Exploration!

Hola! Last night we had a scavenger hunt throughout the center of the city which is the older part of Valencia. There was a beautiful cathedral and some beautiful fountains. There was also this really cool marketplace. I definitely have to return to explore all the cute little shops in the plazas or cobblestone side streets. Some of the building are so ornate and beautiful. I'll have to take pics next time. At the end we all had horchata which is this really sweet ice cold drink that is soooo delicious!
Today, Jenna and I went running to the beach. It was a pretty decent run, through the park and city, that was about 3 miles each way. The beaches are amazing! But, since it's winter here, they were pretty abandoned with only some random walkers or people sitting on the beach reading. It was my first time seeing the Mediterranean Sea! And I think the water's not even as cold as Maine in the summer. It was a beautiful day. Hace mucho sol. And it had to be in the mid 60s with the sun shining on us. Everyone else was wearing thick winter coats and scarves though! It's a holiday so none of the stores are open and most people have the day off. So many of them were out walking! Running here was an interesting experience. I wore a t-shirt and shorts (it's hot!) and Jenna wore a tank top and shorts. People would stare at us in shock because we weren't all bundled up. One old woman even stopped us and asked if we were cold. And mom, we finally found the macchismo. We had guys yelling at us as we passed them. But...they were all old men. Probably the same that yelled at you many years ago. Hahaha. I think it really is a generational thing. When Franco staged a military coup in mid 1930's, he took away many women's rights, resulting in "macchismo", or cocky men yelling dirty things at the women who would pass them in the streets. People who grew up in that generation probably continued that sentiment, whereas today's youth have grown up in a democracy where Franco is infamous and his ideals are wrong.
Today I went for a walk in the park with a few people. We stopped in the skate park where tons of people had gathered. There were families teaching their kids to rollerblade, kids doing jumps on their bikes, kids throwing tires at each other while on bikes (Don't know why), and a bunch of kids break dancing. It was a really cool (spanish word for cool = guay) atmosphere. After that we took a walk down past the science museum to this HUGE bridge. Everything was all lit up and it looked really neat (see above, and look at almost invisible Jenna standing next to the insanely tall bridge).
Also. something really funny that I've noticed here is the music. For the most part, it's not even Spanish. On the news, in grocery stores, restaurants, in the park, for the most part they're random English songs, mostly from the 90s. The dancing kids in the park were listening to old rap songs, like "It takes Two" and "Insane in the Membrane". It's so weird! We know the words to their music better than them!