Word Association: Valencia Edition

Two days in Granada, then it was off to Valencia. Let's keep the word association game going. Valencia.........that's right, Paella! Valencia is the birthplace of paella, so I was excited to get some delicious rice in a pan from the source, especially after the sub-par offering in Sevilla. Carolyn and I got into Valencia bright and early after our overnight bus, and we headed straight to Valencia's huge market to get some breakfast. The market was lively, selling fresh fruit, pastries and meats. After getting some snacks, we pretty much explored town to get our bearings. Sevilla and Granada were both beautiful cities, but I liked Valencia the most out of the three. It was a good combination of small streets and plazas, but also a bigger city feel. After walking around town for a few hours, we went to the tourist office to ask for some paella recommendations, where we were directed to a famous place called La Riua. We headed straight to the restaurant since we were starving, only to find out it didn't open until 2pm. The next two hours was two of the longest hours of my life.

The open air market.

One of many beautiful, small streets.

After attempting to distract myself from food, we finally headed to La Riua to get the goods. Valencia isn't only known for paella in general, but for their specific paella with chicken and rabbit. Wanting to get the authentic stuff, we ordered it and waited patiently for 45 minutes as the paella cooked. After 45 minutes of my leg shaking under the table and cold sweats, the paella finally arrived in a giant pan, and Carolyn and I dug in like there was no tomorrow. The paella was really tasty, especially with the added flavor of extreme hunger.

Where have you been all my life?

After gorging ourselves, we took an afternoon siesta at our hostel, before heading out on another free tour. There we met Chris from Colorado, who also shared our passion for paella (As an aside, Chris is also a gelato fiend. Once in Verona, he went to 16 gelato shops within a few hours to spend the last of his 30 euros!). After our tour, our guide recommended another famous paella place, El Rall. The three of us headed over there and ordered the seafood paella, round two for Carolyn and me that day. Again, very delicious and filling, especially the crunchy bits at the bottom of the pan.

More!

The next day, Carolyn and I decided to visit the Oceanographic, Valencia's famous aquarium. We rented bikes then took a beautiful bike ride through Valencia's green belt that used to be a river but was filled in and converted to a park. The aquarium was fun and even had the underwater tubes you could walk through and see sharks and other fish swim all around you. Think Jaws 3D…if you can.

On our way to the aquarium.

In honor of shark week.

 After the aquarium, we headed to the beach to meet up with Chris and his hostel friends Justin and Alexia. After five hours or so on the beach, we all headed back into town to meet up for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw our friend Anan (from Sevilla) in our hostel. He told us he'd be in Valencia, but it was just a coincidence that he stayed in the exact same hostel as us. We headed to Montaditos to get some snacks before meeting up with the rest of the group for what other than paella. Another signature dish of Valencia we tried is their horchata, which is a milky drink made out of tiger nuts (that sounds wrong, but I'm not going to re-write it). It's kind of like soy milk, but a slightly stronger flavor.

Tiger nuts.

One pan to rule then all.

When we finished dinner, we tried to go to a bar to redeem some free drinks, but surprise, surprise, they wouldn't let me in because I looked too disheveled (actually only kind of true, it was because I had a tank top on, but I'm sure the rest of my "look" didn't help the cause). We finally found a restaurant where I could sit outside, away from high-class society, and we ordered yet another Valencia specialty: Agua de Valencia. It's pretty much orange juice with champagne and vodka. A note to all you cities out there trying to get tourists to spend money: make up as many local signature dishes as you can, and get a giant rake to haul in your earnings.

Enjoying agua de Valencia at a place that accepts me for who I am.

I really enjoyed my time in Valencia, hanging out with new friends and sampling all of Valencia's famous dishes. But watch out, Valencia! Next time I'm here, I'm bringing a razor and a button-up and I'm redeeming that free drink!