Spanish classes and sunbathing in Valencia

Apologies for not posting the story of my travels during Semana Santa (Easter week) before, but I’ve been so busy with other travels that I haven’t had time to sit down at the computer properly during the past weeks and type my experience into a readable format… Yes, I know, hard life and first world problems.

So, the whole Easter week is a holiday in Spain so what could have been a better way to spend it than travelling? Valencia - the home of paella - sounded like a nice city and there was a good Groupon-offer for the Escuela Albufera language school which is nearby the city of Valencia so I decided to pack my bag and take a flight towards new experiences and sunny weather. It was definitely worth plucking up the courage to travel alone because it turned out to be a great week and not least because of the new friends I made! I even survived from the Irish pub where I happened to go just during the Manchester City - Liverpool game to recharge my phone when being a bit lost and, of course, out of battery.

The school area is a nice cabin village with lots of space to lay down on the grass and chill while sunbathing. Also the beach is nearby and buses go to Valencia every hour. During the week we had relaxed Spanish classes every day for two and half hours except Friday due to Easter. In addition, a salsa class, city tour and paella evening were included in the price. In other words, there was always a lot to do and maybe I improved also my Spanish skills a bit. However, if you are an intermediate or advanced level user of the language, I’d advise you not to expect mind-blowing learning experiences and aha moments when attending Escuela Albufera. Anyway, it was definitely value for money and the experience itself was great!

As I said, I was travelling alone - as most of the others at the school, too - but got to know the first people already at the bus stop waiting to get to the school area. What is more, in the cabin of seven people and within the small group in class it was easy to get to know the others and plan evening activities together. The people in the school were everything between 16-year-olds and retired having different professions and backgrounds. Also the level of Spanish varied a lot but everyone from the beginner to the fluent speaker of Spanish learned something new – if not about the language, about the other people and Spanish culture at least.

There are tons of things to do in Valencia but the landmark of the city is without a doubt the City of Arts and Sciences –park which consists of different sections like Oceanographic and Planetarium. The entrances are not too cheap but the area and architecture of the buildings – which by the way reminds me of Sydney’s Opera house even though I’ve never been there – are so beautiful that it is worth paying already for that. Clearly, there are also lots of shopping and, most importantly, eating possibilities around the city. To make it perfect, there is a lovely and enormous beach close to the city center as well as a really nice garden area where you can take a laid-back walk observing local people having fun and spending time with their families. The atmosphere of the city is more alike to the atmosphere in smaller places but still everything you can imagine is available. The people are so lovely that we even got paella made from scratch only for us because most of the restaurants in the village nearby happened to be closed on Mondays and paella apparently isn't meant to be eaten for dinner.  The only down side of the city – and this is also a word of warning for all the girls going to Valencia – was that when in a club, the guys get worse than mosquitoes so remember your repellent!

Valencia is definitely worth visiting and so far it's my favorite of all the places in Spain I've visited! If you're planning a trip to Spain, consider Valencia at least as good option as the traditional choices, Madrid and Barcelona.   

P.S I finally got yesterday the confirmation of my internship in Madrid and my exchange placement in Chile which means that you’ll be able to follow my stories from abroad at least till the end of this year! J

Why everyone should try leaving

I love airports. The atmosphere at airports is always a weird combination of sadness of goodbyes and excitement of something new. Often there is also a sensation of dreams come true. People come and go being totally unaware of the plans of the others but still you can see that every person at the airport has a story to tell. This time, while being at the airport of Valencia, I’m sad for needing to say goodbyes to the new friends I met during this week of holidays, and leaving lovely Valencia behind, but also excited to get back to home in Vigo and start enjoying my last weeks there before leaving the city with its people again and moving on in my life. I’d love to stay in Valencia but Vigo is waiting for me for one last time. Therefore, this post is dedicated to the ambivalent thoughts of leaving and moving on again instead of travels but, don’t worry, the story of the amazing Semana Santa in Valencia is to be posted soon, too.

The last moments of staying in a place that has provided you with lots of new experiences and amazing new friends is always a period of a lot of deep thoughts, overwhelming happiness of the experience as well as devastating despair of leaving all of it behind and taking a massive step to the unknown. The same process happens when moving from one place to another as well as when ending a great holiday even though the scale might be a bit different. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter if this happens in your home country or abroad but deep down you know that things are going to change soon and there won’t be turning back. During this period of saying goodbyes you start to remember all the small moments of laughter and silly faces, the feeling of absolute social cohesion with a friend you just met and the freedom of wildly throwing oneself into new things. You also start to pay attention again to the regular small things that make you happy like you’d never seem them before. Shortly put, you start to remember how to live.

Last week I wrote a bucket list for myself to complete before leaving from Vigo in three weeks. The list was short: 1) eating a hamburger and guacamole in my favorite restaurant there and 2) eating chili in the same restaurant. Well, of course I want to see all of my friends but that’s not something to tick out of the list so I didn’t write it down. However, after struggling to add stuff to the bucket list I realized that maybe it is the right time for me to head towards new experiences as painful as it is. All good things come to an end, they say. But only to enable the start of new experiences and to remind us what is important in life. Hopefully I will remember this feeling when being busy with my summer internship in Madrid and surprise myself with a cup of coffee on a terrace or a long evening walk just to have a moment to be grateful of how privileged I’ve been with having the possibility to do and see all of this.

It is sad that we so often are so busy hiding behind the duties of everyday life that we forget to see what is going on around us. After waking up, we hurry to work without having time to notice that the sun is shining or that our neighbor had ploughed our piece of yard too. Even if we noticed these little miracles of everyday life, we are too busy to be grateful and enjoy of them. After work we are too tired to socialize or do something we actually want to do. Laying down on the sofa and watching television is a lot easier. Life passes by running and we don’t often even realize that. What makes this so sad is that, according to many studies, people tend to regret later on rather those things they didn’t do than the ones they actually did. Therefore, I think that everyone should try leaving from one place to another no matter if it is a holiday or an actual moving as far as you need to leave something behind concretely not being sure if or when you’re coming back. I assure you that it will make you remember what the things you enjoy the most are and how you get the most out of your life. Once again, one more reason to travel!

For now, ciao Valencia and my new mates! Hopefully our paths cross again sooner or later.