Mmm.. some sun finally !

I've just spent 4 days in Valencia (Spain), and it felt really good to have a sunny and hot weather again. It finally felt like summer. Paris has been such a rainy , dull and cold city lately that everyone was looking depressed. Actually, while I was in Spain, sun came back to Paris for the weekend (and it was our National Holiday, 14th July), so everyone was out and people look better again despite a rainy beginning of the week again, but with 25°C it's always better.
So anyways, apart from these weathery conditions, Valencia was a really nice break away from my ever so busy life of Paris. I spent 4 days doing amost nothing :) That's life !
I was staying at a friend's place just by the beach Malvarosa. I didn't see much of him unfortunately as he was working during the day and was away for the weekend, but we spent 2 nice evenings out by the seaside. From where I was to the port it was a nice little 2-3 km walk I believe. Very easy to do by evening time with the wind cooling the air. There was a market with more or less artisanal stuff. At the end of the beach the port, which hosted the 32nd America's Cup, was not completely deserted, as the competition was just over after Alinghi's victory again. The buildings by the port where quite original and nice. I'm not good in architecture and building times so I couldn't tell which period it is, but I liked it. Also because I like watching ships. The centre of Valencia is also very nice. Some medieval buildings look great. It's the old historical centre, while the rest of the town is quite like any big town, dusty and grey. The plaza de Toros holds the kind of arena where they do bullfighting (Corrida). In Valencia there are some Corridas in March and July. But I didn't go to see one. And next to the arena there is the Estacion del Norte (not sure about the spelling), which is the main train station. The style is cool, like 1920's I believe. and the hall in front of the railroads (??? couldn't find the right word) is huge !!!
So except from spending lots of time by the beach, and in the warm but not so clear sea, I visited a bit the center and also the very impressive Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciences (still, my Spanish is so bad, so ...). It's a huge complex in the old river bed with huge buildings that host 2 museums, an IMax theatre, an oceanografic parc and more. The old river bed has been arranged in a really nice way with gardens that look kind of paradisiac ( well, yeah, I can't really resist to the charms of a palmtree :) ). I went to see a film at the Hemispheric which holds the IMax theatre. 'twas nice. But I was clearly more impressed by the oceanographic parc. I'd been to several aquariums and parcs like sea world, but these guys can compete with them. They really have a good variety of species and good presentation. Despite 2 'attractions' which are only in spanish the rest is also in english, like the Dolphin show. I had thought it would be a little show with classical stuff, but I was actually amazed at what they did, so I did give up taking pictures to really enjoy what I was looking at. And it was worth it. I did also make quite some tests on fish picture taking with my new camera and I like it :)

Ok, that's all for now. Lots more to tell, but I'll put up a few pictures first.