Our most eventful weekend yet
The next weekend trip was one that will go down in history. Valencia, in a nutshell, can be described by a series of unfortunate events, endless failed attempts at getting paella, lack of sleep, and intense heat exhaustion. Our train got in around noon (yay!), which unfortunately meant we had to wake up at 5 am (not yay). So, already low on sleep, we arrived in Valencia only to carry our bags three miles to the apartment. We did stop for an incredible lunch at Honest Greens and took a break from the heat, which helped. When we checked into our Airbnb, dripping sweat from the humidity, we quickly realized three things. First, our apartment was on the top floor of a tall, tall building. Second, we booked a shared Airbnb, so had only a bed to ourselves. And third, the apartment had no air conditioning, and the ceiling fan in our room wouldn’t run for more than 10 minutes at a time. Not ideal. But we realized there wasn’t much we could really do about it now. So we just planned to spend as much of our time in Valencia outside of the house as possible. We packed a tote bag and headed for the beach, only another few miles walk away (woohoo).
After a few hours of tanning and jumping in the (really warm) ocean, we decided we do actually love Valencia. Ready for dinner, we wanted to find a place that had arroz negro (a black paella made with squid ink local to the Valencia region of Spain). The first few restaurants we passed had paella on their menus, but not black paella. We walked around for a bit longer (most restaurants don’t have their menus online, or even websites for that matter), but still no luck. After almost an hour, we were starving. And still, no paella. Our feet were tired, we smelled like ocean and sweat, and so we finally decided to throw in the towel and grab sandwich stuff at the grocery store. Once we made up our picnic in the sand, we were actually pretty stoked. We got a baguette, burrata, and jamón, and watched the sun set (at like 10 pm—I know, crazy!) over the land (again, wild for us Californians who only see the sun set over the ocean). Finally, we walked home in the pitch black (oops) and went to sleep.
Sometime early the next morning, Sara and I looked at each other, and I could see it on her face too: neither of us had slept at all the night before. I hate to keep mentioning this, but we were drenched in sweat yet again, so we took showers and headed out for the day. One of my best friends spent a year living in Valencia and gave us all his recommendations, so Saturday was dedicated to trying everything on his list. First was coffees at Cappuccino, followed by fartons & horchata at La Terraza de Santa Catalina. Fartons are essentially the churros of Valencia (they’re much lighter than churros in the States!), and the horchata is made with chufa, not rice. It was all so incredible, and I’m definitely finding a recipe for these ASAP when I’m back in the states.
For a few hours, we walked around, went shopping, saw the sights, and got lunch (FINALLY we found a black paella). Late afternoon, we were exhausted and ready for a nap. Unfortunately, to do this, we had to return to our 100-degree apartment. But, planning on going out that night, we powered through and “napped” while binging all the new episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Finally, it was an acceptable hour to get ready to go out (midnight, for those wondering—the Spanish do not play around). We showered (again), got dressed, and did our makeup, all the while drinking straight out of the €2 bottle of Cava we’d bought at the store. We jumped in a taxi, finally deciding to spend a little money on transportation (yay us). Our first stop was Atenea Sky, my friend’s favorite rooftop bar, which was unfortunately at max capacity that night. We walked a little ways away and got drinks at a cute little restaurant, meeting a group of British guys who rated my attemp at a British accent (the verdict: it needs some work). Afterwards we headed to St Patrick’s, the Irish pub my friend frequented last year. And wow, our expectations were met and then some. The vibes there were immaculate, they had a pool table, and everyone we met was very friendly and spoke English. We made friends who bought us multiple free rounds of drinks and I won €10 against three Irish guys by “splitting the G” on a Guinness (shoutout to my Irish genes). After going on some very random but epic side quests, Sara and I headed out to Mya/L’Umbracle, the iconic two story club that’s open until 7 am. When we arrived (we walked, of course) it was a little after 3 am, and one of us had the genius idea to just stay out until we had to catch our train, thereby avoiding another night in the horribly hot and not-at-all private apartment. So, for the next few hours we danced, made friends, bumped into the British guys from the first restaurant (honestly wild odds), and had a whole conversation pretending we didn’t speak English with some very sweet Irish guys (sorry!).
When 7 am rolled around we headed back to our apartment, showered, grabbed our bags, and headed to the train. It was a rough ride back to say the least, and when we got home we ordered takeout then proceeded to sleep for twenty hours straight.
Now, our last week in Spain had arrived, and we wanted to fit in as much as possible. One of our favorite experiences actually took place at a convent. The convent of Santa Ines allows you to come inside the front gate where you can buy freshly baked cookies from the nuns. You ring a bell to have your order taken, then a rotating door turns, taking your money and sending you a little bag of cookies. It was an incredible experience, and the cookies were really good. A few other places we visited our last few days were the Royal Alcazar palace, the Cathedral and the Giralda, and the Dueñas Palace, all definitely must-sees in Seville. We also visited the Museo de Baile Flamenco, a museum detailing the full history of flamenco in Seville. One night, we went to the Plaza de Toros to watch a bull fight, a very cool experience that I would absolutely never do again (spoiler: they kill all the bulls). Our last week in Spain happened to match up with the Velá de Santa Ana, a weeklong festival in Triania including booths of cheap food and drink, the Cucaña (a greased pole competition over the river), and song and dance performances. We spent a night walking around the festival, getting €2 tintos in plastic cups and roaming the streets (open container laws who?). It was the perfect way to end the trip, and we weren’t ready to leave, though we were very excited for our travels ahead!
Spain Recommendations (in the summer!)
Valencia: full weekend (air conditioning REQUIRED), 8/10 rating
