Valencia, Spain
May 3-5See photos below
Travel days are always an adventure, and getting to Valencia proved to live up to that. Five trains & one flight later, we made it to our hostel by midnight, which we found nestled in a long and picturesque alleyway paved by cobblestone and lit by ancient-looking street lamps. As we situated ourselves in our beds next to the balcony door, we were immediately greeted with a warm breeze that we hadn’t felt since leaving California. We knew our time in Valencia would be short, only having one full day in the city, so we wanted to make the most of it.
We began in the morning by walking to the Mercat Central, one of the biggest markets in all of Europe. Covering more than 86,000 square feet, it is filled with vendors selling everything from fresh bread, to the local favorite jamon serrano, to fresh fruit and produce. There are also small restaurants and souvenir shops dotted throughout. It was quite a sight to behold as we wandered through the stalls with a fresh bocadillo (sandwich) in hand. From the mercat we walked to a nearby cafe, passing many quaint shops along the way. We sat in a peaceful outdoor cafe with tables in the middle of a park as Ashley ordered a coffee for €1.50. After the short break we continued on and walked more of the city, taking in all of our surroundings with an appreciation for the beautiful Spanish light that blanketed everything in sight. After putting a few miles under our shoes, we decided to head back to the hostel for a short rest. After all, it wouldn’t be a true day in Spain without a siesta.
Soon enough we were back out again. Having been invited to join a free dinner at the hostel, we knew we wanted to see as much as possible while we still had some daylight. The only logical decision was to walk to the beach, which we thought would be a much quicker excursion. It ended up being about two hours to walk there and back, returning just in time for the very underwhelming pesto pasta that was served. There were several of us who joined in for the dinner and wanted to keep the party going and decided to embark on a mini bar crawl. We perused four bars before ending up at a club filled with plenty of sweaty humans. We didn’t last long there and made the peaceful walk to the hostel before passing out at 3AM.
The following day we had tickets for the afternoon bus to our next stop and figured we had plenty of time to make our way there. When we were 5 minutes away from the bus stop, google maps told us to continue straight, which was impossible since there was a 10 foot wall in front of us. We realized that the bus stop was on the other side of the train station, and the only way there was to walk around the tracks. That took us an additional 30 minutes and, not surprisingly, ended up missing the departure time by a mile. We spent the next 2 hours sitting at the McDonalds next to the stop. The next bus was at 2PM and we hoped that the driver would let us on with our old tickets. As the bus pulled in, we asked the driver and fortunately he let us on and we were off to Xabia. Thanks Mr. Driver! While our time in Valencia was short, it was quite memorable and a city I absolutely want to return to.
