What do you prefer: watching sealife or eating it???

walking through the tunnel of fish!

Per where we left off…Mike and I were heading to the Bioparc in Valencia, BUT, before we get into that I have to get back and tell you about Oceanografic! We walked there from our hotel and made our way in to Europe’s largest aquarium. It didn’t look super big when entering because most everything is underground. They have 7 different themes: Mediterranean, Wetlands (birds and fish), Temperate (seals, penguins), Oceans (sharks), Arctic (belugas, walruses), Islands (sea lions) and Tropical (fish), and we made sure we spent plenty of time in all of them. We saw some beautiful animals like Beluga whales, penguins, walruses, sea lions, tons of exotic fish and birds and last but not least- SHARKS, lots of them. That seemed to be Mike’s favorite part of the whole place were all the different sharks they had in the walk through aquarium tunnel. In all the whole place was amazing and very well set up. 

Us in the fish tunnel...

The outside part was very peaceful with many pond/small lake like bodies of water filled with fish and birds. The underground part had glass tunnels that you could walk through to see all the different sea life. There was even a cool little cave type part that you could crawl into and feel like you were part of the aquarium because when you look up you were surrounded by water. We had to fight our way in there because there were tons of kids just trying to swarm there way into there. We
got in there eventually though! Here's a glimpse of a few things we saw:

I just want to take a nap with them...

they were glow in the dark!

He looks like he's smiling!

I feel like I'm living in Nemo's world :)

The Beluga...TOO cute

After exploring the "underground" aquarium, we walked over to see a show...with DOLPHINS! The show was great and I got to be Mike's personal translator :) After watching the dolphins (and people) do tricks we worked our way back over to the Arctic part to see the walrus, Beluga and penguins. That was definitely my favorite part of the whole place, and we made sure to go through it twice. The animals were just TOO cute! 

So after a half a day later, we had gone through the whole Oceanographic. We grabbed a cute little penguin souvenir mug on the way out and headed out to move hotels. The hotel reservation we had that night was a hostel type place on the college campus. It was just old dorm rooms converted into hostel rooms and me and Mike just stayed in a double. It wasn't anything special but we didn't stay there too long anyways. That night, after our busy day of sealife sightseeing, we walked around a stopped at a small bar. I have to tell you though- this place was GREAT. Just a typical small Spanish bar with some AMAZING tapas. It was called Los Arevalo and it was right on Carrer de Marti Grajales, across from a day market. Really good food and really nice people- I definitely recommend!

Well the next day we headed to the Bioparc but I will have to get back to you all on that. I'm about to head out the door...

349 km later

This weekend is a holiday weekend all over Spain and Mike and I decided to enjoy by taking a trip to Valencia. We caught our plane to Barcelona, hopped over to the rental car company (Pepe car) and started to make our way down to Valencia. The drive wasn't too bad but trying to maneuver around a city you don't know WITHOUT a GPS can be quiet a challenge. The rental car place didn't have any GPSs but luckily we had my computer with mobile internet so we weren't completely lost...at least not at that moment.

After about 4 hrs of driving and a few stops along the way, we made it!

We made a quick stop in a small town just north of Tarragona

...where they do human stacking championships

then we stopped in Tarragona...

By the time we got to our hotel it was early evening so it became just a relaxing night of staying in and grabbing some dinner. I should mention that if you ever want to stay in Valencia check out the Valenciaflats rentals (http://www.valenciaflats.com/home) because they are REALLY nice and a great price. We booked them on booking.com but on their website would work just as well. That place was by far my favorite hotel here and they even have a really nice restaurant next door with AMAZING food. I'm ready to go back right now!

our view from the hotel

fried cheese with 2 different fruit sauces

potatoes covered with jamon and fried eggs

Our relaxing evening was much needed because the next day seemed to be a little crazier. We had another reservation at Acta Atarazanas. We had purchased a promo deal to stay there and get passes into the Bioparc (zoo) hence why we moved hotels. The place was really nice and was in an easy location to catch the metro (subway) into the city. Even though that day we didn't do any  big touristy things, I think finding our way around Valencia proved to be the most difficult task of the day. We spent over an hour just trying to find the hotel due to getting lost in the city with a mob of crazy drivers everywhere we went. For most crazy city of driving in Spain...I vote Valencia. Eventually we did find our hotel but by the time we did I was hesitant about being able to have time to do the rest of activities we had planned (going to the aquarium and wandering the city)...

the hotel (Acta Atarazanas)

Instead of racing through to get everything done, we just decided we would stay in Valencia an extra night. Smart idea! So we're missing out on one of our 2 nights in Peñíscola but we'll get there later today and enjoy the town a bit. Ok, well getting back to our day...

We checked out the hotel for a bit (they had a jacuzzi and bar on the roof!) and enjoyed the place before heading out for lunch. We just headed across the street for lunch, had some paella...I mean we're in Valencia, what else would we be eating??? (FYI Valencia is where paella "comes from")...then made our way into the city. First thing after getting off the metro, we were welcomed by a concert. nice. Just at the metro exit we had gotten off at they had a concert for kids (and some adults) singing famous songs from '71. The kids were cute but the woman we saw sing was incredible. Check her out:

Next we wandered around the city and found ourselves facing a few cool monuments. One of them (the cathedral I think) even had a procession heading inside. We just caught the tail end of it but stayed in the plaza area and snapped some great pics. By that time we were pretty hungry so we made our way around the town into a more to find a place we wanted to eat at. We stopped at a tapas bar and hung out there for a while, trying some very innovative tapa recipes like a croissant filled with sobrasada (meat) and topped by caramelized apples; bread topped with morcilla, bacon and a little lettuce; and bread topped with fried goat cheese...all of them were absolutely delicious. Since the metro stops running aroud 10:30, we had to make our way to the station in order to get home!

We got the the hotel and since it was still early we decided to check out the bar upstairs. We got up there but no one was around (I think they just use it during the summer) so we just hung out, played around and brought some of our own drinks up. It was such a nice view we couldn't miss out on enjoying it!

The next morning we had to get up early to go to...OCEANOGRAFIC- the BIGGEST aquarium in Europe!

Unfortunately I don't have time to tell you about it right now so you'll just have to wait. We're about to head over to the zoo to see more animals! This last day in Valencia should be great!

There goes Jesus- say hi!

Semana Santa has now come and gone… and now is the time for you all to find out how it went for me and Mike! We’ll start with meeting Mike at the airport…

SO early Monday morning (8am) I had caught a 5 hr bus to Madrid (from Cordoba). When I got to the bus station there I then made my way by subway over to the airport and hung out for a little while as I waited his arrival. FINALLY he arrived! Yay! After 7months of being away from him, this visit was much needed for both of us. After some hugs and kisses we pretty much headed straight to the train station so we could go to Toledo for the evening. If you go visit Toledo it’s definitely worth it by train…only takes 30min and it’s a beautiful ride over. Once we got there we were just in love with the place. I mean we’ve both traveled around Spain but this was our first time in Toledo and it was just amazing. This town just looked very different from all of the other small towns that I’ve visited in Spain and it just had a relaxing feel to it. We got off the train and walked our way into the train station which looks like a small cathedral (there is some history to it but I don’t remember it), made our way over to the taxi and caught a ride to the hotel. Our hotel, Hotel Santa Isabel, was just great and in a perfect part of town, in the old neighborhood and right next to a convent. That night we explored the town and found out just how small it is. You can pretty much walk from one side of town to the other in about 15min…so needless to say, we were able to see “a lot” of the town.

I should also mention that this was during Semana Santa so of course they had a procession happening and it was just amazing. The whole town seemed to be out and following the statue of Jesus being carried through out the town. We followed for a little bit but then headed another direction to grab a bite to eat. We wandered the medieval town with lantern lit streets and stopped in a nice, romantic little restaurant where we were able to sit outside and enjoy the warm evening eating a wonderful meal. 
 

Beyond this place just being a good spot to eat, it was prime for seeing the procession come by that night. The procession made its way through the narrow, cobblestone town roads and lasted a few hours. We didn’t watch the whole thing, since we didn’t follow us after it passed the restaurant, but we end up meeting back up with the group when we headed back to the hotel. They had stopped right behind the convent right next to our hotel. Again, just precious to watch.

The next morning we explored some more of the town. We stopped by a view point that out looked onto some beautiful scenery and some military academy, wandered around Zocodover Square, and got ourselves lost in the winding roads of Toledo.
We found ourselves in front of a cute restaurant so we decided to stop there to get some lunch before we had to head out. The place we went to had absolutely delicious food and we didn't really want to leave BUT we had to go since our train was leaving soon. In fact, it was leaving so soon that we almost missed it; we had to run to the hotel, grab our bags, get in the taxi that was waiting for us (because I had just called it a few minutes before) and he rushed us to the train station. We got there with 2 MINUTES to spare before they would close the "entrance"...Luckily though we did make it and we were then off to Madrid to then catch another train to Cordoba...and then home :) 

That night we arrived to Lucena around 9pm and got picked up by my Spanish family. They were really excited to meet Mike so we all hung out for a few hours, had some traditional spanish tapas (jamon, typical spanish cheese, olives, salmorejo, bread sticks and some little typical Easter treats). Needless to say, we got home really late so the next morning was a little slow...but luckily it was a rainy day. Well I guess that was good and bad. GOOD because we had an excuse just to relax and hang around the house, BAD because they had to cancel tons of processions around Spain. In fact, the rest of the week it rained and the majority of processions ALL OVER Spain were either canceled or severely shortened (they usually last many hours). I was told (from newspapers) that this was the most rain that they've received during semana santa for the last 80 YEARS! We were lucky enough to see a few processions (in Toledo and Lucena) but in places like Seville where people come from all over the world to see the processions, well they were all just out of luck because ALL of those were canceled...just a little disappointing. 

The next procession we did see was in Lucena on Thursday. Normally they start the procession at 6am and stay out until 3pm but this day (due to the rain) they left late, around 9am or so, and ended at noon. We met up with my my Spanish family once again (Carlos' fam) and grabbed some breakfast, then went and watched the processions. And to make things even more special, Elena (my Spanish mom) had a friend invite us up to the balcony right in front of the church...where the saints were going. Not only were we able to see the whole procession with an amazing view, we also stood right next to the singers that perform for the processions. It was so special to see that and have Mike also get a chance to see a small town procession (since they're so different from the big city ones) from a great view. 

After the procession ended it started to rain, of course, so we headed back to the house. The rest of the night was just spent hanging out and relaxing since we had a day of travel ahead of us. Well, not really a full day but we did head over to Baena the next day with intentions of seeing the processions there. First thing we noticed, as soon as we started to drive, rain started to pour down. Since Baena is just a small town close by we knew it'd be raining there too. And what do you know....it was. So we got there and hung out with some friends I have since we really wanted to see if it would stop raining and they would start the processions...but no.

In the background is the back of a coliblanco!

The processions there are pretty cool because they are VERY different from in any other town. They dress up in special costumes, some as the Romans, others as the Colinegros and Coliblancos (they represent the Jewish) and some other costumes which I have no idea what they represent. The Colinegros and Coliblancos (not sure why there are 2 different groups) go around and play the drums throughout the procession. If you remember from an earlier post, I mentioned going to Baena for the San Jose festival and they were playing the drums all day and ALL night. This is basically the same thing but much more formal and the people are in costume. In the end we didn't get to see the people perform, although we did see a few people walking around in their costumes so I guess it wasn't a total loss. Plus we got to hang out with some pretty cool people over there. Finally around 11 we headed back home since no processions ended up happening.

The next day was again full of rain, so instead of going on a small trip to some nearby towns, we just stayed in the house. That night we did make it out for some tapas with friends and just chilled with them the rest of the night. The next day- well we had to go return the car rental so we hopped in the car early in the morning and headed down to Malaga. First though, we made a stop in a nearby town of Antequera. Why? Well we had stopped there on the way up from Malaga and found out they had a wolf park! So obviously we had to go back to check it out. We made our way up there and got to see some animals from afar such as wolves, peacocks, horses, goats and chickens. We didn't get to go on the tour though because it wasn't going to start until later and we had a car to drop off. 

oh how I love Spanish translations:
please read this...mostly paying attention to the 1st two "rules"

After our stop at the wolf park we took a winding road down to Malaga, the whole way to Malaga but I do have to say it had some amazing views. Definitely worth it to check out. We got a few great photos and just heading down to Malaga (less than an hour away from Antequera). Finally we got the car to the dealership and then made our way back over to the bus station to catch a ride back. We would have hung out in Malaga longer but since it was rainy and cloudy, well, it wasn't really ideal weather for Malaga. 

When we came back to Lucena we met up with my Spanish fam again.
On Sunday, what we consider to be Easter in the states, all the towns bring down their saint (the saint is usually up in a church in the mountains/hills). They literally carry her down and this takes over 4 hours to do just going one way. So they brought her down and we got to see her pass...although she was covered in a plastic sheet because it was.......RAINING. Are you starting to see a theme here? Anyways the rest of the day we just hung out with Carlos and Salva (my 2 spanish brothers). Then we headed home and relaxed because the next day I had work! So that's it for Semana Santa. I know that was a long post but hoped you enjoyed reading about the semi-eventful week that we had. 

Now, we're about to leave to go down to Malaga BECAUSE tomorrow we're catching a flight to Barcelona. I will be bringing my computer with me so hopefully I'll be able to tell you about it as I go...

Kinder Eggs: where art thou?

Happy almost Easter everyone! This week is a big week here in Spain, called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week" in English. We (Mike and I) just got back from a procession here in Lucena and got lots of good video and photos for you all! I will get them on here soon as well as tell you all about Mike's arrival here, Toledo, our fun trip to Malaga to rent a car...but first I wanted to share this story for you.

Easter Reminder: Kinder Eggs banned in the United States

Oh Kinder Egg, how I love your delicious chocolate and toy prizes. Too bad you are too dangerous for children... wait- what?

REALLY?

Apparently Kinder Eggs are considered a "choking hazard" to children under 3 and are therefore are banned from importation in the U.S. I guess so...if you're child is able to fit this entire treat (the size of a real egg) inside his/her mouth. I would think people would just break them open and take out the toy THEN eat the chocolate but then again, what do I know? I'm thinking maybe we need to work on teaching young children just to resist the temptation to shove anything and everything in their mouths...or at least teach them to CHEW...what do you think? Oh how I miss US ways...

I find this a bit ridiculous but there thousands of other crazy regulations that we have in the US so I'm not one bit surprised. This article is definitely worth a read though (and some of the comments too). I guess you're just gonna have to go up to Canada or travel over to Europe if you want to try one of these fun filled Kinder Eggs. If you not feeling up for the travel, don't worry- they taste just like a hollow-chocolate egg...but with a cool toy inside.

Here are a few more precautions to take with Easter just around the corner:



-Do NOT eat plastic eggs. They're made of plastic and therefore not edible.

yum...plastic.

-Easter baskets are flammable. Do NOT light them on fire.

Always best to have a mischievous look when doing something you shouldn't...

-It is recommended that you do not eat all the Easter treats in one day. This can cause stomach pains.

TOO. MUCH. CANDY!!!

Hope all these tips are helpful towards a successful, non-life threatening Easter. Have a HAPPY EASTER!