Spending a summer in Valencia

I feel like it has been summer since forever. Which is kind of true in my case haha. Since I came straight from summer in Costa Rica at the end of March, to almost summer in Valencia. Spending a summer in Valencia has been so much fun. This is actually the first summer in I don’t know how many years, that I’m not working at all. When I was still at my 9-5 job I used to travel during September/October and then again in February-April/May and then I’d work pretty much all summer. I’ve still been working on some stuff, it hasn’t been all fun & games. But a lot of fun. It’s just much more chilled when you’re working on your own schedule and don’t need ask anyone for a permission to get some time off 🙂

What a normal day looks like

Although no two days are the same, a typical day for me in Valencia looks something like this. I usually wake up around 9 by the sun shining into my room. Getting up fast is really not my thing. It takes me at least 15 minutes to actually get up haha. Which feels so much better than waking up to an alarm and having to jump out of bed and rush to work :)) By that time my roommate is already off to work so I have the apartment to myself. I don’t really like to talk to people before I’ve had my coffee and had a moment to properly wake up so this works out just fine lol. So obviously I start by making some coffee & usually have some kind of rice cracker thing with hummus/avocado & dates. Then I spend about an hour having breakfast and just chilling, reading up on news related to the stock market, watching Friends, pinning to my new Pinterest account that I made for my presets. I’ve never been very active on Pinterest so I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, but at least I’m doing something haha.

Around 10.30, when I have managed to properly wake up, I usually head to the gym. It takes me about 5 minutes to bike there, love how easy it is to get around here. The program I have at the gym takes me about 1,5 hours, although it often takes me longer if I stay on my phone too much, or if there is something “happening” on the stock marketing and I need to be watching it closely and buying/selling. When I get back home I make a smoothie bowl (so goood)- well except for the month or so my blender was being repaired. It broke down sometime in May, and just like pretty much everything in Spain, it took a ridiculously long time for no apparent reason, but eventually it got done :)))

Then it really just depends on what I feel like and what day is what I do after getting back from the gym. Sometimes I meet up with someone at a café, either to “work” or just to chill. Other days I go the beach or to the centre. Always watching the stock market from my phone though haha. It’s not uncommon that I’ll be walking somewhere with someone and then I’ll be like ah we need to stop for a moment I need to buy/sell this one stock the price just went up/down. Then other days I just stay home and maybe work on this blog or procrastinate or whatever. I’m not gonna make this sound like I’m always super productive and using my time wisely – some days it’s 6pm and I’m just like wow where did this day go?! What happened to 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock and all the other o’clocks :)))

A lot of my friends here work during the day so often we’ll meet up in the afternoon for a drink or dinner or something. Going out for drinks here is sooo cheap it’s almost ridiculous haha, especially when compared to Iceland where you pay about 8-10 euros for a beer lol. A beer or a cider here is about 2 euros and cocktails around 5-8 euros. Then I go to the supermarket around 3 times a day for no good reason haha. I don’t know why I just always forget something or I get a random craving and/or I can’t decide what I wanna eat until the moment I’m gonna eat. I’m a mess. I try to go to sleep no later than midnight but well, doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I stay on my phone until I start dropping it on my face repeatedly. Luckily I’ve never happened to be two years deep into someone’s instagram feed and accidentally liked a family christmas photo from years ago :))) But yeah that point it’s really time to go to sleep lol.

The not normal days

So that was pretty much what an average day has been like. But other days I’ve been out exploring – doing day trips, weekend trips, beach days and stuff like that. And I gotta say that Spain really keeps surprising me. Even though I’ve been to Spain probably about 20 times and have visited all the major cities as well as some smaller ones, there is so much I haven’t seen. Montanejos was probably the one that surprised me the most, it reminded me of Switzerland at time while other parts looked a lot like Asia!

Montanejos

So in June I went on a day trip to Montanejos with a few other people & lots of dogs!! A dream :)) It’s about 1,5 hour drive from Valencia, however there are no buses or trains that go there – but luckily one of my friend has a car so off we went! It’s a pretty big area, with lots of hiking trails and a hot spring where you can go for a swim. We followed one of the hiking trails, or well we did our best to 🙂 Like many other things in Spain, it was not very clearly marked and we ended up getting lost several times. It wasn’t all bad though cause the views where so worth it. But we walked a looot and I ended up having to rest throughout the next day haha.

Enjoying some beach time

I’ve probably had a few people’s share of beach time this summer. It’s one of the privileges of spending a summer in Valencia. We usually just go to the beach here in Valencia, which is actually a pretty nice one. Surprisingly, it’s a lot better than the beach in Barcelona, in my opinion. It does get pretty crowded, especially on weekends, but you can still manage to find a pretty quiet spot. During the middle of the day it gets very very hot, so we normally try to go around 3pm, stay for a few hours and then grab a drink or two before heading back.

Eating (tacos) & drinking (mostly Aperol)

I would say wine & dine, except I don’t really drink wine. And also it just sounds a little fancier than what I’ve been doing. I’m not really a fan of fancy food. The portions are usually tiny, and more importantly, I don’t know what half the stuff on the menu is 🙂 Anyway. I’ve been going out for food and/or drinks pretty frequently. Aperol being my number one choice for a drink. I will also never say no to tacos 🙂

Visiting Málaga

At the end of June I went to Málaga with one of my friends. Originally we were only planning to go to Granada, but as it turned out, our only realistic option to get to Granada was to fly to Málaga, we figured we might as well spend a day or two there. And I’m so glad we did.

We only had one and a half day in Málaga, but I feel like we managed to do quite a lot. Málaga is not to big and it’s easy to explore by foot. It’s a “typical” Spanish city, with a bit of Mediterranean vibes mixed with some Andalucian/Moroccan style architecture.

I also loved roaming around the historical centre. Just like other cities in Spain, it’s very cute & colourful – with plenty of cafés and terraces to sit down and enjoy the views.

Granada

After spending two nights in Málaga, we jumped on a bus and headed to our next stop, Granada! A city that has been on my bucket list for far too long! Granada is mostly famous for the Alhambra – a palace constructed a very long time ago, between 1238-1538 to be exact 🙂 The Alhambra was the main reason I wanted to visit Granada, which I think you’ll understand once you see what it looks like!

A part from visiting the Alhambra, we walked around the city a whole lot, admiring the Alhambra from different angles 🙂 In the Albaicin neighbourhood, there are a variety of cafés and restaurants with terraces that offer views of the Alhambra. I literally could have spent days just hanging out at all of them and taking in the views!

Day trips to Pinedo

One of the best things about spending a summer in Valencia is Pinedo! A very cute and pretty quiet beach town not too far from Valencia. Although it’s only a 10 minute drive there, it actually takes about 45 minutes by public transport. I have close to no experience with public transport within Valencia as I bike or walk everywhere, but this bus never arrives on time. It can be up to 30 minute late for no clear reason, so that’s kinda the only drawback about visiting Pinedo 🙂 But it’s such a pretty beach, and doesn’t even get crowded on weekends. I will add that this isn’t the main beach in Pinedo, that one is indeed very touristy, this one is called Playa Autocine and is much prettier! Actually one of the best beach I’ve been to in Spain. Usually we bring picnic and just chill on the beach, but there are also a few restaurant in Pinedo.

Museums

I’m honestly really pushing by using the plural. I have visited two, that it is if you count both the one we visited mostly for the pretty pink court yard and another one that wasn’t really a museum, but the ruins of the “old Valencia”. So yeah I guess museums is kinda stretching it, but I think I’ll just go with it 🙂

Day trip to Port Saplaya “little Venice”

So the actual Venice is of course in Italy, but there is a “little Venice” just outside of Valencia. It’s called Port Saplaya, but due to its similarity to Venice, it’s often referred to as little Venice. We went on a day trip there at the end of May, it was quite a struggle to get there by public transport, but eventually we made it haha. Someone asked me afterwards why we didn’t just take a taxi, and honestly we didn’t even think about it, I’m just not used to taking taxis so often I forget they exist haha 🙂 I wasn’t really expecting it to look a whole lot like Venice, but you can definitely see why it’s called little Venice. It sure managed to make me feel like I was in Italy for a day 🙂

Chilling in the park

So in Valencia we have this giant park, that runs throughout the city. It’s huge – 9km long to be exact. Clearly it has lots of greeneries, palm trees, with views of the city, bike paths, cafés, all of it. A lot of people go there for running.I do not. I go there all the time to sunbath, chill, have a picnic, go for drinks, meeting doggos and whatnot. Usually I try to sit close to someone with a cute dog, not so close that it’s very obvious, but close enough so the dog can come over to me so I can pet him 🙂

Benicassim & water park – a must when spending a summer in Valencia

Spending a summer in Valencia wouldn’t be complete without going to a water park! When my friend told me that there was a water park about an hour away from Valencia, I knew I had to visit. I hadn’t been to one in years so I was already way too excited about it haha. Then we finally found a day to go there, and boiii was it fun. After spending the day there I came to the conclusion that I should spend more time in water parks and less time not in water parks :)))

So this is pretty much what my summer has been like! It’s been one of the best summer I’ve had, filled with lots of summer-y things 🙂 I’m writing this in past tense because I’m actually headed to Iceland in the first week of August, so who knows if it will be summer there haha. You really can’t count on it. But I hope so! As for the rest of the year, I have no concrete plans and have no idea where I will be. My life is kind of an uncertain mess haha. But I feel like that’s what makes it exciting. People keep telling me things like “oh I can’t wait to see where you end up next” and I’m like “yeah me too” cause I honestly don’t know. Since Asia and Australia are still out of the picture, I figure I’ll be somewhere in Europe. Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Malta are some of the countries that are on my list. Although I’ve been to all of them except Greece, I feel like there is so much I haven’t seen. As an Icelandic passport holder, traveling in Europe is very easy and I don’t need a visa or anything like that. Then I might just as well visit Mexico or Colombia, I’ve been dying to go back there. Who knows.