In Valencia there is a museum complex called the Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias, which is made up of a bunch of different buildings. We went to the Oceanografic, which is a aquarium with sections representing different oceanic regions. It was pretty good, and relaxing. The ticket was expensive though, and we might have just said "screw it," but we'd already agreed that we weren't going to walk all the way there just to turn around because of the price. There was an IMax theater too, and a ticket for a show was only 2 euros on top of our aquarium ticket, so we got that too. While we were looking at some fish or something, we heard a big crowd clapping and chanting, so we checked it out and found that a dolphin show was starting soon, so we sat and watched that. It was pretty cool too.
Once we finished our tour of the ocean, we went across the street to eat. We found a McDonalds and figured it was the cheapest we could find, so we ate there. Then we went back to L'Hemesferic (spelling?) to watch something about big ocean creatures. They actually started the wrong show at first, which was a similar one about big flying creatures. As it turned out, it was basically a National Geographic tv show in which they made up CG underwater dinosaurs based on bones. I didn't really pay much attention, for reasons I'll get to, but it was 3D and (using some, but not all, of the dome-screen). They provided these absolutely rediculous "headphone" things for english, and only one of ours worked, so I let Christian use it and I fell asleep, so I didn't see most of the show, and the rest I only heard in spanish.
We trekked back to our room to sleep, and I slept very well. In the morning we got up late and packed up to check out. Then we went out into the city to find a supermarket. We were going to ask the Hostel desk, but it was incredibly busy and we didn't remember to ask until we had left, so we decided to just find one ourselves. I tried to use a clever method of scoping out the general direction of stores by looking for people with bags of groceries, but that didn't really point us anywhere and in the end we found a bug grocery store just by luck.
Then we walked back to the train station, where there was plenty of internet, but I didn't upload any updates or pictures. We found power outlets to charge stuff, so I transferred pictures from Christian's camera. We had a snack/lunch of uncooked cheese and spinach tortellini. Yum!
Now We're going to Madrid...again...on a fancy hgih-speed train with power outlets, so I figured I'd typre this out while I charged my compy. This will be our third time at the Madrid train station, and hopefully our last. We'll get on our expensive train to Paris later this evening and sleep in beds all the way there. Once we get there though, who knows where we'll go next. With luck we'll find some way to get to the obscure German town we want to get to before the evening of the 20th. If not, we'll probably just do more of the same, but in new cities. We have to be sure not to get stuck anywhere though, because we are getting close to the end of the trip and need to be in Zurich in a little more than a week. How time flies when you are running around, lost, having a confusing but fun time.
(And now I'm posting this from Madrid! I intended to upload some pictures, but the uploader is going far too slow here, but we've got some nice night shots from Lisbon and pictures from the aquarium and other parts of Valencia)
