Valencia
Valencia was the perfect place to start my trip, immediately reminding me what I love about Europe. Arriving in the city centre at 9 on a Saturday evening (after taking the metro from the airport for a tenth of what the same trip cost me in London and not even a quarter of the equivalent in Melbourne), I was immediately struck by the buildings around me — so beautifully designed and ornate, so varied in style and each, no doubt, with such a long and interesting history.
Valencia is a city of narrow, seemingly randomly arranged streets — the buildings apparently telling the road where to go rather than the other way round — leading into square after square with a church, a fountain and al fresco dining and drinking. The layout meant navigation was a little tricky and we got lost about four times within my first half hour there, but down every alleyway we stumbled there was a wealth of inviting hole-in-the-wall bars. Being Saturday night the streets were throbbing with people, getting busier and busier until we called it a night around 1.30 (with me not quite over my jet lag).
Sunday of course was a different story with barely a shop or restaurant open. Churches however were so we gatecrashed Sunday mass at the cathedral and saw the only officially Vatican sanctioned version of the Holy Grail. As grails go, it was quite impressive but some Pythonesque humour would have livened the service up no end.
Next we headed to the IVAM — the Valencia museum of modern art. The highlights included the work of Eduardo Kac whose pieces included a rabbit genetically crossed with a jellyfish so as to glow green under UV light and a microbe whose genetic code had been altered to include the text of Genesis (transcribed first, of course, into Morse code before being translated into the Gs, As, Ts and Cs of DNA). Said microbe was then placed under lights which the audience member could control to induce mutations in the microbe’s genome and hence the words of God himself. Such thought provoking work was only marginally surpassed by an exhibit of mannequins sporting Marge Simpson style 19th century hair dos, some complete with their own model boats.
A Valencian Sunday having offered us just about all it was going to, we managed to find one open shop, a bottle of vodka and saw the day out with it, ending up dancing in one of the city’s many squares to a busker’s rendition of “New York, New York”.
One of the more curious aspects of Valencia is its river. It is by no means a small river — some 100 metres across and complete with the large stone bridges you would expect to find accompanying such a river in an old European city. It is however lacking insofar as it contains no water — the Valencians apparently having awoken one morning to have found it all gone. Struck with the quandry of what to do with this now dry river bed, they responded well, building parks, football pitches, a science museum, a centre for the performing arts and, with more than a hint of irony, an aquarium.
The complex in which the last three are found is an architectural marvel of space age smooth white curves reminiscent of the Sydney opera house stretching as far as the eye can see. The aquarium is one of the best of its kind I have seen showing examples of aquatic creatures from across the world — most stunningly the Arctic section with walruses and Beluga whales.
We decided to end our time in Valencia with a trip to a vegetarian tapas bar. The concept of vegetarianism leads the average Spaniard to give a look not dissimilar to that which would result if you showed him your Flat Earth Society membership card. Stating in a restaurant ‘Soy vegetarino. No carno. No pescaito.’ guarantees little more than being served a ham omlette. The people who ran this place, however, are clearly more enlightened and the cheese, marinated peppers and mushrooms we are served are absolutely delicious and make the perfect finale to our time in Valencia.
The next day it is on to Castellón de la Plana and the Tanned Tin music festival…
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