On The Road Again (What is it about Valencia that inspires song-themed blog posts?)

On the weekend, I travelled to Valencia - the city of strangely-shaped buildings.

I headed off on a trip organised by my exchange company, Juventud y Cultura.

I was considering not going, because twelve hours total on a bus seemed like a rather long time to only stay in a city for one night.

However - I am so, so glad that I decided on tagging along. It was an awesome trip, with an amazing bunch of exchange students.
Here we all are! Out of the 13 of us, 6 were Aussies, one was a Kiwi and one Belgian with Australian parents and accent. Us folks from Down Under totally dominated!

Turns out that the six hours on a bus both ways was actually a lot of fun. I got to spend some time getting to know fellow exchange students and Aussies.
I made some great friends, and shared plenty of both exchange-related and entirely random stories. I also realised just how much I have been missing the Australian sense of humour! And, I'll be honest, it was quite exciting to talk in English again.

Once we arrived in Valencia, we dumped our bags at our hotel (Yes, Michael, it was 'spiffy digs'!) before heading straight off to the Oceanográfic - Spain's largest aquarium! It was rather entertaining - there was lots to see, our favourites included the whales, a high diving act, and a pair of walruses!


Next up on the agenda was the Museo De Las Ciencias. For anyone heading to Valencia, I would absolutely recommend this place - think Scitech, only HUGE! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there, and spent a good couple of hours pressing buttons, pulling levers, swinging pendulums and electrocuting one another.

That night, tapas was on the menu for dinner. Of course, our coordinator had forgotten that Saturday night was the night of the Champions League final! We finally found a (very, very crowded) bar to grab some food in. It was quite a posh little bar, but the only place with any room.
Every time Barcelona scored the street exploded with cheers! People would dance, and once or twice a firework was set off.

Once we could tear ourselves away from the soccer, we took a midnight stroll through Valencia. It was gorgeous.
The next morning, after a delicious buffet breakfast, we took off to the beach! Which, to be honest, was a bit of a let down for those of us that had experienced Australian beaches. But it was an alright way to pass a few hours!

We ate some early lunch at the beach, and then spent our last few hours in the city centre. We visited some churches, had a look around the local souvenir markets, tried our best to dodge the rain, and took plenty of photos!
Aaand then we headed back on another six hour bus ride home, but it wasn't without its excitement! Excitement such as these somewhat suspicious items for sale at the petrol station. Hmm.