“Select your vices carefully. Ensure they can be controlled and they’ll sweeten life, rather than powdering it with guilt.” – Old Sean
A Tangent of the Unpaid
Generally, I believe myself to be an amiable person. Perhaps a little laid back, generally somewhat polite and charming enough to manage when those other two qualities fail. If one can subtract a bloated arrogance from my persona, the end result is a moderately decent temperament.
That lasts until I miss a few meals in a row.
At which point, I turn into a sullen, growling creature, stooping away from sunlight. No matter the scenic beauty of an area, I lurch around, muttering plumes of profanity under my breath. Hungry evenings are spent glaring at offensive blank spots on ceilings until sleep overtakes me.
Sadly, my boss is half-a-month late with my payment due to international transfer complications brought on by Brexit. With only enough money for lodging, I’ve switched to emergency savings mode, effectively starving myself.
While lodging and transport funds are budgeted for the next couple of weeks, my remaining cash set aside for food has become negligible. I’m stretching my remaining Euros like taffy, visiting morning market stalls for cheap veggies and Ziploc bags of dry cereal, averaging about 0.26 cents (USD) per meal.
This has dampened my mood considerably. Trying new foods while traveling is a major indulgence of mine. I firmly believe in the moderate pursuit of vices. Everyone should have a couple, lest they become too tightly wound.
For me, it’s food. And when I can’t tap into that particular vice, I tend to start muttering up a small storm. Currently, my fury and hunger are one as long as I’m financially barred from dining establishments.
Grumpy in Valencia
Sadly, these negative emotions assailed me while visiting Valencia. Which is a true pity, because Valencia is an extrodinary place to visit and possibly my favorite city in Spain.
Valencia’s center is cleanly sliced by a sweeping green belt which was created out of a diverted river. There are jogging trails, strange artwork-playgrounds, a Biopark zoo, some impressive earthen towers, a couple of battlements and tons of street-artwork sites.
Thankfully, the urban splendor of the area was enough to offset my mood at being paid late. I spent long morning hours walking through the numerous parks, starting at Parc de Capçalera and working my way towards the sea.
During this long walk, I visited Parc Gulliver. This unique playground is actually an enormous statue of a man sprawled out on the ground. I scrambled around the figure a lot and got my butt dusty on every slide I could find. The abstract figure is actually modeled after the character Gulliver, found in Dr. Jonathan Swift’s excellent 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels.
The morning walk, dry cereal and playtime at the park was enough to lift my mood. Despite remaining impoverished, I began to thoughouly enjoy the rest of my stay while visiting Valencia.
This is more or less how I imagined adulthood anyway.
Alien Spaceships
Eventually, after passing Escultura de Neptú and following more of Valencia’s green belt, I walked past the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe and the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. These unique structures are some of the oddest things to see when visiting Valencia.
The architecture here is engaging to look upon. Imagine a blue-water resort combined with the elegant, white curves of a hyper-modernist mothership rising from the ocean floor.
People splash around in boats across the shallow expanse while others opt to try out enormous, floating hamster balls. All across the park’s clear water spaces, everyone risks their electronic devices to take selfies.
Both sites are well-established science-and-culture centers, so I enjoyed my time around here a lot. Likewise, the strange outdoor Astronomy Garden was also quite eye-catching. I continued walking towards the sea, stopping again to glance at the unique Museu Oceanographic, with it’s strange, “cresting-wave” designs.
City and Shore
Generally, that’s the end of my time walking Valencia’s green belt. I turned back into the city and started moving along roads gradually moving northeast.
The number of attractions crammed into Valencia is quite bizarre. Every time I looked at my map, I realized I was passing yet another landmark. I wandered past Tinglat 2, an old warehouse converted into a roller-skating rink. Afterwards, I followed a long, surprisingly pretty walking past curving round the bay while glancing at the boats in La Marina de València.
Then, I rested briefly in Jardins de Neptú before walking along Platja de Llevant, a beach where I felt atrociously out-of-place in my hiking boots and walking chinos. I finally took an extremely long walk back toward my hostel, following Av. de Blasco Ibáñez until I reached the flowering archways of Jardí de Montfort. With feet aching slightly, I pushed on a little further, resting in Jardins del Real.
It was a tremendous amount of walking for the day, but with money being carefully meted out, I couldn’t afford to waste my remaining coins on a bus fare. I did splurge slightly and buy a few handfuls of fruit for a couple of Euros to ensure I wouldn’t be hungry for the remainder of my trek.
Good Meals With Good Company
As the sun set, I returned to my hostel where luck smiled on me. I met a Turkish gentleman named Meric, who was thrilled to explain his studies into cognitive behavior psychology.
I was apparently a good audience with an audibly rumbling stomach, because Meric offered me a hostel-cooked meal, sharing his skillet of fried noodles, mixed in tuna and various veggies. Since I travel with a pillbox full of spices, I was able to offer seasoning, as well as my company.
It was an excellent mash-up meal. And Meric was a grand human to meet.
Right now, I’ve returned to a small café, while walking in the area around Torres de Serranos, a stalwart set of imposing Gothic-styled towers. I’m happily listening to a few episodes of some downloaded podcasts (Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan) while digesting a heavy gift of noodles.
Tomorrow, luck willing, my payment will finally go through and I’ll be able to afford indulging aspects of life once again.
But sadly, those indulgences won’t be enjoyed while visiting Valencia. Instead, I’ll be moving onwards to Barcelona.
So until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written August 10th, 2018
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I picked up my yoga mat three years ago during a trip to Mexico. The Jade Travel Yoga Mat is light enough to roll up and attach it to the outside of my bag. It now doubles as my workout mat and a sleeping mat when I need to rest somewhere odd.
