the nuances of the Spanish language, but when Willy asked the woman behind the counter for some leche, she blushed and they started laughing because she thought he was asking for something else. Eventually we found some milk then went outside where I bought some orxata, or horchata. It's a little like milk and it's made from some tiny bean looking things that grow underground. It's sweet and there are stands selling it everywhere. After eating we just walked around the city center looking at the churches and even climbed the tallest tower they have. It was quite a climb with winding steps that seemed to go on forever, but the view from the top was worth it. It was a clear sunny day and you could see the mountains and the sea surrounding the city.

That evening we went out in search of some good paella, another local specialty consisting of yellow rice, seafood and maybe some vegetables, all cooked together in a big flat pan. Willy asked one of the locals where to go and we went there. I have noticed that every person we have stopped to ask for information has been really nice and willing to help. Nobody seems bothered or annoyed and they all go out of their way to help us, it's nice. Her recommendation was good and we had some excellent paella with wine and desert. We went out after dinner trying to find a good place to hang out, but the only decent place we found was so full of cigarette smoke that we just couldn't stand it so we left. There is definitely an interesting mix of people walking the streets at night, but most places are well lit and it isn't too dangerous. We found our friend with the beer again so we just walked around people watching.

The next day we loaded the car to drive to Madrid. We were going to visit what is called the City of Arts and Sciences first, which is a large complex with an opera house, science discovery museum, iMax theater and aquarium. On our way out of the hostel we ran into a girl we had met in the hostel and she told us that her and her friends were planning to go to the science place too, so we offered to take them with us in the car. I never really thought about it before, but you can in fact put five cute Belgian girls into the back seat of a small car, nice. As we drove to the place Willy and I did our best to memorize all their names, but I have a hard enough time learning one new name, much less five, so we decided to call them the Spice Girls, which was still confusing, and then ended up with Numbers 1 to 5. They were all going to college for a semester in Alicante, a city to the south of Valencia. They had a break so they decided to visit Valencia for a few days.

We made it to the science place and parked right across the street. All the buildings were designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. If it looks familiar, he also did the Olympic complex in Athens that was in the blog earlier. It's an impressive place to see, almost indescribable so I'll let the pictures do that. The large building that looks like a fish, or an eye depending on the angle, is the opera house. The smaller half-dome shaped thing has an iMax screen on that sphere in the middle. The really big bony looking thing is the science building, and beyond that is the aquarium.

We went in and bought tickets to see everything, but only saw the aquarium that day and decided to see the rest later. The aquarium was really cool. They had a large area where you walk through it in a glass tube with sharks and other fish swimming right over you. There was a white beluga that would swim right to the glass and look at you and they even had walruses. There was a large outdoor area with birds and other wildlife, and we watched a dolphin show too. It was all lots of fun, and the girls (Dorien, Ellen, Kathleen, Laura and Soetkin) were all really sweet. Their native language is Dutch or Flemish, not sure which, and it's pretty strange to me, but they all speak perfect English so there was no problem there and we all had a great time.



When we got back to the car Willy opened the trunk and all of our things were scattered all over. Somebody had broke into our car while we were away. They opened our bags and took everything out and went through the inside of the car too. The first thing I though of was my passport, and when I checked the pocket I left it in it was gone. I began to get pretty mad, but then I found it lying in the trunk along with a credit card I left with it. William had a small lock on his bag and they broke it off to get inside, but didn't take anything, even leaving a wallet with credit cards and other foreign currency. In the end all they took was my cellphone, sunglasses, and about 10 U.S. dollars I had. We really didn't understand it. All they had to do was walk away with our bags, but they spent all that time going through everything in broad daylight on a busy street and hardly took anything. I guess we were lucky, and I'm so glad I left my laptop in Rome because I really think that would have been gone and that would have really hurt. So with everything accounted for we got in the car and drove back to the hostel. Now that we've made some new friends we decided to stay in Valencia a bit longer. I just love changing plans.