Valencia, Spain

As with many towns in Spain, Valencia is known for its paella and its healthy servings of seafood. Now that shrimp paella has become the standard to serve to tourists there has become a huge selection of shrimp sold in the markets, and there are even frozen food stores that specialize in rows of different varieties of shrimp!

In 1957 Valencia was flooded by the Trio River, so the city decided to divert the river to avoid future flooding. This left a more than 10 km long stretch of open space that was converted into a park (El Jardín del Turia) that when followed dumps you out onto the beach! It’s pretty awesome because the old bridges keep the traffic above you so you can run or bike without interruption of street crossing.

Horchaterias were abundant throughout the city but we found something even more refreshing… hallowed out oranges and lemons that are filled with ice cream!

We were trying to decipher the difference between siesta time and basic issues that Spain is having with their economy. It didn’t matter what time we were out and about, but at least half of the shops were always closed and some shops in our neighborhood weren’t ever open for the entire time we were there. Tapas could be found, but we weren’t always certain if places that were open the previous day would be open or not.