Yesterday afternoon ESDES took a group of students to Oceanográfica, a big aquarium in Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences. It's also the largest aquarium in Europe with several buildings, a shark tunnel, and a dolphin show.
We arrived and began our tour just before four, and since it was a weekday we nearly had the whole place to ourselves. The aquarium is set up in a series of buildings, organized by region: Arctic, Mediterranean, Red Sea (Mar Rojo), Dead Sea (Mar Muerto), and Wetlands. All the tanks and exhibitions are underground and the aquarium has two tunnels, a shark tunnel and a Mediterranean tunnel. They even have a "come sleep with the sharks" night for kids where you can bring your sleeping bag and stay on the floor in the shark tunnel.
At four thirty everyone went to the dolphin show which was pretty cool. It was sort of like a smaller version of Seaworld, except the voiceover was in Spanish and told a story about the dolphins and how they became friends with the humans. At least I think that's what they were talking about. After that we had only an hour before the aquarium closed so we hurried off to see the Arctic. Sadly, the walruses were not "home," but we did get to see belugas and penguins.
We arrived and began our tour just before four, and since it was a weekday we nearly had the whole place to ourselves. The aquarium is set up in a series of buildings, organized by region: Arctic, Mediterranean, Red Sea (Mar Rojo), Dead Sea (Mar Muerto), and Wetlands. All the tanks and exhibitions are underground and the aquarium has two tunnels, a shark tunnel and a Mediterranean tunnel. They even have a "come sleep with the sharks" night for kids where you can bring your sleeping bag and stay on the floor in the shark tunnel.
At four thirty everyone went to the dolphin show which was pretty cool. It was sort of like a smaller version of Seaworld, except the voiceover was in Spanish and told a story about the dolphins and how they became friends with the humans. At least I think that's what they were talking about. After that we had only an hour before the aquarium closed so we hurried off to see the Arctic. Sadly, the walruses were not "home," but we did get to see belugas and penguins.
We had about three hours until the bus came back to pick everyone up, so a group of us decided to walk around through the City of Arts and Science since none of us have spent too much time there. All the buildings are very cool, and include an opera house, Imax building, science museum, and more. As the sun began to set, we walked over to a mall where rebajas were in full swing and the sales were reaching 70% off in some stores. Justin, Shannon, Hannah and Ryan got Lemongrass (Thai food) while I grabbed a kebab and then we headed off our own ways for a little shopping. Justin ended up getting some new shoes on sale which was a great purchase. After walking around every single day for three weeks on Christmas break, you see why everyone tells you that when you go to Europe, take good walking shoes.
After shopping we returned to the science area to see everything at night, and since it was a balmy 65º in Valencia, we were not rushed to return to the warmth of the bus. The afternoon was a great break from Sagunto and we had a wonderful time seeing Valencia and spending time together outside of school.
After shopping we returned to the science area to see everything at night, and since it was a balmy 65º in Valencia, we were not rushed to return to the warmth of the bus. The afternoon was a great break from Sagunto and we had a wonderful time seeing Valencia and spending time together outside of school.
