First off, thank you Travis Baldtree for being my follow-up author to Ottessa Moshfegh, because I needed something cute and touching and full of nutty coffee after reading the bleakness that is Lapvona. I loved the medieval fiefdom shitshow that was Lapvona; it’s also up there with one of the most fucked up reads I’ve ever read (that grape throwing scene – why? Just why?). Originally, I’d wanted a nice beach read for a coastal city, but I must have brought the weather with me, because it was only thunderstorms and rain the entire time I was in Valencia. It left me with a lot of downtime and I powered through the entirety of Moshfegh’s novel during the weekend, though I’m not sure if it’s a novel you want to power through. Some scenes in it left me so disturbed that I couldn’t conceal it on my face, which led to a few concerned side glances on the train and at the airport.
Maybe it’s a good thing to read a bleak, depressing book on vacation. It definitely makes you appreciate the city more, as it becomes a haven for not having to think about what you just read. You can, instead, lose yourself in the beautiful sights.
Despite all the rain, Valencia is a beautiful city. I only went to the old town at night during a merciful break in the thunderstorms, but I got some fresh-squeezed orange juice and got lost in the old side streets. It’s a good walking city, actually, mostly because the subways are so old and crowded that I was encouraged to walk instead.
I walked until my feet blistered and my jeans were permanently wet with the rain splashback. I walked until my hair frizzed and I got hungry and had to stop eat. You know a restaurant is good when there’s one tiny, boxed TV from the 90s on top of a dessert freezer BLASTING a Spanish fishing show and an old woman comes in halfway through the meal to try and sell lotto tickets to all the patrons. I ate enough seafood in one sitting to be done eating for the remainder of the day. It was a shrimp-centric weekend.
The main tourist attraction to Valencia is their aquarium and I made sure to go early, though it wasn’t too packed in the off season. I love to read in aquariums so I spent the better part of the Saturday there, waiting for the rain to pass while I watched the seals fight for thirty minutes straight or read in front of the ocean tanks. Lapvona is a fucked up pairing to a family-fun day location, but reading while surrounded by sharks and manta rays and the wavering blue light does put one in a sunken, dismal mood.
One ending note – El Cabanyal is a cool spot! I don’t think I’ve ever seen architecture like that before and all the colourful building and squeezed-together houses were so pretty. I took most of my pictures from the trip in the neighbourhood and even stumbled across a tiny concert in a tiny square tucked into a tiny section of the side streets. I was too shy to sit down on one of the folding chairs so I listened at a distance instead. It was a charming, classical concert. And something you really only stumble across when walking instead of taking tour busses or transit to the big sights. It makes the blisters worth it.
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