Xativa

Sunday, the entire study center was dead. Most students went to a small town outside of Valencia the night before. There was a festival there that involved running around after a bull with its horns on fire. Students went late afternoon, and the burning bull horns didn't start til 11 or 12. I would've loved to share in this bizarre and seemingly torturous experience, but the trains back to Valencia stopped running at 7 or 8 p.m. So the plan was to go, stay up all night (like going to clubs and stuff) and then catch the FIRST train back to Valencia at NINE something! It's one thing to just HAPPEN to stay up til 5 or 6 in the morning, but to PLAN to stay up til 9 a.m. is just beyond what my body can handle. Plus, I was so exhausted Saturday that staying up past eleven wasn't possible. This meant that everyone who went to see the firey-horn bull slept all day Sunday. So, two of my roommates and I went to Xativa. (Pronounced kinda like yativa). Xativa is a town about 45 minutes away from Valencia by train.

Train station (this was my first time riding this kind of train transport... different than tram and metro)


My travel partners Kelly and Freddie


Walking through Xativa. Found a playground and had this terrible idea.
It spun as fast as the Disney World tea cups. Barf.


More walking through the town to our destination. Can you tell what it is yet? Up the hill?


What about now?


Ok there. We were headed up the big hill to this castle.


Views of Xativa as we ascend to the Castle.



Really tired after trying to take some short cuts.


Pause on the way up to go out on this little land extension


Freddie and me on the land extension


Kelly on the land extension


Reinactment
Scar, pointing out the forbidden elephant graveyard to young Simba


And this smart person doing this on the land extension.


Approaching the castle


Ok, you should prepare yourself for lots of castle photos and lots of views-from-castle photos. Every time we got to a new spot, it seemed like the view was just a little better and worth capturing on film.


Backside of the castle


View from the backside of castle


Where we stopped for a snack


Kelly's artsy picture


awww cute couple


More amazing views


Castle crouching


Girls and the castle. Freddie take our picture!


Castle cannon



Funny little plant


More views



Freddie now take one of us doing this



We found this sweeeeet castle kitty and molested it for a weee bit.

Really, we couldn't stop lovin on it.



Kelly and Freddie went out on another skinny, crazy high ledge



Always more ways to go up


View of castle mayor from castle menor


The only picture of the three of us


Las Letrinas




What girls do with flowers


Flag, so the bad guys know who they're up against.


Busted flat in Xativa, waitin for a train




Tuckered out


Time for home


Ok one last shot of the view




Short castle video


Ok, neither of these happened on this trip, but I thought now would be a good time to mention just how hard Europe has been on the shoes.

My tennis shoe (the one on the right) did this like the second weekend I was in Valencia. I did my best to tie it back together. We'll see how long it holds.


And these were Lillie's boots after Paris. She tossed'em right when we got back.


Next, on to Andalucía.