The first time I was in the car as we drove through downtown Madrid, I was amazed at a huge, beautiful, intricately carved white building in one of the plazas. I asked what it was, expecting it to be a palace or monument of some sort. I couldn’t but laugh at the answer: “Oh, I think it used to be an old post office or something.”
That was just the beginning of the experience of history during an American´s first month in Europe. During a guided tour in Valencia, we would walk by summer houses of the royal families, that are now just one more building on the side of the street. We climbed up the staircases of the main gate into the ancient city, which is — as we´d say where I come from — a legit castle. We stood by a fountain that is above the ancient Roman ruins from the founding of Valencia in 138 BC. (I remember learning in history class that that means before Christ…)
Being outside of my culture also makes me appreciate many of the values on which my country was founded, but walking in a history book as ancient and as rich as this one is breathtaking.
