I actually saw an opera in the Valencia Opera House!
The actual time I was speaking was quite short, so I found myself in Valencia for the better part of a week with nothing to do. The last two times I was here I was speaking at a conference and attending the Grand Prix of Europe. This time I blissfully found myself with nothing to do. I’ve been spending the last few days walking around the old city, eating at many of the cafes and kebob stands and just soaking up the nice autumn weather.
I did get do finally do something I’ve always wanted to do: I got to see an actual opera in the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía aka the Valenica Opera House. In case you’ve never seen it, the Valencia Opera House is one of the most spectacular structures in the world. It should be as familiar to the world as the Sydney Opera House and it is a shame that it isn’t. I had listed it back in 2010 as my 2nd favorite building in the world!
It was actually the first time I had ever attended a live opera. I have been to the symphony dozens of times, but never the o pera. The opera company was performing Rigoletto and it was actually quite good, even though the intermissions were far to long. Just to give you an example, the first act was 15 minutes followed by a 30 minute intermission. All of the seats also had LED monitors which provided a translation into many different languages, including English, which was quite helpful.
I’ll be here for 2 more days before heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia where I’ll be speaking at the G Adventures Future of Tourism event. Admission is free but space is limited. They always seem to sell these events out so register now!
After that I’ll be flying back to Spain where I’ll be speaking at the Digital Tourism Think Tank on the Yahoo! campus in Barcelona.
After Barcelona I’m back in the US for the rest of December for the holidays where I’ll be working and catching up on things before heading out again in January.
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This week is Antarctica week on the G Adventures blog. I will be sharing stories from my trip to Antarctica, South Georgia Island and the Falkland Islands. We will also have a special announcement soon about my new Antarctica photography ebook! I just got a copy of it today and it is sitting on my iPad. If I do say so myself, it is looking good!
Links
- World Changing Ideas 2012 Scientific American
- Bad Manners in China Facts and Details
- How the Ancient Cities of Uzbekistan Are Reviving the Dying Art of Carpet-Making WSJ
- Scotland’s independence debate lacks seriousness John Kay
- Jordan is not about to collapse Foreign Policy
- Researchers develop new protocol that boosts WiFi performance by 700% The Next Web
- Eat at a food truck and the terrorists win TechDirt
- Why aren’t we all using Japanese toilets? Priceonomics
- Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, real-world speeds at 700Mbps Arstechnica
