Adventures in Spain: Valencia Bucket List

Hola Todos!

As this is my final week in Valencia, I decided to make a list of all the things I still want to do before leaving. Among other things, my list includes: visit the cathedral, ride the Ferris wheel by the beach, and see a bull fight. I can now say I have done all three!

Monday after work I visited Valencia's Cathedral. The cathedral is very beautiful from the inside, with elements of the renaissance, gothic, and baroque periods included in the construction. By now I'm sure you're tired of reading about all the cathedrals, so I won't go into too much detail on this one, although there are a few elements of Valencia's cathedral that are worth noting. The first, I was already aware of, while the second was a strange surprise. First, Valencia's Cathedral claims to house the holy grail, as in the actual goblet Jesus and his disciples drank from at the last supper. I say claim because, much like Christopher Columbus's body, multiple claims have been made as to who has the real one (unlike his body though, you can't just do a DNA test to authenticate it). According to the cathedral, the cup was taken to Rome by Saint Peter and later to Spain to keep it safe from people persecuting Christians. The cup itself is from somewhere in the orient. Real or not, its fun to say "I (may have) saw the holy grail!" Second, Valencia's cathedral houses the intact hand of Saint Vincent the Martyr. They have the actual, preserved hand of a Christian martyr on display. When I first saw it I thought it was a black glove, until my audio guide informed me that it was in fact a human hand. Weird, but kind of cool, and definitely not something I saw in any of the previous cathedrals. Aside for those two things, the cathedral also had two Goya paintings. Visit the Cathedral: check.

Yesterday was my last beach day, so it was my last chance to ride the Ferris Wheel. KC and I got to the beach around 3:30 and before settling into the sand, we got lunch, and after we walked over to the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel is located between the beach and the ship port. We were also the only two people on the ride when we went on, so we got two rotations and they stopped us at the top so we could take some pictures, which I'll include below. As expected, the view from the top was incredible! I could see the down the beach, out to sea, all of the ship port, into the city, and even buildings from the city of arts and science! It was a good way to kick of a not so good last beach day (we got caught in the only thunderstorm we've had this entire trip). Ride the Ferris wheel at the beach: check.

My apartment is about a three minute walk from the plaza del toros, where bull fights, as well as concerts and other events, are held. For Fiera del Julio, there are bull fights scheduled all week and through the weekend, so KC and I decided to go as a see one on Wednesday night. The fights started at 10, and from my understanding can often last upwards of three hours. We didn't arrive until closer to 11 and we only stayed for about an hour-- two bull fights. It was definitely an experience, but its not one I think I'll ever have again. For one, I was nervous the entire time. Even though I know the matadors are trained and professionals, I was afraid the bull was going to gore one of them. This never happened, but I still spent the entire hour on the edge of my seat out of nervous energy. I also didn't particularly like the sport itself. It was cool watching the matadors twirl their capes in showy, swooping motions while the bulls ran at them, but once they started stabbing the bulls with the stakes and finally the sward, I felt bad for the bull. First, a few guys with big pink capes came out and would taunt the bull into running at them to tire it out. Then, two or three guys with colorful stakes came out and stabbed the bull while the first guys kept it distracted with the capes. All this made the bull angry, tired, and in pain. Finally, the matador came out with a smaller red cape and, after taunting the bull some more for show, he stabbed a long sward all the way into the bulls back at an angle. If this wasn't bad enough, they then kept taunting the bull, making it run around, and poking and stabbing it with knives as it was in pain and dying. Basically what you are watching is an animal being tortured and killed, and though I'm certainly not a member of PETA, it felt cruel. The experience reminded me of a book my dad used to read to when Tate, Bret, and I were younger, Ferdinand the Bull. Ferdinand was a big, strong bull, but he liked to smell the flowers, not fight. Watching the fights made me with more bulls (and people, frankly) were like Ferdinand. See a bull fight: check.