Wondering Around Ciutat Vella
Be prepared to hear this a lot: “wandering around …” — València is a great city to just wander around in, and I seem to be doing a lot of that. There are so many neighbourhoods with their own special feel and walking down one street can bring you to a new area within minutes. Or you can turn a corner and there you are, in a totally new place with a totally new feel. After a couple of pretty lazy days I decided it was time to start discovering for myself what this city had to offer. But first I had to figure out how to get around. In Barcelona I was a pro, mainly because I had previous experience. Here I was starting from scratch. València has a very good transit system, albeit not as massive as Barça, but then it is a much smaller city. There is a metro, tram, and buses, as well as the famous Valenbisi bicycle system. I had some difficulty dealing with the Valenbisi website so had to put aside this particular option for now, and concentrated on getting myself aboard a bus or tram, as those seemed to be the most convenient modes of transport from my location. I went to the corner tobacco store where they sold transit pass cards and bought one, thinking it came preloaded with 10 rides, like the one in Barcelona. I then hopped on the first tram going towards town. To my surprise there seemed to be no place where I could validate my fare so, looking very lost, I’m sure, I asked a lady on the tram where the thing was. She explained to me that it was outside (!) at the tram stop and that I should jump out at the next one, swipe the card, and jump back on the tram. It seems she had forgotten to do a swipe earlier herself and had to do the same trick. As we came to the next stop, with her looking over and encouraging me, I jumped out, located the swipey thingy, and … nothing. It just wouldn’t register, wtf? I started to panic swiping madly, but the tram closed its doors and continued on its merry way as I stood there, waving to the old lady mouthing “it’s ok, no worries, I got this!” Of course she couldn’t see me mouthing anything since masks, duh, but I’m sure she got the gist. I now turned my attention to the offending card reader only to realize the card did not, in fact, have any fares loaded onto it. To be honest, I don’t remember how much I paid for the card, and it is totally possible I got cheated, but here I was stuck at a tram stop with an empty transit card.
Fortunately for me, the city of València was kind enough to also include a way to add fares to a card right there at the tram stop. I managed to do so within a couple of minutes and then settled down to wait for the next tram. Oh, and I did swipe the swipey thing because this time I knew what I was doing! After some 12 minutes, another tram showed up and I proudly hopped on board, ready to check out this new mode of transportation. My excitement was somewhat diminished, however, when I realized I was only going one short stop, to a station where the tram connects with the metro. I totally could have walked there in, oh, about 3 minutes 🙂 Live and learn, I guess, live and learn.
The metro turned out to be similar to what I was already used to, even if the trains seem a bit older than those in Barça. I’m sorry for all the comparisons — it’s probably an occupational hazard at this point. Tired of being a bit lazy, I actually planned this trip: first stop was to be the Mercat de Colón, which sounded like an interesting place to start. As I emerged from the metro, however, I realized that I had no idea which way was which; I had lost all sense of direction, and without any landmarks helping along, I felt quite discombobulated. And that’s not an easy things for me to feel! I guess I haven’t mentioned that València is flat, very, very flat. That’s a great thing for walking but not so great if you rely on the slope of a city to help you navigate (à la Barcelona) or actual mountains pointing to the north (Vancouver) or east (Santiago). Yeah, yeah, I know my phone can tell me these things but that’s not easy to do when you’re wearing a mask and have to punch in the damn passcode every 2 minutes as you try to get your bearings. Believe me, it’s harder than you think. And all this while trying to not get run over by people on electric scooters (the kid kind, not Vespas). I did eventually figure it out, as I knew I would, and picked the right direction — only to be rather disappointed once I reached the destination. Granted, the building of the market itself is quite pretty but there was clearly work going on, whether renovations or something else I do not know, and they were sure making a lot of unpleasant noise. I went inside expecting stalls of fruit and vegetable sellers, bakers, fishmongers, and the like, but all that seemed to be there were restaurants, not all of them open, and a lower level that at first promised some produce, but ended up being just a few more restaurants, and one place selling charcuterie. It is a 1916 modernist building, therefore architecturally very interesting, but the promise of a food market was just that, a promise. If I manage to find out why it’s not full of produce stalls, I shall update you, I promise!
Fortunately for me, València has more than one market, so I went to the next one of my list. While Mercat de Colón is southeast of Ciutat Vella (the Old City), Mercat Central is, as its name suggests, in the heart of it. And I was not disappointed by this beauty at all! What did surprise me, however, were all the vendors outside of the market, most selling clothing. What struck me as particularly awesome was the stall right in front of the main entrance proudly displaying all manners of feminine underclothing. I have to ask myself: “who would come to buy their knickers from a stall in front of the Mercat Central?” but I didn’t hang around to find out as the market called for my attention. The sheer size of this place is amazing. There are at least 100 stalls (and don’t believe Google when it says “over 1,000” … I’m pretty sure whoever wrote that doesn’t know how to count) and it’s very easy to get lost in it. I wandered around not for the first time grateful I had a mask on — it hides my drooling so well. Just like in Mercat de Sant Antoni, there were many places to get amazing produce, but the one thing I decided to enquire about was some dulce de leche. I was pointed to a Latin American stall where they actually had some Argentinian goodness: I had no choice but get some and now I can make crêpes! They had nothing from Chile, unfortunately, and maybe that’s why it has since shut down. I don’t know why I didn’t take any photos inside the market … duh … but I definitely will the next time I go through here.
After finding some delicious lunch at a cute restaurant with seating in a small plaza, I continued my explorations, getting more and more turned around, my usually dead-right sense of direction failing me constantly. I do hope this is not going to be an ongoing issue; I do hate feeling lost. One positive of this, however, is the fact that I am pretty good at adapting to the situation and started walking into random buildings just to see what was there. One of these turned out to be Universitat de València: Biblioteca Històrica and Universitat de Valencia Vicerrectorado de Cultura. Not knowing the rules I didn’t go far inside but I did find a very peaceful courtyard with a columned walkway that made me wish I were a student there. It just seems like such a cool place to study.
I should have hung around the university coffee shop where some academics were enjoying their afternoon snacks, but I’m a chickenshit so I ran away. Plus I had more things to look at. Just around the corner from the library, I noticed a very ornate building; it was covered with carvings, around the windows, doors, corners, everywhere. I don’t remember how people did sightseeing before smartphones … this beauty had no clearly visible signs indicating its purpose, all the doors were firmly closed, and, in general, the place looked uninviting. Thanks to Google, however, I found out it was the Museu Nacional de Ceràmica i de les Arts Sumptuàries “Gonzàlez Martí” and I immediately put it on my list of places to visit. I mean, how can a place this cool on the outside not also be cool on the inside, right? I just wished museums (and other places) did not all close between 2pm and 4pm, when I am most likely to be out exploring. Ugh.
Speaking of Google, it seems even they wanted to get in on the “keep Kim confused” bandwagon. As I was trying to figure out how to get home, this is what GoogleMaps had to tell me:
I would like to reassure you all that I am perfectly safe, I crossed the plaza without any trouble, the ‘rona didn’t get me. I may even go back there, if I can find my way again 😉
