Peñíscola: Castillo, Playa y Tormenta

Great news! I am officially done with all school work and I still have 3 days of fun left of the trip! We had our final exam for the language class on Friday and I finished all culture projects and volunteering reflections yesterday, so FREEDOM!!! We are leaving Valencia in a couple hours to embark on the 4 hour journey from the coast back to Madrid for Sunday night, Monday, and Tuesday morning before we hop on a plane to come back to the States. Although I loved every second of this Spanish adventure, I can say that I am satisfied with my time here and am ready to go back to the land of salad, air conditioning and large iced coffee.

Before I launch into the break down of our day trip to Peñíscola on Saturday, I want to quickly mention el Mercat Central of Valencia, which is the third biggest market in Europe. We went after the test on Friday, which was the first opportunity we had since it is only open Monday-Friday until 1pm and we always had class. It is near the city center in an old Gothic-style enclosed building. They sell all sorts of fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, rice, pastries, etc. and I was in heaven.

OK so we have had this day trip to Peñíscola (pronounced pen-YEES-coh-lah) planned since the beginning, but no one knew just how short this "day" would be. We left Valencia at 10:30 am and were back  by 7, with a 2 hour drive there and back. The city is on a peninsula, and some say the name is a derivation from that. Others say that Pen is Valencian for almost, and Iscola is Iceland, so apparently way back when, someone saw some comparisons to Iceland and named it "Almost Iceland." I don't get it. 

When we got there, we walked up a huge hill that had amazing views of the city. The destination of this walk is a castle (castillo) at the top of the hill, which is the highest point of the city. There is a "famous" (I've never heard of it) moving filmed there called El Cid. I think we're going to watch it on the bus to Madrid today. 

The castle was pretty cool, but we were mostly just excited to take pictures with the awesome backdrop. We were probably up there for an hour just taking pictures of each other on different sides of the castle, from different angles in various groupings. It was great. 

After the castle tour, we were all planning to go to the beach, since the water was crystal clear and it was super hot out. As we descended the castle hill, our tour guide led us to a secluded part of the beach known for cliff jumping. We didn't think he was serious, because it was totally out of nowhere and we hadn't talked about it at all. But within minutes we all stripped down to our bathing suits and jumped the 20ish feet (7 meters) into the Mediterranean. IT WAS AWESOME! The water was so warm and salty so it was easy to float. Not like Dead Sea level of salty, but close. There was a storm (tormenta) coming in so we couldn't stay in the water for that long. We swam over to a lower part of the cliff and climbed out, but I scraped my leg on the barnacles on the way out. Nothing a little Neosporin can't fix! And now I have battle scars from an awesome day! 

Turns out the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plain. It falls on the beach. Our afternoon of sand and swim got cut short because of the most intense, but short-lived storm I've ever seen. It's also the only drop of rain we've seen in Spain at all. I stole this picture from my friend since I was too busy sprinting to the nearest shelter when this storm rolled in to take a picture. 

We split up and ate lunch in whatever indoor restaurants we could find. Then back on the bus for a drive in a dreary, wet haze. It was a quick trip, cut even shorter by the storm, but a really great day overall. 

Tomorrow in Madrid, we're scheduled to get a tour of the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) and have a nice goodbye dinner. It should be great! I'll be back in the States on Tuesday, then back in Maryland on Wednesday. Hope everyone is doing well! :)