Week 3: Learning the History of Catalunya, Valencia & Tarragona

This week has been full of learning about Catalunya's history, including visiting the Museum of the History of Catalunya and later having class excursions to Valencia and Tarragona to observe more linguistic differences and learn about their culture. 

In the picture below, you can see some artifacts that I was able to view in the museum of tools that people used in the past in Catalunya. The museum had a plethora of facts as it went way back to the prehistoric era to modern times, providing us with so much information to see and learn about Catalunya. 

Another very interesting Catalan tradition I was able to witness was the human towers. There was a local exhibition in a plaza that I was walking by and I witnessed the people coming together as a community to create a tower. There is traditional music playing in the background which I learned is what they use as their “eyes” since the people at the bottom cannot see when the tower is complete. It was nice to see the local community in the very touristy city of Barcelona. 

Later in the week, I visited Valencia as part of the class excursion where we took a city tour. This is a government building pictured below with the symbol of a bat in the middle of the building above the flags.

In Valencia, I was able to visit the cathedral, try traditional Paella, and visit the largest aquarium in Europe! The aquarium was huge and had many species of animals from crocodiles, flamingos, penguins, and sharks. 

On our way back from Valencia, we took a stop at Tarragona where we learned about the Roman influence and ruins in the city. Here you can see the remains of the amphitheater. Throughout the city, there are ruins integrated into the buildings and home structures throughout the city. 

Overall, I enjoyed learning more about the history of Spain and how it influences life today!