We strongly believe there needs to be planned downtime during extended traveling — and we were so lucky that Yana found the perfect Airbnb in Valencia, Spain, just for this purpose.
We basically teleported there — okay, not quite, but we were traveling faster that we ever had on land: 300 kph (186mph) by train from Madrid!
Upon arrival, our hosts Jose and Emilio picked us up from the train station. (Yana had had extended WhatApp conversations with Jose prior to arrival, an interesting and ultimately awesome way to refresh her high school Spanish). When we planned the trip we didn’t realize that the weekend we were visiting is a local holiday in Valencia: the Day of Community, celebrating the city’s independence from Moorish rule, and St. Dionysus Day, their love holiday (similar to our Valentine’s Day). Traditionally, men get the women in their lives (girlfriends, wives, mothers) marzipan treats wrapped in a scarf to commemorate. Yana had joked with Mark that it’d be nice to receive the cultural gift — but he lucked out when our hosts treated her to the present upon their arrival!
The AirBnb was phenomenal, complete with balconies overlooking the street and a huge rooftop terrace with rocking lounge chairs, tons of herbs in pots, jasmine flowers, and sun-powered lights that turn on when the sun goes down. Upon receiving the tour from our hosts, we ate basil, mint, and stevia from their collection. Truly amazing!
That evening we explored the beach boardwalk. Valencia uses lots of sodium lamps which cast a calm, yellow-hued light upon all public areas. It struck us as a beach town like many others — a little slow-moving, a little behind-the-times, and punctuated with the phrase, “No te preocupes (Don’t worry)”. We found an impressive sandcastle on the beach and dropped a few euro into the box to take some pictures with the creation.
We stopped at a beach bar and ordered a frozen watermelon cocktail which was super tasty! It was quite a large drink which benefited from being held in a (clean?) ashtray.
This drink was followed by a very disappointing Cosmopolitan made with strawberry juice (what?!? so wrong…) so we made our way to dinner to La Otra Parte (which threw us with its oddly gendered name but won us back with its killer toast of goat cheese, pesto, and tomato). Our house wine had a cooler that reminded us of getting x-rays at the dentist, hence hilarity ensued and we also realized that maaaaayyyybe it was time to call it a night.
The next day was sunny and warm, which only means one thing here: Beach Day! We rented lounge chairs and an umbrella and brought a picnic of cheese, nectarines, and sangria. Lots of old, topless women surrounded us while vendors tried to sell colorfully patterned cloths, sunglasses, and in-chair massages. Yana couldn’t resist a massage!
We returned to our AirBnb just in time to witness gorgeous clouds and drink some wine before heading out to the fireworks in the center of town to celebrate the Valencian Day of Community.
We stopped by a restaurant on the way where Mark had the most delicious pickled vegetables of his life.
While walking to the fireworks, we stumbled upon a community party in El Jardín de Ayora — complete with DJ, about 700 people, and a bar. So we ditched fireworks plans and instead danced until 2am to Spanish pop songs among Valencians of all ages: conked out babies in strollers, 6-year-olds having the times of their lives, 11-year-olds playing soccer, 14-year-olds trying out their newfound flirting skills, 18-year-olds getting their first “cubatas” (basically liquor with juice or soda, not fancy cocktails), and adults of all ages smoking, drinking, dancing, and celebrating. It was like the best family reunion ever.
The next day was a terrace day (because, duh, have you seen that terrace?!?) Those herbs were calling Yana’s name, so the night before we stopped at the grocery and bought tomatoes and fresh mozzarella in order to add some of the fresh basil and make a caprese salad for lunch. Paired with the €0.99 white wine (wha? yes. so good!) it was an awesome treat.
We spent the day reading, coding (well, that was just Mark, converting our photographs to a unified orientation — read more about it here), and blogging on the terrace. That evening Yana made pasta with fresh vegetables for dinner, a perfect day in after a week of sight-seeing and eating out.
The next morning — up at dawn and off to Barcelona! 1/3 of the luna miel completed…and only just beginning.