For those of you who follow us since quite a while - this is not new: going to Spain, especially for me (Nina), is like coming home. I have lived in Alicante in 1995 for some time, so coming back to Valencia was really like coming home. At that time I have visited Valencia, but to be honest, all I remember was the city at night with lots of great bars, music and party. Oh yes, the wild times.....
But as Valencia is very close to Alicante, the spanish which is spoken here, the way people are, the whole feeling is similar to Alicante. So this was home with all the wonderful memories about the wild times in Spain during university time ;-).
We had found a really cheap flight from Basilea/Switzerland to Barcelona with Vueling. It was a pleasant and short flight. In Barcelone we took the local trainto the Estacion Sants where our train to Valencia was about to leave 2 hours after we landed in Barcelona. It was a perfect timing. We had already prebooked the traintickets on the RENFE website - this turned out to
be much cheaper. So for as little as 60€ per person we had a flight from Basilea to Barcelona and a train ticket from Barcelona to Valencia. This a a pretty good deal! The train ride took about 3,5 hours and was wonderful. It took us all along the coastline with sometimes stunning views over the mediterranean sea, rocky and sandy beaches and the beautiful spanish landscape. In the evening we reached Valencia. It was a short walk from the station to our accomodation,the Hulot B & B . We can really recommend this place. Rooms are small, but super clean, they have a nice kitchen free of use with a fridge and a wonderful terrasse. It is quiet - but one is in the middle of the old town. So we were more than happy. We immediately started to explore the city - or better, we were on search for a nice dinner. What a beautiful old town! People were so relaxed and friendly. Everything was easy going. We settled down on the atmospheric Plaza Tossal for a nice dinner. And what a surprise! There is veg food in most of the restaurants. Nice surprise! We fell in love with this city - it is hard not to.....
The following day, we decided to explore the modern part. We started walking down the green belt of the city, the "Jardines del Turia" till we reached the architectural masterpiece of the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias". Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy, but nevertheless the light was amazing and our pictures do not give it any justice. We continued in the direction of the port. We walked around the port area, where the America's Cup took place as well as the Formula 1 races. Further north, we continued to the beach. As it was still quite chilly, the beach was nearly empty. With the soft, golden sand it looked like paradies and very inviting. But we think in summer it will be really crowded and not as peaceful as we could experience it. So we enjoyed the peaceful and windy atmosphere, had a delicious "dulce de leche" ice cream (ooooooh, the dulce de leche is the most tasteful sin in this world) before we returned back to our accomodation.
On day 3, we explored the old town with its beautiful buildings, lovely cafés and thousands of restaurants. We passed by the mercado colon, the mercado central (which is a really touristy place), we had chocolate con churros, paella de valencia and some more yummy ice cream. We had a short look into the parliament building, visited several churches and simply enjoyed our time. And in the evening it was time for what we actually came here for. Our spiritual master, Sri Swami Vishwananda was giving darshan in Valencia and of course, we were so happy to join. The Darshan took about 10 hours and it was wonderful with lots of singing, dancing and his blessings. So at 3am at night we walked back to our accomodation from outside of town for 1 hour being more than happy to having met our master in this wonderful city. Thanks Guruji for your love and for always being with us!
But this was just the beginning of our trip to Spain! More adventures and wonderful moments were about to happen!
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