Welcoming in the 2020 New Year in Valencia

Ay Dios Mio, I have neglected this temporary travel blog far beyond what I ever imagined, but I am determined to finish my recap of my Remote Year from 2019-2020 and with only two countries left to cover, I might as well get on it, even though it's been more than a year and a half since I was in Valencia, Spain. When tourists think of Spain, they typically don't think about Valencia. They think about Barcelona or Madrid or perhaps they think about running with the bulls in Pamplona. For those in the know, maybe they think about Mallorca (Majorca), the beautiful Mediterranean Island where tennis superstar Rafa Nadal calls home. I, like most American tourists I assume, was not very familiar with Valencia prior to our landing there. I knew it was by the ocean and that it allegedly housed the Holy Grail, the one Indiana Jones allegedly found in The Last Crusade, but other than that, I basically just knew it was in Spain. I wound up liking Valencia quite a bit. I could have lived on jamón ibérico (Iberian ham, essentially prosciutto) and manchego cheese alone, or even better, those combined on a baguette, but obviously Valencia also allegedly has great paella, although I hardly had any while we were there. It's hard for me to describe Valencia, in many ways it feels like a normal city, which I've reiterated in these blogs weren't necessarily my favorite experiences on Remote Year, but something about Valencia makes it different that I enjoyed it. Maybe it was strolling around the post-Christmas streets. Maybe it was the positive vibes about a new year, 2020, before we all found out the world was going to shut down. There was still a lot of Christmas market type stuff around Valencia as we were there in January 2020 and maybe that made it feel a little more special.

The one area of Valencia that was really neat was the Ciudad De Las Artes Y Las Ciencias (the city of arts and sciences, obviously). You get there by traveling through an old riverbed that flooded in 1957 and that was subsequently drained and repurposed as a sunken park. At the end of the park is the city of arts and sciences, which is made up of primarily three buildings, the L'Hemisferic (a planetarium), the Museo de las Ciencias (Museum of Science), the L'Umbracle (an open air museum that features sculptures and native plants), the L'Oceanografic (an open air oceanographic park), the Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia (an opera and performing arts center), the Assut de L'Or Bridge (a white modern looking bridge), and the L'Agora (a covered plaza for events). As a whole, it's beautiful and very modern looking. The L'Hemisferic was constructed to look like a giant eye and the Museum of Science was built to look like the skeleton of a whale. It's not hard to see both those things in the architecture. The L'Oceanografic essentially houses an aquarium and has dolphin shows not unlike Marine World or Seaworld, so if that's not something you support, you can skip that portion, but overall it's a very gorgeous section of Valencia, day or night and you can't go to Valencia and not see it.

Also, I wasn't joking about the Holy Grail. Keep in mind, there have been many cities that claim to have the Holy Grail, but Valencia is one of the more well known ones. It sits in its own "throne room" if you will at the Valencia Cathedral. When I viewed it, there wasn't a ton of people gawking at it with me, which seemed odd, but everyone is rightfully skeptical that any grail is the real Grail, so maybe not so odd. Still, the chance at potentially seeing the actual Grail is hard to pass up. I am very happy I saw it and I would definitely recommend going if you find yourself in Valencia as well, not only is it cool to see the Grail, but the actual Cathedral itself is huge and beautiful on the inside and very historic looking on the outside.

One of the highlights of Valencia was seeing a very fun game of Valencian Pilota, a close cousin to American Handball, but with a much larger court. We got to go into the locker room and meet the players beforehand and then, after the match, got to go on the court and give the sport a try ourselves. It was really impressive to see these guys play their sport so well and it was super fun. I would definitely suggest catching a match if it's in-season.

If you find yourself in the neighborhood of El-Cabanyal El-Canyamelar, then you have to try the bocadillos (spanish sandwiches) at La Pascuala. Try to get there around 10:30am when traditional Valencians enjoy "almuerzo", their bocadillos with beer or coffee or a crazy fire cocktail that I cannot remember the name of, unfortunately.

Of course, one of the best moments of Valencia was celebrating New Year's with Polaris. To be completely transparent, I wasn't all about it at first. I wanted a more exotic New Year's adventure. We had already traveled nearly a year together, did I really want to ring in New Year's with the same group essentially just having dinner and drinks? I had grand plans for a Paris New Year's (not quite a bucket list item but something I always thought would be cool) or some awesome party somewhere cool like Belize or Ibiza. Those plans didn't materialize but I am glad they didn't because New Year's with all my new friends from 11 months of traveling was awesome. Everyone had a great time, everyone was in a great mood, and it really was a great way to ring in a new year. Little did we know 2020 was going to be a monster, but at the time, there was nothing but excitement and smiles.

We also went to a small mountain province called Bocairent where we explored Moorish caves and the small town it surrounds. Some were brave to dive in the frigid mountain spring in nearby province Ontinyent as well. It's a nice little day trip if you're looking to do something cool outside of Valencia.

Of course, any Spain visit would be incomplete without a Flamenco show. The Spanish guitar playing of Flamenco combined with the amazing dancing talents of the women that dance to the music is incredible to see in person and I highly recommend scoping out a Flamenco show. We went to La Buleria for dinner and a show and it was awesome. 10/10 would recommend.

While in Valencia, I did do a side trip to Barcelona, but I'll save that for a different post. Overall, Valencia did feel like a city, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having not known much about it, I left with an appreciation for it and definitely would make a stop there if I ever find myself in Spain again (I plan to at some point). You probably don't need to spend a ton of time in Valencia, but it's definitely worth a few days on your travels.

On the -5 to 5 scale, I give Valencia a solid 3. It wasn't one of my favorites by any means, but there really wasn't anything I didn't enjoy about our stay.