Valencia Day 2.

Woke up pretty early and got out of the hostel by about 10. I decided to go to the´city of arts and sciences´which is a large urban centre with museums, an imax theatre and the aquarium (the largest in europe). The walk there took me about an hour, but it led me down what used to be a river, which is now this long park. Each time there is a bridge, the parks change their layout. There was also a heap of water fountains that would make australians very jealous as there is no shortage of water here, with the meditternaen on their doorstep. There were people cycling and jogging everywhere in this park and it was great to see it was put to such a good use.


I got to the city of arts and sciences and marvelled at the modern architecture. The buildings were quite impressive and all in white tiling. Again there were a heap of water fountains and shallow pools, and it was very well maintained (which as I have noticed appliess to the entire city).

I then went to the aquarium and managed to spend 6 whole hours there. It was of a really good setup, and I got an audioguide in english to help me as not many signs were in english.I was impressed with the large dolphinarium where I watched 2 dolphin shows. But the thing that excited me the most was the Beluga whale. Ever since mum got us those animal fact files all those years ago, and I read about belugas I had wanted to see one. I reckon I watched them for about an hour, trying to get a good picture but they were swimming too fast. It wasnt until I was about to leave and my batteries about to go that I managed to get a good one. They also had walruses and they were cool too, though they had cut his tusks quite short. The walruses were constantly wrestling eachother and there were scratches all along the tank where his tusk had scratched it. They were really huge!

By the time I left the aquarium it was 5pm so I walked back to my hostel and had a rest before going to its ´roof terrace´to relax. I got chatting to a guy called Devon who was from Canada and we were still hanging out at midnight when the fireworks began. This weekend in Valencia is a massive weekend, celebrating their independence which kicks off with fireworks at midnight, the start of friday, a public holiday and huge day of celebration. These fireworks were in the dry river, about a ten minute walk from the hostel so he and I ran there to watch. They were the most amazing, huge, loudest fireworks I have ever seen and probably ever will see. And they went for an hour and twenty minutes, finsishing at almost 1.30 am. It got so huge at one point that you could feel the shockwaves pushing down on your shoulders. I even at one point lost my balance. It was truly spectacular and unfortunately pictures and videos canot capture it. Even Devon said it exceeded his expectations, and being canadian has seen some big fireworks displays in his time. Once they had finished we went back to the hostel and as the common areas had closed, went to bed. Here, the sunrises at about 8.10 am and goes down close to 7pm, so its easy to stay up late and also to sleep in.