Valencia, Spain - April 9, 2004
Made the transition from Madrid to Valencia. Last night it rained. I was able to find a Cuban bar with Cuban music. Strangely it reminded me of being in New York. I heard so much Carribean Latin music in NYC such as Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, etc. As I walked around after that place it had that same feeling everywhere I went. Tons of people out drinking and eating and walking around. Madrid was pretty cool at night. But a bit dull and boring when you are all on your own. After walking around awhile, I just went back to the hotel and slept.
The train from Madrid to Valencia took three hours. I ate another botella sandwich. Its basically dry bread with whatever meat you want on it. Today I had ham, last night I had a squid sandwich. Oddly, they don´t put any condiments or any butter or anything. Also the bread is really hard and crispy. You really have to bite into one and almost tear it. The bread tends to break off and big crumbs fly everywhere. They taste good.. but wish they had a little butter and the bread was just a little bit softer. Now that I´ve had both the squid and the ham botella, I seemed to have scraped the roof of my mouth somehow. The bread is really that hard! But its good overall. Squid was better than ham by the way.
The train ride itself was interesting. Madrid landscape felt like a city and comparitively to the East Coast of the US. Then the geography changed and it was a lot of farmland everywhere. Big open fields of farm land. This felt like I was suddenly in the Great Plains of the US. Then the topography changed once again. It became more rockier and scrubs and such. This felt like I´d just hit something similar to the Rocky Mountains (minus the huge mountains, but had that feel to it - ruggedness. Then I got near Valencia and it changed again. There were many palm trees and orange groves everywhere. Suddenly it felt as if I´d arrived in California. Anyhow, for whatever reason, thats the feeling I had. But it was all compressed into 3-4 hours instead of 7-8 days as it would be in the US.
Another thing I defintely noticed, as I was reading about it anyhow. There was a complete absense of billboard signs. Apparently its illegal to throw up any kind of advertisement on the side of the road. Actually it was kind of cool they do that here. Kind of nice not to have some product pitched at you. Another thing I was looking for was these giant black bull billboards that lack words. Supposedly they represent some kind of beer. Their advertisement was a big black bull and nothing more. When the law went into effect, they were suppose to be taken down. They never were because the people objected. They became a symbol upon themselves that transcended the beer advertisement. They are now on postcards and everything else you can imagine as a symbol of Spain. I was looking for them on my train ride but didn´t see any. Supposedly they are spotted about here and there throughout Spain.
Valencia itself is an alright city. Its a little quiet here as well. Perhaps once again because of this Holiday. Actually I kind of miss Asia, South America, and the United States being here. Spain is alright, and I haven´t been here that long, but just makes me think of other places I´ve spent time and how much I´d like to go back to many of those places. Well, my main purpose here is to get my graduate degree, and then I´ll be free to go wherever again. But I´m already dreaming. Already thinking of where I can apply my grad degree, whats next, and everything else.
One interesting observation I´ve noticed both today and yesterday is there are some single black women wandering around, and they seem to be snapped right up by the Spaniard guys. Mostly older couples. Always a middle-aged Spaniard guy dating a just younger, maybe 30-something African woman. That kind of reminds me of New York as well.. things like that. Just that mix. But predominetey people are overwhelmingly Spanish and very European. Actually its so European, that I keep thinking of places in South America where people were mixed up more - african, caucasian, indegenious, latino, the entire mix. Its more interesting it seems. Being here and hearing Spanish all the time, makes me think a lot of my New York City and my South America days.
Upon arrival in Valencia, I took a tour bus all around the city. I saw an English-speaking guy (probably North American) with a Chinese girlfriend. Funny as its kind of expensive, but the Chinese girl looked really bored and tired. She wasn´t looking at anything, put her head down a lot, and just not interested. Just made me think it was interesting her trip and maybe not really into it. Not that I´d blame her that much. Can be dull if it doesn´t mean much to you. I found that I´m not really as interested in European culture as much as I am with American culture, Latino (South America), and Asian culture. All the old historical buildings and such didn´t have much meaning to me either. I still tried to feign interest however. Also noticed another couple in the bus. I think they were from some English-speaking country, hard to say where. They had maps open and everything else you can imagine trying to take in absolutely everything they possibly can. Quite a contrast it seemed.
Things are definetely older in what I¨ve seen in Madrid and Valencia. Definetely beautiful. In some ways it reminds me of visiting my great grandma. Everything is just really old and has those smells. For some reason, there was a correlation there for me. I do like it though, but just an observation.
Tomorrow I´m going to Castellon de la Plana. Thats the city of the university I´ll be attending to get this Graduate Degree. I´m excited to get some sense of where I´ll be for the rest of this year and what kinds of things I might be doing there. I still have a good concept of the place yet. I´m guessing it´ll just be a smaller version of Valencia however. We´ll see tomorrow.
Oh the other thing I did today was touch the Meditteranean Sea. I took the subway specifically to do that. It was kind of cold breezy day today though, so it wasn´t that great. People were all bundled up, some were flying kites, and a lot of families with their kids were out and about. I guess its still Holiday season and still has a bit of that Winter feeling lingering in the air. Can´t wait to experience late Spring and Summer.
Next Journal Entry in Spain:
April 10, 2004
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