A Weekend in Valencia.
This is a piece I wrote a while ago, back when I thought I would keep this little blog alive for longer than a week. Enjoy!
I arrived in Madrid on September 29th. I gave myself two weeks to settle in before packing my backpack and heading to Valencia for the weekend of October 13th.
The thing I love about traveling in Europe is that everything is so affordable. I have a metro card that lets me travel around the entirety of Madrid for 8 euro a month. My hostel and train ticket combined was 120 euro. I feel rich!
Jenny and I arrived in Valencia at around 10:00am, and took the metro to our hostel. Another thing I love about Europe: the public transportation is amazing.
We exited the metro and popped into a beautiful, sprawling park that led us right to our hostel. We arrived just as the free walking tour began – score. Free walking tours are my favorite. (Though a piece of advice, or rather a warning: they usually expect a tip at the end because is anything in life really free? No. I pay 10 euro on average).
On the walking tour, we explored the old town (there’s always an old town) and learned about all of the empires that have passed through Valencia, taking in the influences of each regime through architecture and art. Another thing I love about Europe: there is so much history. You can see Gothic, Roman, Islamic, and German influences all in the same building and nobody bats an eye. The United States could never.
We saw the narrowest apartment building in Europe, the oldest psychiatric unit (in the world? Someone fact check me on that), a beautiful cathedral, the building of the old silk exchange, and so much more.
Then, we hit the beach. My first time back in the Mediterranean since studying in Cyprus. The sand was fine and the water was warm and I was content.
At our hostel-sponsored dinner, we made friends with two lovely girls who we danced the night away with. Something I love about hostels is that you can strike up a conversation and be on a road trip or at the club together 30 minutes later.
Honestly, I used to be terrified of hostels. My first hostel experience was horrendous: smelly pillows, snoring men, no fresh towels, the list goes on. I have learned over my travels, however, that if you do proper research, hostel life can be incredible. I’ve met so many amazing people from so many different cultures in hostels, which is something that you don’t get from an AirBnb!
Anyway, after a night of dancing, Jenny and I woke up the next morning ready to take on the rest of Valencia. We wandered through the sprawling park, ending up at the arts and sciences museum, which seriously looks straight out of Star Wars, or maybe the Sydney Opera House.
We were ravished upon return, so we went to a world-famous paella restaurant, ordering enough to feed a small family. Traditional Valencian paella is probably not the kind you have pictured in your head. While popular varieties of paella include loads of seafood, Valencian paella consists of chicken and rabbit.
We got affogato after to recover from the paella-induced food coma, and then I parted ways ways Jenny and our new friend and visited the fine arts museum. Pero no pasa nada, I love going to museums by myself.
There was a limited time Sorolla exhibit when I visited, so it was my lucky day. Sorolla was an unfamiliar name to me, but I quickly learned that he is a well-renowned Spanish Impressionist painter, known for his vivid depictions of life in his small town and at the beach.
The permanent instillations were fantastic as well. I’m not the biggest fan of old religious artwork, so I quickly skipped over that section. After meandering through some fairly impressive works, one painting in particular stopped me in my tracks.
It was a work by Degrain, another Spanish impressionist painter. One of my favorite things about museums is stumbling across a piece that completely captivates me. That’s exactly what this painting did.
I walked back to the hostel during a blissful sunset, and ended the trip by sharing a bottle of wine with my new friends. There is so much more to see, but this was an amazing start.
Hasta pronto!
Molly
