5th Excursion Trip: Valencia (October 19, 20 and 21)


Saturday, October 28th, 2017
Hello Everyone,

For this excursion trip we went to the Eastern side of Spain into the Community of Valencia which has great weather and located near the Mediterranean Sea. The trip was set up into 3 days of travel, the first day we ate a typical plate of Valencian food and toured the aquarium, the second day we toured the Lladro museum, went to a market and spent the rest of the day at the beach and the last day was mainly to visit the Cathedral that contains the Holy Grail.

After a short 4 hour bus ride to Valencia from Madrid we first arrived at a restaurant specially reserved for our university group. In the restaurant we ate a great meal of typical Valencia food. The order of these meals began first by ordering a drink, eating bread with the options of putting vinegar tomato sauce on it or mayo. Followed by a Spanish salad which consists of tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, carrots and a mix of oil and vinegar. Lastly, we had the main entree course which was paella. When I say paella, it is not any kind of paella, but rather, Valencian paella. The reason why this was so special to us is not because it is a typical Spanish dish. Paella originates from Valencia and thanks to Valencia that typical dish of food exists. I had the honor to eat the seafood kind and the chicken type. It was delicious and that marked the start of our trip in Valencia.

The seafood paella

The chicken paella

The seafood paella

Selfie with the program director

The BYU group with the Bus Driver on the left, Sergio
After eating a glorious meal we paid our respects the waiter, the manager and the cook. We then headed to the aquarium. It was an okay site. After growing up in Southern California is being exposed to the aquarium of the pacific in Long Beach, I felt like this one could not replace my Californian aquarium. The important thing was that it was relaxing in that aquarium and the environment was very chill. After visiting the aquarium we checked in the hotel and that was the day.








The next day which was day 2 we headed to the Lladro museum in Valencia. Besides being the founders of paella, horchata and fartones, Valencia is also the founder of Lladro statues. Lladro is the last name of two brothers who were very interested in fabricating porcelain figures made a business out of it and it was so successful that it hit nationally in Spain and worldwide! I had the opportunity to tour the factory, meet some of the artists while making a Lladro figure and it was nice. Lladro figures are very expensive and very artsy looking.












That same day of looking at the Llladro figures and the museum we continued on our journey. The next stop was the market place. There we had some fresh fruit juice and looked around the different shops and the fresh food and fruit that was sold there. We spent the rest of the day at the beach and yes the water was warm in mid-October and I was able to swim and enjoy myself a bit. Towards the end of that day I met up with one of my friends who lives in Valencia and it was great!

















On Saturday we made a stop to see the Cathedral. It was very similar to most Spanish Cathedrals in the country. It was hidden among the buildings and structures in the city. Inside the Cathedral there lies the Holy Grail. For those of you who do not know what the Holy Grail is, it is the cup that Christ used during his last supper. It is claimed that the chalice in the Cathedral is of Christ and according to historians it fits the description and time frame of what Christ might  have used. After that we headed back and I ate my tapas on the bus purchased from Cien Montaditos. That night I got sick from food poisoning and vomited. The next day on Sunday I was not able to function and laid in bed all day. On Monday I was up and running. That's the story for the week.

Thanks for reading.

Sal Galvan













Yes, that is the Holy Grail

Ladies and Gentlemen. The Holy Grail

The Holy Grail



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to the new blog

Saturday, September 23rd, 2017 Hey everyone, I just wanted to take the time and explain my time in Spain. First of all, I served a mission here in Spain back in July of 2014 and it lasted 2 years. After that when I returned home to the US I was always craving to return back to Spain. Through BYU, I got accepted to a Spain Study Abroad in Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain for Fall 2017.  I arrived in Spain sometime around Mid August to visit the south of Spain and meet new people right before the program started. I was also able to visit one of my last areas where I served as a missionary called Valladolid and the whole month of August was great. As for the month of September, I would call that the "settling in" month. I really did not get a chance to talk about what was going on besides the personal emails that I send to my personal group at home. And, as a requirement for the program we need to write a blog about all of our excursions that we participate in S
Read more

2nd Excursion Trip: Toledo

Image
Saturday, September 23, 2017             The city of Toledo was never known to me for years and years of my life. The first time I have ever heard of the city itself was when the brother of a close friend, Curt Huffmire, met with me over lunch at the Huffmire home to talk about the Spain Madrid mission. I remember one of the most important things I needed to do while being a missionary in Spain was to get the opportunity to visit the city of Toledo and buy a sword from that area. I was informed that Toledo was once the best manufacturer of steel weapons during the past couple of centuries for warfare. I learned that they currently had been responsible for manufacturing the props of the Lord of the Rings and sell replica swords of what was used in the films.             So, as a missionary the first time I could visit the city of Toledo happened in February 2015. I will never forget the first time I was there and how awesome of a city it was to me. The sad thing is that I did not d
Read more

8th Excursion Trip: Merida & Portugal (November 14th - 18th)

Image
Hey everyone, So, originally our group was supposed to go to Catalonia for the big 8th excursion trip. The problem that happened was there were problems in Catalonia at the time back in October and BYU security cancelled the plans made for Catalonia. This means that I have never seen Barcelona. The alternative plans created were to travel to Merida which is a city located in the province of Badajoz which is part of Extremadura, the southern part of Spain. This excursion trip started on Tuesday and ended on Saturday. So, it was the longest trip we have ever taken. Just to give background information about myself, I was unlucky and got sick Monday night. The next morning I was sick and I forced myself to go on the trip. I was able to last most of the days we were there until the weekend hit. So, on Tuesday we went first to Merida which was mostly a Roman city that has Roman remains left behind. The famous sites located in Merida to visit are the Roman museum, amphitheater, theater
Read more