VALENCIA IN PICTURES PART 1

valencia in pictures part 1 is the first post of the upcoming three about my recent trip.

since it was my third visit, i took it slow: i spent time with friends, i spent time alone and i had absolutely nothing on my to-do list.

i had great weather: the temperature was above 20 degrees celsius and the sun was out each and every day. i spent 5 days in town and managed to completely forget about my everyday life: objective achieved!

this is one of the beautiful buildings in the eixample neighborhood, where our hotel was.

ruzafa market is one of the city’s wonderful market places.

this is a corner shop selling slow cooked take away. the red sign says: ox tail and little hands of pig in sauce.

i was lucky to run into a street carnival organized by kids in ruzafa. you can see the posters for it below.

in valencia, the light is so good, half my job is done.

this is mercat de colon.

here i am on pont del mar, over the former bed of the turia river.

on avenida blasco ibanez, in the garden of the philosophy school, i came across this technicolor dream by local street artist julieta.

here i am in a little park called jardi de monforte, right behind the building where the municipality officiates marriages. you can tell i enjoyed being welcome and shown around by this new furry friend.

below, the jardines del real, a bigger park right on the side of the turia.

i paid 2 euros to see the museo de ciencias naturales. it was empty and i had fun reading the captions in spanish and valencian. yeah, yeah, nerd fun.

i walked all the way to benimaclet, a picturesque neighborhood preferred by students.

this is cooperativa benlliure in benimaclet.

and i ran into what proved to be the highlight of my trip: this unbelievable brutalist complex called espai verd. i will post on it separately so stay tuned.

this is downtown again: the westin hotel and its beautiful secret garden.

this is the biblioteca municipal in the palau de l’exposicio.

at first, i made a mistake: i took a left instead of a right when i came out of the elevator. lucky me: i ended up visiting this unbelievable empty palace. wow!

this is the actual library. it was empty because i was there right before the lunch break.

this swimming pool was next door but it looked deserted.

this is taken from pont del mar bridge.

we were turned away from habitual because we were late for lunch (the kitchen closes at 4 pm).

in the same location (the basement of the mercado de colon), we found the wonderful ma khin cafe.

one of the most visually surprising sweets at granier. we liked their plum cake with almonds but this glass dough/coca vidrio looks so cool, right?

you already know how much i like deih‘s work. walking down the street, i saw this piece in the lobby of a hotel. i like it that the local businesses collaborate with the street artists.