23:18 Wed.
26 Jul, 2017

Time to make some paella!

Valencia , Spain
27 °C
Partly Cloudy
6:56 am
9:19 pm

Near the end of the year (2015) we randomly found out a return plain ticket from Venice to Valencia, Spain cost only 45€, of course we had to buy it, it was almost cheaper than bus ticket from Nova Gorica to Ljubljana.

Soon after, on the 20th December, we were on the plane flying toward Spain. We landed in the evening and took metro to the city center where we had hotel. Next day we had reservation in a nearby restaurant for paella.

Underground from airport to the city center.
Underground from airport to the city center.

Early in the morning (at least early for Spain) we woke up and went for a walk through the old city center. The city is old but fairly clean, there were a lot of people but not too much, since it was out of season. Despite being December it was quite warm, almost 20 degrees during the day in the sun. City was full of trees, not just any trees, the trees were full of mandarins. After trying one we soon learned why no-one ate them – they were sour as lemons.

Mandarins in December through the city of Valencia.
Mandarins in December through the city of Valencia.

In the city center there was the largest closed market in Europe (if I remember correctly). They were selling all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meat and fishes. The biggest surprise was strawberries. They had really big and juicy strawberries for less than a quarter price of the ones in Slovenia. After buying 1kg of them we learned they were also much better than the ones we get here in Slovenia (during the late spring/early summer – we have no strawberries in December), they were very sweet as oppose to the ones we get in Slovenia which are watery almost without the taste. After enquiring a bit we were told that the season for greenhouse strawberries has just begun.

In the afternoon we had a chance to try paella at last. It was so good, almost worth the whole trip just to try it.

Paella in Valencia.
Paella in Valencia.
Paella in Valencia.
Paella in Valencia.

After the lunch we had a chance to explore the city some more.

The next day we had a chance to visit the famous beach in Valencia.  It looked so nice, very very large full of sand, you almost wanted to go for a quick swim in the sea. We had a nice lunch at the beach-side – again paella of course, with some snagrias to  have full Spanish meal.

Valencia's beach.
Valencia’s beach.

After the lunch we went to the other side to visit City of arts and sciences. 

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

It was really interesting inside. They had tons of experiments that you could try everything from space and stars to animals. We also saw a 360 degree  movie about Jerusalem, it was quite a fun experience.

Preparing to see the movie. The thing I have around my head are headphones. The movie was dubbed to different languages.
Preparing to see the movie. The thing I have around my head are headphones. The movie was dubbed to different languages.

After we finished with everything it was already night and time to go to sleep. Next day we had something really special planned.

L'Hemisfèric
L’Hemisfèric

The next day we had “How to make a paella” cooking course. It lasted for about 5 hours and we did everything. In the beginning we went to local market (from previous days) to buy the ingredients. We also bought few grams of zafran alongside with snails, rabbit, chicken and other ingredients. After it we went to the restaurant where me Veronika and another two couples from USA were instructed how to do everything from cleaning to cooking ingredients.

Cooking paella
Cooking paella

In the end we tried our creations and while it was ok, I think I will stick to going to the restaurants there, theirs is better. 😛

After the course we went to visit the bullfighting arena near our hotel. It was closed few years ago and turned into a museum.

Bull fighting arena
Bull fighting arena

This was our last day in Valencia, but we couldn’t leave without trying one more thing: The black turtle burgers. We read online that it’s a must try after paella and spoiler alert, it was really worth it. Note: you really need a reservation before though, it is packed full all the time.

Veronika enjoining her burger, while I did a fatal mistake and took a burger with pancakes instead of bread buns. :(
Veronika enjoining her burger, while I did a fatal mistake and took a burger with pancakes instead of bread buns. 🙁

The interesting part is that the fries are even better than the burgers. They are dipped in the cheese and spices sauce.

The black turtle french fries.
The black turtle french fries.

After big dinner we went to hotel and took the bus next day back to Slovenia. It was a fun trip and we will definitely go again if we find another cheap flight. It’s a good trip for a few days and if you go outside of summer season it is fairly cheap.

 

 

 

22:32 Wed.
14 Aug, 2013

Can't feel my legs (again)!

Day 6 , 141 remain
Lulea , Sweden
17 °C
Fair
4:06 am
9:01 pm

I don’t know why, but last few days I’ve been waking up around 5 am. Maybe because at this time sun starts to shine right on to my bed. Usually I’m too tired to think about this so I just turn around and sleep some more. Today was a bit different as I actually managed to drag myself to the window and to my surprise there was a lot of mists in surrounding forests. I will try to take some better pictures of this event, maybe from that hill I mentioned in previous post if I’ll manage to get up there in the middle of the night.

Misty morning
Misty morning Luleå

When I finally woke up around 10 AM, I decided to go for a long walk alongside beaches, through centre of the city and back home. I departed at around 11 AM. First I went south-west to the seaside and then south-east toward town centre. I took quite a lot of pictures as I walked. There were lots of benches and small piers, with picnic areas, all the way alongside beach.

Picnic area
Picnic area

When I reached bench for single person I couldn’t but help to think about “Forever alone” image and how people say that Swedes are shy. Here is the bench:

Forever alone bench
Forever alone bench, where else but Sweden? 🙂

As I continued my journey I decided to skip centre first and go around nearby forest. Grounds of the forest were filled with blueberry bushes and some of them still had berries on them. I think I was at those bushes for about an hour, eating I’d say almost 0.5kg of blueberries before continuing.

Blueberries in the forest.
Blueberries in the forest.

 

As I was preparing to continue to walk again I heard strange pecking noise in the trees. I looked up and found woodpecker at work. I don’t think I ever saw woodpecker in nature yet. I quickly changed current photo lens with a zoom one and tried to take some photos. The trees were quite tall and this lens is not as good as it could be so the picture is not as sharp as I would want it to be.

Woodpecker
Woodpecker

 

After taking a few shots I went on my way again, shortly to arrive to the beach with sand, volleyball court and again some people swimming. I really don’t know if these Swedes don’t feel cold or what but I was wearing jeans and long t-shirt and was a bit cold. They were in those swimming suits swimming in ice cold (I checked) sea like it was the warmest day of the year.
I forgot to mention that after this people were looking at me even stranger than usually, I later found out that I was all purple around my lips from blueberries, thankfully no one knows me in this town. 🙂

Luleå from sea
Luleå from sea
Luleå from sea
Luleå from sea

Not long after that I was on the main street of Lulea. I’ve been here twice and it has always been packed with people. Over the street there were hanging flags from all over the world, sadly I couldn’t find Slovenian. I took some more pictures of centre and went home.

Luleå city center - main road
Luleå city center – main road

At the end my legs were really starting to hurt, next time I will have to wear my running shoes and not this casual summer shoes I had today. Here is a map I recreated, it looks like I walked for bit over 20km, in about 6.5 hours.

MAP

Now that I finally have internet I can start working on my blog again. Firstly I need to create edit option so I can correct some mistakes from previous posts. After that I have to figure out what to do with scrolling, first post is quite long way down now.