Valencia Part 4- La ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) is an area of Valencia that has a a few different museums, and very interesting architecture.

Valencia Part 3- La Gran Nit de Juliol

On Saturday there was the celebration of  La Gran Nit de Juliol. If the name does not sound Spanish, that is because it is not. It is Valenciano, a dialect of Catalan.

There were a lot of concerts and shows going on.

After that we went to a ceremony presenting some of the fallero candidates (See post Valencia Part 2 - Las Fallas)

Afterwards we headed back to the beach to watch the fireworks.

Valencia Part 2- Las Fallas

July 22, 2013

We also went to the museum of the fallas.

Every March in Valencia there is a big celebration called Las Fallas. Hundreds of statues are made out of flamable material that are caricatures of people and concepts, like three dimentional cartoons.

 

After hundreds of these fallas are paraded down the streets, there is a vote, and one is pardoned. That one will go in the museum and the rest go up in flames.

Accompanying the fallas are falleros, girls and women dressed in traditional Valecian dresses (I'll write more about that in a later post).

A falla in progress

Valencia Part 1

July 21, 2013

This weekend the entire group went to the city of Valencia, which is on the eastern coast of Spain.

Valencia is known for it's oranges, which are especially good for orange juice.

Horchata is another popular drink in Valencia. It is made from chufa, a type of nut.

Higueras (Fig Trees)

July 18, 2013

There is a higuera (fig tree) in the backyard of my host family's house, so I am learning a lot about figs.

Two types of fruits grow on fig trees. What we typically think of as figs are called higos in Spanish.

 

They are small, sweet, and ripen in September.

There is also another fruit that you will not find in most stores. I don't know the English word, but in Spanish it is called the breva.

This fruit is slightly larger than the fig. It is hard to describe the taste, but I would compare it to a banana but slightly fruitier. This is what it looks like on the inside (sorry that the picture is so blurry):

The breva is in season now, until the end of July.

Más Comida (More Food)

July 17, 2013

Paraguayos (I don't know their name in English, but they look and taste like squashed peaches)

 Churros con chocolate (Thick hot chocolate with churros)

A giant vending machine in a metro station in Barcelona

 Paella (A common Spanish dish with rice, vegetables, meat and seafood)

 These peppers look spicy, but they're not.

Cereal in Spain is usually not as sugary or sweet as in the US becuase most people eat it with coffee instead of milk.

 Pretty much all of the pizza here is personal sized pizza.

In Spain the fish are sold with the head still on so you can tell how fresh it is.

There are a lot more types of seafood that are commonly sold. For example, octopus

and snails.

Rabbit also isn't uncommon to see in a market.