We experienced a couple of small dramas and work deadlines which delayed by a week the writing of this post, but I'm finally here and there is quite a lot to say about València, so let's go back to the beginning...
Because of the Low Emission Zone restrictions, we left Barcelona early for our drive to València. Or tried to… Carrying all the gear down the stairs took longer than planned and we were still in the eco-zone at 7:15 instead of the 7am limit so we might as well have left in the afternoon. So total failure with the LEZ planning again. Neeeever mind! The journey was smooth. València is the third largest in Spain with a bit less than half inhabitants than Barcelona (still 790,000), and has a reputation for being a chilled out version of Barcelona. Our first rush of feelings about the city, however, can be summed up as ADRENALINE:
Lane shifting and Turia Gardens
To set the scene, one of the greatest things about València is the ginormous Turia gardens which run 9km from the beach and through the middle of València. They used to be a river, which was diverted to the South following a big flood of the city in 1959 which caused significant damage. The gardens are thus below road level. Since they go through the city, there are 18 bridges allowing cars to cross over.
Those bridges have between 2 to 4 car lanes (usually 4 becoming 2 by the end of each bridge). The gardens are bordered by two very large avenues, which have between 5 and 8 car lanes as per the GPS picture (usually 5 becoming 8 becoming 2 becoming 4 every 200 metres), plus one cycling lane on the left and one taxi-bus lane on the right (which also sometimes disappear and reappear magically within 200 metres). We arrived in the middle of the morning rush hour coming from the North east, crossing a bridge to go South West with a car that has a wheel on the "wrong side" and blind spot on the left… and you get the drift.
We made it through amazing team work, me taking the role of slightly-hysterical-talking-left-rearview-mirror and Chief-Insult-Dispenser at local drivers sneaking into our lane at twice the speed limit, and Cuong of Superfast-Lane-Shifter and I-Give-Zero-Shit-Master by burning a few popping red light "since all locals are doing it". Thankfully our next Airbnb was in the Old town which is only accessible to residents, so with the help of our landlady who registered our car, we were able to veer into this much quieter area. The lack of cars in the Old town is actually what makes it so pleasant to wander about on foot.
Once settled, we were able to fully take in the beauty of the city. One my current life goal being to enjoy Didi’s twilight years by being fully present in our morning walks, I was lucky to spend hours and hours in the Turia gardens with her. The gardens also helped Didi get over the tragic death of her beloved grass bed in Barcelona. From the Turia Gardens, you can’t hear the cars at all since you stay at river bed level. Inspired urban planners and landscapists designed different sections of the park in the 80s and now when you walk, you are among palm trees, then orange trees, fountains and pine woods, aromatic plants and ponds, football pitches, gym equipment and rose beds. Each of the 18 bridges looks different.
These gardens truly are an amazing tribute to what mankind can do when it sets about creating rather than destroying!
Next to the African savannah Bioparc section and the mouth of the river-gardens, is the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences. It has featured in several Sci-Fis and shows including Dr Who.
The Old Town
As we had been told (thank you Greg and Ana!) , València indeed is a more open, calmer, but as great as Barcelona. It gives an impression of space, sun, and I could swear people walk slower and smile more. It may be because we came out of season, but we saw very few tourists and lots of locals of all ages enjoying chats sitting at tables outside cafés.
Each walk in the city leads to discover a new café, bar, restaurant, funky shop, or mighty old building, so there is no need to plan to find crazy things, serendipity is the best rule to follow here. Here are just some of the old stones that happened to be within 15mn walk from our flat:
We also enjoyed a gig by the uber cool Eli Degibri quartet at the very cozy Jimmy Glass Jazz bar a few minutes from home. These guys are quite famous, if you like this style of music, here are a few notes!
Cabanyal area
The city is divided in several quarters, including a sort of ugly estate, a lively university quarter, a Rococo bourgeois quarter etc, but we focused on our two favourites: the Old town around our flat, and we took a trip to a beach quarter Cabanyal. Cabanyal is all about Spanish looking old houses which the City Council is thinking about knocking down before they fall apart, so many people were asked to move out. However, the Council put its plans on hold for a while, so the area has a sort of Spaghetti Western feel, mostly empty and with odd tiled houses and building, a few tapas bars, and a huuuuuuge beach (takes 10 minutes to walk to the water if you start from the road) that stretches for kilometres. The vibe reminded me of Algeria and Cuong of Vietnam, so we both really enjoyed it. What gives the buildings a very Spanish look are all the different tiles decorating them. We also found these in a nearby natural reserve where the famous and elusive Valèncian Paella rice is being grown, which also has the same vibe. I say elusive because it seems it is easier to find a place to eat a Punjabi vegan potato soufflé in València than a Paella Valènciana (essentially a Paella but with Chicken and Rabbit) ! Didi doesn’t care about either soufflés or paella, she is just obsessed about Fuet, a 2 euro dry pork sausage which you can find everywhere and that we end up nibbling from as well.
FALLES party month
The Spanish and Valencians, of course, love a good party. The biggest one of the year in València is called the Falles. It's basically a series of massive events in the city over several weeks. We happened to be right in the middle of them, in a flat located right in the middle of the festivities, and they get LOUD! They are about women walking about town in tradditional costumes with beautiful intricate hairdoes, erection of huge statues with satyrical, cartoonish or lewds themes, some singing, bands, fires, fireworks, very very loud crackers exploded until late in the nite by kids, and these daily 2pm events called Mascletas.
Mascletas are pyrotenics show all about noise and colours in the central square, you can hear them from miles. The finale of Mascletas make the whole street and your body tremble from the vibrations. On the last day of the Falles, the giant statues are all burn in giant fires, except one elected the best each year, which is preserved in the Falles museum with its predecessors...
Dramas!
The Polo was towed away 😫
Since our friend Samuel came to visit, aside of walking, shopping in the market and eating out, we ended up going to a nightclub together. At 3am, we decided to head back. This is WAYYYYY past what we can normally handle but people still looked at us funny when we tried to get our coats since we were the only people in a massive queue for the cloackroom that were not just arriving! This turned out to be a great idea though because Cuong noticed we were near the street where we had parked the Polo in a free spot for a couple of weeks, so we thought we should check out it was still ok.
Well it wasn’t, or rather, it wasn’t.. there. After a little stressful floaty moment (but who would want to steal an old knackered Polo défoncée??) we found a new sign saying that cars parked between the day before and after would be towed if parked in this spot, due to a concert for the Falles (Which wasn't even that good as we found out!). So a few hours later, we talked to the police and eventually found out our car had been towed. They said there would be a sticker on the floor where the car had been parked. So we went backand found the stickers (and many others, we were not the only ones!). After googling, we found out being towed is a fairly common occurrence here, and we were expecting to pay 160 euros. Samuel helped us find the towing company, which were closed because of the Fallas. Next day, Samuel had gone home so we called again and in broken Spanish, sort of understood that we should pick it up from a random street 30 minutes walk away from the original parking spot…. We went and found it. València police and towing company were super nice because it didn't cost us a penny!
Our Airbnb flat got flooded 🙄
At 1am two days before our departure, Cuong and I were suddently woken up by a weird water shooting noise (in the midst of Falles firecrakers that we had finally gotten used to). We leapt out of the bed and paddled in a few inches of water on the floor for a few minutes until we managed to locate the source of the shooting water, which was a burst pipe under sink.
We found the stopcock and Cuong rushed to unplug all the electrics, just receiving a small electric shock unplugging my hairdryer. The water was just a few milimetres from reaching the multiplug for all our computer plugs. Regardless of how close we were to losing our laptops, we might have been electrocuted! We survived, but my hairdryer and straighteners didn't. The nice Airbnb lady reimbursed me for buying new ones, so all ended well! Still, we were relieved to leave this flat which looked lovely on pictures but was rather small, had humidity issues and a temperamental hob and heater aside of dodgy pipes.
Lesson learnt from our experience to protect our back against future liabilities and panics:
When arriving in a new Airbnb, add "check location of water stopcock" to:
check the location of the fuse box
check the location of the gas valve, if any
check the solidity of curtain rails
check that the boiler is working and its pressure gauge, and take a picture
check for a broken or chipped kitchen hob, and take a picture
check for broken anything, and take pictures!
PS 1: Didi did not even wake up and was snoring blissfully during the hour and a half it took us to mop up the floor, her bed was somehow in a small dry island the water had not yet reached!
PS 2: We have a slight suspicion that the 3 very jolly Spanish dudes dressed up as Mexicans going down the stairs (just as we opened the door to try and find out if our neighbours had been flooded as well) may have put a firecracker in the drains, which led to the pipe bursting!
All in all..
While Cuong worked like an absolute lunatic (aside of the daily very long hours, he did two all-nighters stuck to his screen) to keep to his unreasonable standards of perfection, I enjoyed mulling over this quote at our local gym while working out our excess of Churros and nice meals, trying to decide whether I love or hate it :
València is without a doubt one of the most pleasant cities in the world to live in. Lots of things to do for all tastes, chilled but dynamic vibe, different areas for different tastes and means, mix of old and modern, and a half decent and clean beach. I'd definitely pick it over Cambridge, but we're looking for a more holiday feel to share our time between the UK and the continent, so next, we're heading to the small town of Dénia for March, just 1h30 south from València. I'll spare you more graffiti pics here but I have a huge collection of just as many mad ones taken in Valencia than those in Barcelona. Instead, I'll leave you with some foodie and Didi pics.
More in a month!
*--*
Comments