It's been a while!
It's been a nice while.
I got back yesterday from 5 days in Valencia, Spain.
WOW.
I didn't really know what to expect from this beach city, the country's third-largest, as I'd booked the flight with the excuse of visiting a friend on exchange there, Federica. What I found was a radical change of lifestyle from the hectic and stressful Milanese one. Valencia was slow, spontaneous, simple, pleasant. The weather was quite warm, so on the first and second days we headed to the beach, relaxed with a few erasmus and Spanish friends of Federica's, got some fresh fruit-muesli yogurt, walked through the historic centre and other simple things.
It wasn't for about a day that I realised I was truly on holidays. Having spent the previous week studying rather TOO much for an erasmus student, I found myself forgetting about the study notes I'd brought with me to Spain. We rode from Federica's to the beach or town centre on the Valenbisi (town public bikes, free for 30 mins) under a warm sun, along uncrowded wide roads, surrounded by a relaxed Spanish atmosphere, many green parks and vegetation almost everywhere, with the previous night's dance music in our heads... nothing much could possibly have gone wrong. It was strange to walk the streets at night without reaching home thanking the Heavens for still being alive, as is the case in Milan.
The most interesting thing was adapting to the Spanish hours- everything seemed to happen about 2 hours after it would in Italy, which is about 2 hours later than things happen in Australia. The university canteen doesn't open before 13:30, as people usually lunch around 15:00. Dinner is after 22:00. Clubs start filling up around 3:00, and therefore people wake up a bit later in the morning. Why? Because the weather is simply too nice to go back home around 5pm. Not wearing a watch, I found myself returning around 8pm when it was starting to get dark, hence it was natural to have dinner at 11pm... Streets are semi-deserted around 10am as they are around 2pm, during the obligatory siesta time ;)
So, la
vera dolce vita.
At the moment there was a food/wine fiera in Valencia, where with E10 you got four glasses of different wines, and 4 tapas. We had a most pleasant night walking around amongst people who seem to be troubled by nothing except the quality of their food and human relations. Then, a few hours sitting around el Rio de Turia chatting. El
Rio de Turia... what a unique and beautiful characteristic of Valencia. Where a large river used to cross the city, now is a stretch of public gardens, where people come to exercise, pic-nic, play, have a coffee, or simply sit on the grass and people watch. And the vegetation is so well looked after... it's like being away from all chaos but still in the centre of the city. Gorgeous. We indeed had a late pic nic one day with a nice group of people.
I also visited the Acquarium of Valencia, which Federica tells me is the biggest in the world. It was a nice way to spend a few hours, especially because of the awesome dolphin show! Let's see if I can upload a video...
And because of the free bicycles available, I managed to spend a few hours one day (under the heat!) "exploring"... some people may call it getting lost, but I came across some incredibly rural areas which I wouldn't have seen otherwise!
This was around 2pm so I bet I stood out a bit, when everyone else was just sitting around doing nothing. But I found buildings which reflected exactly my idea of rural Spanish houses and lifestyle.
I also had the chance to meet a few Spanish people and confirm that I really want to, and should, do a language course after my exams in Milan. I spent a few hours conversing with locals on Saturday night, understanding almost everything even though unable to speak correct Spanish; Spanish is quite similar to Italian of course, and I believe a 30hr/week course would do me wonders! I've been thinking about this for a while, and my first thoughts were for Barcelona, but after asking around I was scared about the number of people speaking Catalan there (might get a bit confusing!) so I thought, hell why not Valencia... a safer, cheaper and lovely city. However, being even more Southern, it gets
really hot here in July, when I'd like to come. Plus most locals go away for holidays. So I'm back for Barcelona. Now I'll have to select a school and think about accommodation, hoping that I pass all my exams in my first attempts in June.
Anyway, getting back to Milan around 11pm I took two extra metro lines to satisfy an unresistable desire for the
panzerotti at the Duomo... only to find the place was closed. Resigned myself to the fact that I have to wind the clock back two hours, I headed home with a sigh.
That is all for now... I should soon also post something brief about a visit to Bologna, the home of ragu and tortellini ;)
