Senior Citizens and Children under 10

This past weekend was pretty low key as far as weekends in Valencia go (aka no castles or new towers explored.)
The cultural activity planned for us on Friday was the Lladró factory. If you are like I was when I first heard it, then that meant nothing to you. If you are my grandma's age or have a glass figurine fetish, then you just got really excited maybe. Lladró is a supposedly really famous Spanish porcelain company and the factory is in Valencia. So we went to see how it's made with one of the FSU professors.


Personally, I am not one to go nuts over glass figures. I was actually more amazed at the fact that the majority of the figures in the show room were just out in the open. . . not protected by any glass or plastic casing. SUPER pricey porcelain pieces just right there for you to touch or bump into. I guess they don't get a lot of elementary schools touring the porcelain factory. These were a few of the figures I liked best.




Booty shot





The sorority girl in me had to.




Winnie the pooh made the cut!



The coolest part was seeing how they actually made them, but we were not allowed to take pictures of that part...(for those of you planning to steal Lladró's secret porcelain molding, painting, and glazing methods.)

I had a deeper appreciation for some figures (like the one below) after seeing how they were made. Each flower on the dress is hand made...by hands...a lady sits there with little tools and pinches them into shape...with her hands.


Each petal ...of each flower. . . BY HAND.


These girls I also liked. Each finger is made in its own mold then glued on.


Alright, that's enough glass. I took pictures of a lot more figures...cause I felt like I should...so if you're into that sort of thing I can email them to you.
While, yes, we did enjoy the porcelain tour...it didn't take us long to be over it.


Some of us waiting for others to finish porcelain shopping for their grandparents. Over it....but not saying it wasn't worth it.




Afterward, a small group of us went with the professor to get a special Valencian treat that I had not tried yet.


The drink is called Horchata. It is made from water, sugar, and tigernut (Note: this is not parts belonging to tiger). Sweet and delicious and served with a fartón (yes it is pronounced like you think) That's the name of the sweet bread there in the picture and yes, I giggled like a second grader when they told me the name.


Major sugar crash an hour later.




To make up for the senior citizen morning, Freddie, Kelly, Matt and I went to see a kid movie in Spanish at the cinema. Enredados (or Tangled for those of you not familiar with the movie advertisement below) has recently come out here in Spain. I cannot tell a lie. I had already seen it in the U.S. It was not what I expected. More of an actual kid movie...silly singing and not very funny like Shrek or Toy Story. But that didn't stop me from going again!




Found these after the movie and couldn't help ourselves
Kelly



Freddie



Matt



Walking back. Trying to talk to each other in Spanish. Trying to take a cool picture. But you can see my camera shadow.



Some graffiti shots on the way home. Lots of graffiti around Valencia. But here, it does not mean you are in a bad part of town. It is illegal...but I guess that doesn't mean much.





A lot of the graffiti paintings are on the back of shop doors like the one all the way to the left in the photo below. When this store or restaurant or club opens, you don't see the man...


but during the day or during siesta when it's closed, you have a drawing of a piano playing man to look at. This can sometimes make it difficult for you to recognize things or find a place you thought you saw before. You can also get a little lost or confused because during the day, restaurants will have chairs and tables set up outside...but when they close, the tables disappear, which changes the look of the whole plaza.





Kitty house/door



This is what we look for on restaurant doors. If hey have it, we can use our 7 euro cheque...basically we're on Spanish food stamps.



The cereal I eat every morning.


Chicken in the market.



Sunday I went to the beach with my Italian friend...so we went by vespa of course. Just a little ways outside of Valencia to a beach called Saler. Beautiful day. A few people on the beach playing with their dogs. Certainly not even close to bathing suit weather. In fact, I was the only one wearing flip flops. Most people were in boots or tennis shoes.


Spanish beaches appear to be mostly sand and rocks.



I think I spotted 4 seashells all day.



But my favorite part of the day was when the Italian left to go buy lunch. I started skipping rocks by myself, then thought it would be funny to have a self photo shoot. So I set my little camera up on the rocks and proceeded.




Also I just wanted to document how great I felt in that moment (which was just as wonderful and cheesy as these pictures look)...not knowing anyone around me...just listening to my music and skipping rocks on the beach in Spain. I realized some of my favorite moments here have been when I was alone (i.e. climbing the cathedral the first week, Paris death train ride, meeting new people, etc.)

This was a good realization to have since hours later, once I was home, I got an email from the Italian saying we could no longer hang out. Basically, he wanted more than to be "just friends" like I requested the first time we met. So "ya está." That's done. I will just have to go back to public transportation like everyone else.