Welcome back! It’s been a minute! I’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this post, but thankfully it’s all good times, in spite of some rainy days.
Last last Friday (2/28) I took the train into Madrid to go and pick up my first guest, Zach! Lots of lessons were learned in this seemingly simplistic journey. Pro tip: you need a Spanish youth card to buy youth tickets for the trains, you can’t just be in the “youth” age range. (Having a Spanish student ID will also not suffice to qualify you for this). Besides this, taking the train was a wonderful experience and we got some great views of the countryside along the way!
That evening, we walked down the Turia to the City of Arts and Sciences. It was so beautiful with all the lights creating reflections on the water. I remember so distinctly the awe and amazement I felt when I saw the collection of skeletal-looking buildings for the first time.
It’s so fun to get to relive those feelings by bringing others to see the impressive structures. Even later in the evening the place was crawling with people. After walking around for a while, enjoying the sights, we headed to dinner. Being the great host I am, we ended up getting a truly authentic Spanish dish, hamburgers.
The next day we pulled on our walking shoes and made our way into the old city! We wandered the old city, and ate churros at Valor (so delicious). From there, we climbed the Torres de Quart, which in the 1400s served as one of the major gates to the city. The Torres had been on my list for a while, so I was glad to get to check this one off with Zach!
We wandered through the nearby plazas for a while as well, wandering in and out of nearby shops and a cathedral. We eventually made our way over to one of my favorite hidden gems in the city- the University of Valencia Botanical Gardens!
There’s plants species from all over the world there, and stepping into the greenhouses almost feels like entering a whole other world. Massive palms encircle the walkways, really making you feel like you’re in the jungle. We spent a while wandering around the gardens before heading back to the Peset.
Upon our return, we played ping-pong in the game room until Casa Vani opened for dinner. Casa Vani is a SMALL tapas restaurant just around the corner from the Peset (whole restaurant probably seats about 16-20 people). “Tapas” are basically appetizers, but here in Spain, it’s also common to order a variety and eat them for a whole meal.
We ordered the patatas bravas (potatoes with sauce), meatballs, spanish omelette with salmon, sangria, and eventually another order of the patatas bravas. It was so. GOOD. Especially the patatas bravas. May be one of the best bites I’ve had in Spain so far. We also ordered a chocolate cake and ice cream situation for dessert, which was yummy, but I don’t think quite topped the joy brought by the churros. After dinner and a few more rounds of ping-pong in the game room, we headed to Finnegan’s, a favorite bar of our student group. It’s an Irish pub, especially beloved for its karaoke on Thursday nights. I haven’t gone yet, but karaoke at Fin’s certainly is a bucket list item for me.
At 11:45pm, the group packed up and made our way to the Plaza de Ayutamiento for the midnight castillos, which are basically fireworks, but with the volume turned up. I’ve never experienced anything in the States quite like the midday mascletas here, which are mainly sound, or even the castillos, which seem a lot more like traditional fireworks.
Right as the castillos ended, the sky started to let loose. Buses seemed hopeless, and so Zach and I bit the bullet and started to walk back.
It rained steadily as we journeyed through Valencia. Thankfully, neither of us melted, and we made it back still whole! An additional benefit to having guests was getting to escape Peset food for a while. The next day, Zach and I discovered a new brunch place which I think is demanding a return trip at some point. The pancake I ordered looked like something out of a magazine and was so fluffy!
From breakfast, we headed in to the old city and wandered through some little shops just a block from the Plaza de la Reina. That whole area is just filled with shop after shop of fun clothes and eclectic postcards. Zach and I also found a small market that had a few vendors selling t-shirts, jerseys, custom prints, and a woman doing tattoos. We both ended up getting some fun sunglasses while there!
That day we also stopped by the Catedral de Valencia. That’s the central cathedral that divides the Plaza de la Reina from the Plaza de la Virgen (about a 5 minute walk from where I live). We did the audio tour and climbed the tower, which is called the Miguelete. It’s the best view in the city.
Zach was astounded that I’d never had European McDonalds, so we of course had to knock that off the list. It was the perfect moment to reorganize plans after we had attempted to go to the Ninots Exposition at the Museum, only to find massive crowds of falleros and falleras. Ninots are the character figures that make up that Fallas statues that are soon to fill the city.
The next day we grabbed some snacks at the Mercado Central and stopped into La Lonja de la Seda for a tour. It’s one of the oldest secular buildings in the area. It served as a place for business negotiations starting in the 1490s. And also briefly as a prison for debtors. After learning all that history we were hungry! So, we tried to go to a restaurant called Yuso in El Barrio de Carmen to get some paella, but they were completely full. We pivoted and went into WenaPoh, a small mexican restaurant that ended up being a perfect spot to watch the rain pass.
While visiting, Zach and I of course had to make a visit to El Corte Ingles, the massive retail chain that’s basically a combo of a grocery store, Ikea, Home Goods, and a Barnes and Noble all in one, or two in the case of the location here in Valencia. We took a spin through the clothing floors and managed to find a cute t-shirt for Zach! Afterwards, exhausted, we headed back to the Peset for dinner, some pingpong, and a quick excursion for some gelato from Veneta.
Photos from Zach and I’s visit to the Museo de Bellas Artes
On Zach’s final night in town, we went to San Tommaso, a super cute Italian place right around the corner from the Peset. We got iberian ham as an appetizer, thinking it was going to be this small little taster plate but then it was HUGE. So many slices that I could feel the table next to us staring. Our pizzas too, were bigger than we anticipated, but I happily saved our leftovers to eat for lunch and dinner the next day. The next morning, we headed to the airport at 4am and I returned to the Peset to catch another two hours of sleep before I got up to go to class.
Thursday night (3/5) my sisters and my mom rolled into town from Germany! I hopped on the bus and made my way from old city down to the beach to meet them for dinner. We landed at Pepica, which is one of the most famous paella restaurants in Valencia. It’s known for once being a favorite spot of Ernest Hemingway, and the walls are covered with the excerpts of his work that mention the restaurant!
The next day we made our way into the old city for our cooking class with Claudio! He was the sweetest ever and the carbonara we made was delicious! It was just us in his apartment which I really enjoyed because it made it feel like a truly family activity. It was also interesting to hear from him about moving to Valencia from Italy and about him expanding his cooking classes business into a venue in the city. Overall- a super fun experience and up there for the best pasta I’ve ever eaten!
After cooking classes I took everyone on a little tour into the old city! The rain thankfully held off and so we were able to go and see the plazas and all the areas I walk through each day! We also took the tour through the Catedral de Valencia, and my sisters climbed up the Miguelete! During the cooking class, they had fallen in love with the sweatshirt that Claudio was wearing so we made a trek over to Mamma Pizza to go pick up our own. After that excursion, Katie and I split off to go get ready for the concert we had bought tickets to a while back!
Katie and I proceeded to have a slightly wild- but fun!- adventure across the city as we also had to go pick up her phone from the repair shop. We had left it there in the morning before cooking class, hoping it’d be fixed by the end, but to no avail. That aside, it was thankfully ready by the time we made a stop for some smoothies and hustled over there! From there, we hopped in a cab and made our way to the other side of the city to Sala Moon for our concert!
We saw the band “shego” and it was so. much. fun. Katie and I declared we were two for two on concerts we’ve been to together, the last one being Lorde in 2022. That is to say, they were both AMAZING. It’s hard to say anything compares to that Lorde concert, but this one definitely held its own. The crowd was lively, excited, and singing along to every song. The band was engaging and they sounded GREAT! You could just tell they loved performing. I was pleasantly surprised with how many I knew as well, as I’ve only really been listening to their recent album, No lo volveré a hacer. Oh, and also the lead singer crowd surfed at the end.
The next day I took the fam to go watch the mascletas in the Plaza de Ayutamiento. This was one of my favorite things we did the whole time they were in town!
I’ve explained a few times how intense Fallas is here, and how intense of an experience the mascletas are, but none of it does justice to experiencing it all in person. Because of this, it just made me so happy to get to share a taste of the Fallas experience with them! Plus, the mascletas still put me into shock no matter how many times I’ve gone to them. After mascletas, we made a stop by Valor and got some churros, which are always a delight.
Afterwards, we explored the city some more until it was time for our dinner reservation at Alenar Bodega Meditteranea, a restaurant recommended by my literature professor, Hector. My professor has lived in Valencia his whole life, and has some very strong opinions about where we should and should not eat in the city. This being said, he has never once led us astray with his recommendations, and Alenar was no exception!
This all occurred on March 8th, which is National Women’s Day in Spain, and we were lucky enough to happen upon the march which was moving through the plazas as we left dinner! There were tons and tons of people dancing, playing music, and carrying signs advocating for change related to issues of machismo in the country. It was really cool to be a part of it, even just for a little bit. It was also interesting to see all of the government buildings lit up purple, the day’s chosen color.
Eventually, our path stopped intersecting with that of the march’s, and we made our way to the quieter corner of the Plaza de la Reina for some gelato. I think they’re going to start recognizing my face at Veneta soon if I keep going this frequently… but anyways!
After gelato, our group parted ways as Liz went with her friend Astrid to attend a friend’s birthday party, I went back to the Peset, and the rest of my family headed back to their Airbnb. At the Peset, Anna Rose, Sara, and I got ready to meet up with the spaniards to go to the fireworks!
It ended up being a pretty big group of us- probably about 25 students in total! I may have mentioned this before, but the fireworks here are just so cool to me because not only do they sparkle like the ones in the States, but they have a (toned-down) element of sound like the mascletas do! The kind of punctuated boom that I could just feel go through my chest. Pretty cool. The castillos this night also included a lot of purple for Women’s Day which I loved! From there, we headed to go find some of the verbenas in Russafa!
The verbenas are parties that happen out in the street during Fallas. There’s either a DJ or live music of some sort, and just TONS of people out dancing. The streets are also decorated with lights for the festival, some of them almost remind me of Christmas decor from the US. I had a great time, and it definitely made me want to go out with the spaniards more!
The next day was my family’s last day in town, but thankfully the sky cleared up and the sun came out! We walked through the harbor and along the stone pier, pausing at moments to watch the surfers try and catch some of the small waves. That, plus some delicious burgers from Hundred Burger felt like the perfect send-off to their time in Valencia!
After Jackie, Liz, and my mom departed, Katie and I spend the last of the evening winding down, eating pizza and watching Queer Eye, a comfort show of ours. After my classes wrapped up the next day, Katie and I did some last exploring around the city before she left to catch her train. We got tacos from TKO (so yummy- also the only place I’ve had actually spicy food in Spain), walked the Turia to the City of Arts and Sciences and back, and got buñuelos and ate them in the plaza while analyzing what we though fallas are made of. It was a wonderful afternoon. And Katie- I just went and got buñelos from a restaurant- I think you may have to come back so you can try them. They actually tasted like they were made of pumpkin.
Well- that’s the last two weeks in a nutshell! Hopefully, I’ll get back on track and you’ll see my post covering all of Fallas out by the end of next week! I’m nearing the end of day one, and I can just already tell this is going to be a very eventful next few days! I hope you all have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Caroline
Leave a Reply