Lucky?

Either Spain has a lot of fiestas or I am expecially prone to hitting them. I think it´s a little of both.

Now I am in Valencia and I´ve landed smack dab in the middle of their fiesta for Valencian Independence. This is the fifth holiday/fiesta I have managed to find in Spain and Portugal.

For the fiesta, there was a parade of sorts this morning, more of a procession really, with I think the various different politcal parties for Castilla. There is a huge seperatist movement here in Valencia they want their own language back and to be separated from spain. There was a large group of protesters near us booing the procession and lots of clapping and "Viva Valencia!" from the older people in the crowd. It was quite the experience, I´m not sure exactly what was going on but there were lots of police with guns protecting some very well dressed people who I assume are important political officials. There seems to be a huge post-franco movement towards regionalism in spain. It´s very interesting.

I´m also not really in tune to how the events of the fiesta work they seem to be small and isolated and the whole town just moves as one large mob from event to event. A french girl and I were just following the crowd to various different events and we kept arriving at the very end and by the time we got there the crowd would be going back the other direction. Just now they have set up rows of plastic chairs all along the streets and people are starting to get their seats so I assume there is more to come. Luckily my hostel has balconies overlooking the street so I am hoping I can just watch it from here.

I´m in valencia two more days. It´s a great relaxing town and feels very safe. It´s a great place to decompress a bit.

As a quick update for the rest of my time in Madrid. The city impressed me a lot more the second time around. My spanish has improved to the point that I can get myself around fairly stress free. I can get the basic necessities, food and drink, pretty easily, provided there are no problems and no one tries to strike up a conversation with me, in which case my only response is "Lo Siento, No Entiendo". Anyhow, my improved knowledge of the spanish language and systems made madrid much more enjoyable. The prado was amazing and I met some family friends in the small town of Alcala about 30 minutes out of Madrid. It´s the birthplace of Crevantes (author of Don Quiote) And every year they have a huge medieval fair to celebrate his birth. It was really cool, especially since the town itself is very medieval.

Well, that´s all I´ll write for now. Tomorrow I will head to the center for arts and sciences here in valencia. A complex designed by Calatrava so get ready for another blog about architecture tomorrow.