A parade of Titanic proportions

Today Willy and I went with the girls back to the science place to see the science museum and watch an Imax movie. The building for the science exibit is pretty amazing, but unfortunately the stuff inside doesn't really compare. It was set-up to be an interactive experience where you press buttons and watch different science experiment type things happen. I think it would be more interesting to children than adults. To me it was a waste of a beautiful building, but they did have one of those gyro things you sit and spin around in. It was fun to watch the girls get spun around, but no way I was going in that thing.

After the museum we went to the adjacent Imax theater which was built inside of a sphere. Willy and Ellen chose to see a movie about the Alps, while I decided to go with the other girls to see a movie about the Titanic. You sit in the seat and look up, almost like a planetarium, but the screen wraps all the way around you. It sounds neat, but it was a little difficult to watch because you have to look all over, and, since the movie was some Hollywood piece of crap, I didn't really enjoy it. Oh, and they make you wear these silly headphone things so you can hear the movie in your language, weak. However, Willy and Ellen said their movie was great. They went on and on about how amazing it was, so at least they had fun.

When we got back to the hostel the girls decided they wanted to cook a big meal for everybody. They made spaghetti and homemade sauce with meat and vegetables. It was really good and fun to get everybody together in the kitchen. Everybody chipped in a couple dollars and we all enjoyed a good meal for little money. William and I being the gentlemen we are offered to clean all the dishes afterwards. OK, we probably didn't have a choice since the girls did all the cooking, but we did it anyway.

That evening there was a large fireworks display over the river. The city was celebrating some sort of centennial to do with the Christians reclaiming Spain from the Arabs, or something like that, I'm really not sure. I am sure that it was the best display of fireworks I've ever seen. It went on for a long time, with lots of explosions and many different shapes and types that I've never seen, it was pretty cool.

The next day the girls had to go back to Alicante, so we walked with them to the train station to say goodbye. The station by the way, happens to be the most beautiful one I've seen so far, it was impressive. Anyway, I was sad to see the girls go, but like I said before, I'm either leaving someone at the station or watching someone leave, that's just the way it goes here. I'm glad we met them and we all had a really good time together. Hopefully I'll see them again sometime.

After Willy and I watched the girls leave we decided to go back to the hostel to take a nap so we could go out that evening. We were both exhausted from dancing with the girls the night before so we really needed a little rest. However, the city celebration was still happening, which meant the parade was about to start. It actually went down the street right in front of the hostel, so we decided to watch it before resting. The street was lined on both sides with white plastic chairs and a small fence in place behind them. We hopped the fence and sat down to watch the parade go by. It was also pretty extravagant, with lots of people in amazing costumes, marching bands with lots of banging drums and horns, beautiful horses and other things.

After about an hour we were told we had to pay 4 euro to sit in the seats, so we just left and went inside the hostel where we could watch from the 3rd floor right above the street. Basically, there would be a group of people in a certain costume followed by a band, and so on and so on. It was pretty cool and I was surprised it lasted for two hours, but I really wanted to take a nap now and I couldn't until the parade was over because it was right outside the window. I can't describe with words how LOUD it was. Especially from inside the hostel. The street is lined with 5 storey buildings on each side and the noise just bounces off them and gets amplified. But it didn't stop. There were so many bands, the noise was non-stop and you had to yell at each other inside the rooms to be able to hear, it was unbelievable. And it didn't stop. 3 hours past and it was still going. 4 hours and I was going insane not only from the noise, but I was so tired and my head was pounding, I really was having a hard time thinking straight and didn't know what to do. Finally, after 4 1/2 hours it went away. Silence, I thought it would never come. How did they possibly have that many people, that many costumes, that many drummers? I'm pretty sure they had to be making a loop and just got right back in it. Unbelievable. Anyway, by the time it ended it was 10:00. So much for a nap, now it was time to go out and eat.