Giving the Sur a once over

Over Semana Santa, basically spring break here, I headed south to find the sun, a tan and a few mojitos. Alas, all I found was a drizzle and a lot of walking. Though I wasn´t prepared for a huge site seeing vacation, it was good to see things and places in other parts of Spain.

I had some company on this trip...

Kim "The Real" McCoy and Whit "The Weige" Cave

Iñaki "Shiny happy person" Mayo

Iñigo "I don´t know your last name, sorry buddy"

Darby "Colleen" Cave

Because, of course, I am always good company when I'm with myself.

Kim and I began our journey from Pamplona during the wee hours of the morning on April 5th. We drove 11 hours, I think, to meet Iñaki and Iñigo in Gibralter that evening. We got settled in and hit the town. After some dinner, etc., part of the town´s easter week "celebration" began. These celebrations aren´t really celebrations at all, but long slow parades that trudge through the streets carrying large statues of Jesus on the cross that really creep me out. They are most famous in Seville and there is a lot of crying involved and sadness. Sort of a downer.

Whit was supposed to meet up with us, but there were complications with trains and she didn't get south until two days into the trip. During this time we checked out a really cool castle, that I still don't have pictures of because my email was too full to receive them and a town that I forget the name of but is perched on the top of a canyon and is quite gorgeous. Pictures to come.

We picked up Whitty at the train station on day 3 and started perusing various beach towns in search of sun. No such luck. We finished up in Cadiz or Conil on Whit's first night, I can't remember which one and it was actually a pretty nice day out. Whit and I dragged Iñaki down to the beach to jump in the waves for a few, even though it was pretty cold. We had to test it out, plus we're from Oregon, and if you couldn't handle the cold water, you'd never have gotten to swim when you were little. Those pictures are also to come. And possibly some video.

In the morning we drove to Seville. When we arrived, I realized I'd have to go back. It was purdy. Every building looks like a palace and from a different country. They've got an awesome cathedral and the river runs right through the center. The bull ring is a neat site to see as well. We met up with Whitney's old teammate, Lauren Surber, and her sister for lunch, found a hostel and just wandered around for the rest of the evening. We got sort of lost trying to pick up Whit's bag at Surbs' hotel, so that took up a big chunk of the evening, but, we got to walk around and see a lot in doing so! (positive spin)

Kim, Iñigo and Iñaki headed off or to do their own things the next day and Whit and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Valencia. Yikes stripes. We wanted a girly vacation with beach sitting, shopping and relaxing. But, more rain and clouds. When we got in, Whitney's current teammate, Segrin's, fiancee picked us up at the bus station and deposited us at a chinese restaurant with Segrin and Tina, another of Whit's teammates. Israel, the fiancee, is from Valencia and they were in town making wedding plans. Tina goes to school there. Israel looked into our hostel situation as we ate. Come to find out, our hostel was like an hour outside of the city! The website had a miss-print, so we didn't have to pay and cancelled. Israel found us a really cheap place with a private bathroom right downtown, so we booked it. We just got up when we pleased, wandered around each day, and came home when we wanted. Here are some pics (finally)...

This is the market we went to every morning to get dried fruit and nuts and fresh fruit and magdelenas (lemon muffins) to keep us full until dinner. It was right across from our hostel and so cheap.
The cathedral and views from the top...

This is a shot of the old city gate on one side... or maybe just a cool arch. Whit and I were just sort of our own tour guides...

Our second night in Valencia their soccer team was playing a huge match at home so we walked down to the stadium. All the bars were packed and they all had flatscreens outside broadcasting the game and people were sitting in the streets watching. Everytime something good happened we could hear the stadium erupt with shrieks and then the street dwellers would follow. Whit and I meant to find Tina and hang with her this night, but we couldn't find her. We were supposed to meet her at the burger king, but were at the wrong one. Weird. So, we parked it at a table outside, had a beer and watched the match. It was so fun!

Me being a tree... can you tell which one is the tree?

Valencia used to have a river running through the middle of it, just like all big cities. Now, they just have a river bed they dug out to create a park that runs the length of the city. It's quite a neat thing. They have soccer fields, baseball fields, playgrounds, fountains, green areas, all throughout. Whit and I walked through it one day...

This sign made us think of Mindy and perhaps J. Scott. They actually put projectile poop on there...The park ends at the City of Arts and Sciences which is a cool group of 3 or 4 buildings that are sort of a glorified OMSI. There's the oceanographic, an IMAX, the city of sciences and the opera house. The oceanographic was cool because they had belugas and a neato dolphin show but the city of sciences was a little lame. As I said to Whitney way too many times because I thought I was funnier than I am, "ok, enough of this diarama crap."

The buildings were actually quite interesting to see, very star wars helmet...

Here's a shot of Whitney inside the City of Science in this weird skeleton area we found behind a curtain that lights up when you enter. Of course, I was a little scared and didn't want to stand by it...

On our last day in V-town we headed over to the beach and The America's Cup, which turned out to be less than active, but it was nice to see the boats I spose...

I love that they have the little blue and white tents on the beach in Valencia like in a Goofy cartoon. I've never seen that in real life.

I had such fun with Whitty just hanging out for 4 days and it was interesting being on vacay before that with 5 people who know eachother at various levels. What a lucky girl I am. Whit finally got her girly vacation on her birthday, which I believe she spent in Nice, France. I'll leave you with this picture she took on her big day, I just love it...

I wish you all pink toes, rocky beaches and crystal blue seas!