My first few hours in Valencia got off to an inauspicious start. First, as I disembarked the train, I noticed that I lost the 20 euro which I had tucked in my phone pouch.  There is nothing more discouraging than literally throwing away the equivalent cost of two quality meals. Next, I ended up hailing a taxi right outside of Valencia’s Joaquin-Sorolla train station to take me to what I thought was my hotel.  After paying 14 euro, I would go onto discover that I went to the wrong hotel.  The hotel which I was taken to was called the Ilunion AQAU 3 but I had actually made a reservation to the Ilunion VALENCIA 3 which of course was on the other side of the city. Not wanting to piss away more money in cab fare, I decided to take the local bus to the correct hotel.  Little did I know, this bus happened to be on the busiest route in the city and I had to endure 27 stops of standing room only as half of Valencia attempted to ride on this one bus. Two hours after my initial arrival, I was finally able to check-in to my hotel. My troubles were finally over…or so I thought. After settling in, I decided to take the local tram down to the beach area.  Unfortunately, I forgot my mask in my hotel room and was kicked off the tram when the attendant came in to confront someone else who had not paid their fare. I ended up having to pay 1 Euro for one of those cheap cloth masks at a Chinese corner store. Despite my tumultuous introduction to Valencia, I had a great time during my visit.  Some of my highlights include.
​
                        Playa Malvarrosa- One of the first things I did was catch the sunset at Playa Malvarrosa. considered to be the most famous beach in Valencia.  Overall, the beach itself was clean and spacious.  It also wasn’t as crowded as I expected but that could be due to the season. While the weather in Valencia was lightyears better than Madrid, I still wouldn’t consider it to be “beach weather”. Playa Malvarrosa was more of a “swimmers’ beach” than a “surfers’ beach” as the waves were fairly small.  Right off the beach was a wide boardwalk which allowed for both running and cycling.  While the beach area was nice, I was surprised by the lack of commercial activity on the strip and how rundown the surrounding neighborhood was.  Although the beach was probably 2-3 miles long, there were only 9 or so restaurants that were fairly far apart from each other. There were also several boarded up rowhouses directly on the strip itself. The vibe I got from the area overall skewed more towards my crime-ridden neighborhood growing up in Baltimore than walking down South Beach in Miami. It seems that Valencia’s local government has dropped the ball on developing Playa Malvarrosa into a year-round commercial hub.

            La Plaza de la Virgen- In the heart of Valencia, across from the Turia Garden sits Plaza de la Virgen in the city’s historical center.  Through a tip-based guided tour, I was able to learn many interesting things about Valencia.  First, Turia Garden was actually part of the Turia River until Valencia’s government diverted the river to go around the center of the city at the request of the residents.  Another interesting thing I learned was that Valencia has a “water court” which meets in La Plaza de la Virgen every Thursday at noon. Originating in the times of Muslim rule, this court of 12 elected farmers still solicit grievances from common citizens regarding water conflicts.  The rationale is that water is such a valuable resource, theft of water can be economically devastating to the farmer victimized. While the court is mostly for show in modern society, every so often a conflict will still arise between individuals concerning water rites.  Alongside the churches and museums, Valencia’s historical center was filled with souvenir shops, bakeries, and cafés.  One of my favorite things was seeing the bright orange trees as orange is a fruit associated with Valencia. While Valencia’s historical area was not unlike those found in other Spanish cities, I still found it to be an interesting place worth visiting.

            Albufera Natural Park/El Palmar- About 10 kilometers south of Valencia sits the Albufera Natural Park in El Palmar.  Needing something to do, I decided to make the trek down to check it out.  The trip itself required two buses from my hotel with the second bus (#24) only running once an hour because it was Sunday.  As such, getting down to Albufera Natural Park took almost 2 hours.  While the Albufera Natural Park was mostly marsh land, it was a drastic change of scenery from the other areas I had seen thus far in Spain. There were also opportunities to take a boat ride throughout the park for 5-6 euros, a popular activity during the sunset. El Palmar is home to the paella rice dish, one of the most internationally known Spanish cuisines. As such, there were dozens of paella-oriented restaurants along El Palmar’s central strip. As far as the quality of paella, it wasn’t necessarily the best paella I’ve eaten on this trip but it probably was the most expensive. One of the main frustrations about my paella experience has been that many restaurants require you to buy two portions when ordering a paella dish. For example, the menu will say that paella Valenciana “costs” 15 euro per person with a minimum order for 2 people which means it actually costs 30 euro. As a solo traveler, I experienced much frustration in finding restaurants which had single-serving paella dishes. Because I went on a Sunday during the low season, many of the attractions in Albufera Natural Park were actually closed (even most of the boat ride places didn’t open until sunset) so I didn’t actually get the full experience which was disappointing considering the time and effort which it took for me to get down there.

            Valencia CF vs. UD Almería- Because I like sports, I felt that my trip would not be complete if I did not take the opportunity to attend a La Liga game, Spain’s top-level soccer league. La Liga contains two of the world’s most well-known soccer teams; Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona. International superstars such as Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and David Beckham have all played for either Real Madrid CF or FC Barcelona. Valencia has its own local team known as Valencia CF, which has historically been a notch below Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona regarding talent and results. However, one of the star player’s on the current Valencia CF is Yunus Musah who played for the United States Men’s National Soccer team in the 2022 World Cup. Another star player on Valencia CF is Edinson Cavani, one of the most well-known players on Uruguay’s National Soccer team, a team that also participated in the 2022 World Cup. Attending this match would provide some unwanted changes to my original itinerary. I bought my ticket to the game in early December with the assumption that it would be played in the afternoon of Sunday, January 22nd.  My original plan was to leave Valencia for Granada, Spain on January 23rd.  However, the game ended up getting “flexed” to January 23rd at 9PM for Monday Night Futbol. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to, I could not get a refund for my ticket.  This forced me to choose between abandoning the ticket and continuing onto Granada or missing my flight to Granada and staying in Valencia for the extra night. When I considered the costs and the missed opportunity, I chose to stay in Valencia for the game and cut Granada out of my itinerary altogether. Valencia CF plays in Spain’s oldest stadium known as the Mestalla which was built in 1923.  Ironically, across the street from my hotel was Valencia CFs’ partially built new stadium (known as the “new Mestalla”) which halted construction in 2009.  The Mestalla was pretty basic outside of the press boxes and updated scoreboards. Unlike sporting events in the United States, which have plenty of restaurants to choose from, refreshments in the Mestalla consisted of Bocadillos (small sandwiches), chips, and soda. The seats in the Mestalla were small and plastic as it was virtually impossible not to elbow your neighbor several times during the match.  Despite the lack of modern amenities, the game was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, Valencia CF isn’t really that good this year (nor is UD Almería), but the game surpassed my expectations as it ended in a 2-2 tie. I was also able to get a front row view of both Valencia CFs’ goals as well as a missed UD Almería penalty kick from where I was sitting.  Despite my initial frustration with the forced itinerary changes, the gameday experience of watching Valencia CF vs. UD Almería was well worth the adjustment.

Now my time in Valencia has come to an end as I take the train back to Madrid prior to returning the United States.  However, I have a few more trips planned as I wind down my vacation which I look forward to writing about in the next few days.  Vale!