Ahh it’s Valencia!
We have lived in this town for almost 2 months and love it. The climate here tends to be perfect beach weather, high 80s, and lots of sun. The sun rises at 6 AM and now sets close to 10 PM. The sky is lovely at night, as the air cools down and twilight begins. The nights stay warm until midnight, sometimes requiring a shawl or light jacket because of the breeze from the Mediterranean.
The apartment we have been renting for the last 2 months is in a marvelous location with lots of light from the many windows and fans, but unfortunately, it is located on the third floor. My body is done climbing up 60 steps a day.
This week, we are moving to a ground-floor studio with air conditioning in a coliving building space, as the weather in August is likely to be even hotter than it was in July.
The town section where we lived is near the port of Valencia and the beach areas.
The new section we are moving to is about 15 minutes away, but a whole different city section. It is called Mont Olivet.
Outwardly, the new neighborhood appears more upscale, with fewer everyday working-class residents than our current neighborhood.At the current neighborhood on the street level, our building houses an auto repair shop, an auto driving school, and a rather uninviting cafe bar, yet we have a beautiful 4-star hotel across the street.
Getting around Valencia
Our bus stop is Trafalgar, which is located in this area. We can get anywhere in the city in 30 minutes by bus. Like many modern cities, Valencia has an excellent public transportation system composed of buses, trams, and trains. Most buses are double-hybrid buses, and the trams are electric. We haven’t used our train much, since our station, Aiora, has been closed for maintenance for a while now.
The city offers extensive taxi services through the app Pide Taxi, hailing a cab on the street, or using an official taxi stand. Uber is here, offering rates that are competitive with taxis, but often comes in slightly less expensive.
[We have used the Lime app to rent electric scooters and Yego for electric scooters. Both are here, as are many others, such as Emmy and others who are new to me.
Getting around the city, using scooters or bicycles, is relatively easy, as there are extensive bike lanes on the streets and in the parks.
But as a pedestrian, I can’t stress enough the importance of paying attention to these alternative modes of transportation. Using lanes that are actually part of the sidewalk can be extremely dangerous if you are not paying attention, as these lanes have separate light signals. Most drivers here use their headsets, possibly not listening to the traffic.
Crossing the streets in the pedestrian crosswalk is encouraged, as the traffic there will actually stop for you to walk across the street, even without traffic lights on the smaller roads, as pedestrians have the right of way. It’s fantastic.
Great walking town!
This is a great walking city even in the afternoon heat, as you can usually find shade on a side street. We learned through our travels that many antiquarian cities were intentionally built with very narrow streets, which helped to create afternoon shade, keeping temperatures in the apartments cooler.
It’s Beach Time
With the weather in the upper 80s this week, it’s definitely beach chair time. From our apartment, we take the 92 bus to Mlalva Rosa. It usually takes about 20 minutes. This bus travels on the streets closest to the beach until the end of the line at the roundabout bus station.
From there it’s an easy walk to the beach. Looking at the sparkly Mediterranean from the boardwalk, you’ll notice it’s filled with people eating and drinking, walking, carrying their beach stuff, or strutting in the sun.
Bicycles are not allowed on this side of the street. The section of the beach locally known as MalvaRosa stretches for many kilometers. The further from Valencia city you go, the more naturalistic the beach becomes, with fewer bars, restaurants, and vendor shacks.
Life on the beach
The beach areas of MalvaRosa feature numerous volleyball courts that are actively used, showers for feet and body, changing areas, and my personal favorite, the beach lounge and umbrella rental sections. These sections with umbrellas have a distinct Polynesian flavor, as the umbrellas are crafted from thatched grasses. The rental prices are governed by the city, so the rates are very reasonable for the day. We have learned never to go to the beach on Sunday, as it is crowded with many people who work during the week. Worst of all, no beach chairs or umbrellas are available for rent.
In fact, the whole beach area is under the control of the city of Valencia government, allowing the police to have an active presence. Public drinking is permitted on the beaches. Music blasts from different speaker systems all day, ranging from American Rock’N’Roll to Spanish flamenco.
As we walk on the beach, we pass the African woman who offers to braid our hair. Many women try to create a style or color for each client. Other street vendors sell their merchandise in daylight, yet at night, they sell their products under loud generator-powered lights.
Dresses, bikinis, necklaces, sandals, t-shirts. Sandals. All sorts of things. All with the logo of Valencia or other beach memories.
There are ice cream vendors and small individual barbecues on the concrete boardwalk selling the local sausages and fresh corn on the cob.
The flavors of Valencia
The smell of fried fish can be overwhelming, as can the smell of papas fritas. The elegant beach restaurants are very busy at night, preferring diners who reserve their spots, but always trying to accommodate the walk-ins too. The local Aqua de Valenciana is made fresh for all. This is the Valencia drink, composed of fresh orange juice, vodka, champagne, and other closely guarded ingredients depending on the bar!
At night, with the cooler weather, people come to the beach boardwalk to eat their home-prepared dinners on their fold-up tables under the lights of the boardwalk. There are families and friends all mingling, eating, and drinking.
Everyone is happy. Not much roughhousing or gang-style fighting on the beach. Here and there, one picks up the random smell of marijuana, but it’s mostly the odor of tobacco or those electronic vape smokes polluting the air.
Hot Saturday nights at the beach
On Saturday nights, close to the MalvaRosa roundabout bus station, there is a Tango Milonga on one side and a larger gathering of folks dancing Valencia-style folk dancing on the other.
Both groups are large, with DJs playing their music over portable sound systems.
We have brought our worst shoes to dance tango. We hear the intense rhythms of Juan D’Arenzo…many couples are dancing on the concrete. Someone has brought a bit of talc powder to soften the ground for the tango pivots. We get a bit of powder on our shoes, then we embrace and dance. Ouch, my knee is unhappy with this floor, so we decided to stop before doing any damage. My partner surveys the crowd, taking in a few familiar faces and a few smiling ones. I sit on the concrete wall that forms the barrier to the circle of concrete that is the dance space.
Watching the tango dancers move
Smiling, I watch as my partner picks another dancer. They start to dance, and then we look into each other’s eyes from across the space. I see a smile for me. I nod and blow a kiss. He dances. She is not as experienced a dancer as he is, so he is kind and polite, slowly walking and only taking a few tango steps. Nothing fancy or overwhelming. Just trying to stay on track dancing until the tanda is over. Then I see he is grateful it’s over. He walks back and sits next to me. We both smiled as I knew it was not a good match-up for him. But he’s a very kind and wonderful man who would ask a woman to dance, often choosing someone who hasn’t danced much that night. That’s who he is.
After spending two hours enjoying the warm evening at this outdoor milonga, we left and walked by the other dance where a crowd had gathered to dance folkloric dances in partner groups. We watch.
And the night ends
We are waiting for our Uber to arrive since the bus we needed stopped running at 12 on Sunday night, and it is now almost 1 AM. The night is still very warm, but much of the daytime humidity has dissipated.
Ten minutes later, the Uber arrives.
Links for this story:
https://www.facebook.com/tangoenvalenciahttps://viveurope.com/pros-and-cons-of-valencia/
https://www.facebook.com/tangoenvalencia
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