September 2, 2012: Exploration

Finally got my first full night of sleep last night! What a refreshing feeling after almost a week of 4 hour nights. With all the extra energy I stumbled upon this morning, I decided to grab a Valenbisi bike and head downtown. It's incredible how conveniently close everything is via bike and very accessible with bike paths throughout the entire city. 

One of my favorite things to do in an unfamiliar city is walk around aimlessly, taking random turns, until I come across something familiar. I spent my morning wandering through Valencia's local streets where tourists don't usually roam. It made for a very authentic experience!

Towards the end of my journey, I found "Jardin del Turia", which is the park that surrounds the downtown area of the city and serves as a border to the outer suburbs of Valencia (where I live and go to school). It used be a river back in the 1950s until it destroyed the city. They turned it into a park with football fields, playgrounds, bike paths to serve as the largest park in Valencia. 

After visiting here awhile, I took a bike back to my apartment, all before 11am. Later in the day, I spent time at the beach with my new friends Martin and Philip (who are from Germany). They are also studying at UPV and have a great flat near the campus! We had a great time exchanging our different cultures, economies, languages, to name a few things!

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