As we approach the end of our time in València, I feel bad not to have given it the same diligent attention as I did Lisbon. When we arrived here, stepping out into the night air was a shock. We knew it would be warmer here, but the humidity took us both by surprise. We learned weeks in that that was abnormal. Being here at the same time that weather reports from Italy and Greece describe almost intolerable conditions, I shouldn’t complain. It is much hotter here than in Lisbon but for the most part high temperatures have been between 27 and 33 Celsius (80 – 90 Fahrenheit). So we’ve been spared the temps in the 40s.
Where We Are Living
That said, the humidity has been intense. Thankfully we have a washer and drying rack in our rental. We don’t have a dishwasher and that is by hand, but we both agree the priorities are in the right place. Here, you can’t really wear a shirt more than once without being really offensive. It is easier to do a quick load of things that the routine we had in Lisbon of washing things in the shower and drying them on the towel warmer.
The apartment we’ve rented is fabulous. Easily twice the size of our place in Lisbon, we’ve been able to stretch out. I wish I could say literally as there is a ton more space here for us to do yoga, though we really haven’t. But it has air-conditioning which has saved me and made it possible to sleep better here. Though it has TVs, we haven’t used them because we’ve only found one station in English and reality shows about ghosts is really not our thing. The kitchen has been so much better even though there is no dishwasher. We’ve also enjoyed having a larger refrigerator and have happily been able to buy more fruits and vegetables at the market.
Our place, in the picture below, is the lowest rounded balcony with the “greenery” providing a privacy screen. It has been nice to be on the second floor and on the end. The bell tower (look at the red truck backing up and follow the line up to the pointy tower) has become special. Beginning at 8:00 a.m., it notes the hour with 8 deep tolls (you know what I mean) of a bell. Trev says it reminds him of the AC/DC song Hell’s Bells so give that intro a listen. At the quarter hour, a different, higher pitched bell, chimes once. On the half hour, two chimes. At forty-five past the hour, three chimes. And then, at the top of the hour four chimes followed by the deeper bell tolling out the number of the hour – one for one o’clock, two rings for two o’clock, etc. It goes like this all day until midnight.
Another bonus has been this small balcony/porch. For laundry, the drying rack fits out there and clothes are done quickly. It has also been nice to sit out mornings and observe a bit of the morning life here. Mostly quiet with periodic punctuation (how is that for some alliteration, A) of the recycling and delivery trucks and the occasional people out walking their dogs. The toddler of the balcony across from us has some lungs, too. Evenings, it has been a place to read, plan the next day, and enjoy some fresh air when the temperature has dropped. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that we had humidity drop into the 50% range and being outside was much more enjoyable.
Getting Out There
Our overall first impression of the city is that there is more money here. It seems cleaner and more polished than Lisbon. It is equally as walkable but things seem larger – plazas, sidewalks, doors (more on that later). We are again situated in the oldest part of the city, inside the old walled part to be exact – the Ciutat Vella (Catalan for Old City). While it feels a lot more touristy here, much more so than Lisbon, this location has put us within easy striking distance (10-15 minutes) of most museums. Quite an ideal location. The plaza pictured below is the Plaza de la Virgen, or Plaça de la Mare de Déu, and is less than a minute walk for us.
Eagle eyes may have noticed that the above was Catalan for Old City. And that is a point to make. Here, there are really two languages – Spanish (or Castilian) and Valèncian, which is itself a dialect of Catalan. They are similar but much like in Quebec where you have signs in both English and French, here you will see street signs in both Valèncian and Spanish.
For example, we are renting at the intersection of two streets. The best translation of one I can find is Street of the Apostles Furnaces. On one side of the street, the street name is Calle de Hornos de los Apostoles (Castillian) and the other is Caller del Forn Dels Apostols (Valèncian) The other is Street of the Old Clock represented on one sign as Calle Reloj Viejo (Spanish) and the other Carrer Del Rellotge Vell (Valèncian). Trev noted that when we had directions from our AirBNB host, some of the streets were showing something on Google slightly different from what he gave us.
Most of the time, it isn’t too different. Square is Plaza (Sp) or Plaça (València and also Portuguese), Avenue is Avenida (Sp) or Avinguda (Val). Market is Mercado or Mercat. But then you find bakery signs as either Horno or Forn. And to say good morning or good day as a greeting, while officially we thought it was buenos días, we have heard many a local shorten that to just ‘buenos’. I suppose that is the English version of shortening it to just ‘morning’. Interestingly, the València version is ‘bon dia’. While I haven’t heard that too much, the funny thing is that is quite similar to the Portuguese ‘bom dia’, though in Portuguese the dia sounds like “dgee-ah”, not “dee-ah”. Language is fun, isn’t it. And quite powerful when you know it and have the ability to communicate.
And on that note, we do not. That is one big difference between Lisbon and València. Here, I’ve used my translating app a lot more and you can tell shopkeepers aren’t super thrilled you can’t speak Spanish. We’ve managed but I struggled with that a bit when we first got here. Wish I’d have picked up more Spanish in Texas. Add that to the bucket list.
It was tough at first to warm up to València (no pun intended) but gradually we have. More to come.
