Ramble
Quest - At Home In Valencia
As I mentioned, I came to Valencia on the advice of the crazy Jean Paul Belmondo character I hitched from in Ireland. Also, I associated the name with oranges. Other than that I know nothing about it and love going into new places that way.
Like most cities, Valencia is ugly as sin around the outskirts. However, the central, older section is absolutely fabulous. Wandering around, I'm faced with a dilemma at nearly intersection because all choices seem equally gorgeous. Starting right with the train station, there's a wealth of interesting buildings. The grand Cathedral, with its characteristic "El Miquelet" tower is great, and there are many other fine old churches as well. The Fine Arts Museum is large, free, and generally excellent. The Royal Gardens are peaceful and lovely. A curious looking dry river bed, now turned into parks, surrounds the northern half of the old city. And yes, there are even plenty of orange trees.
So, I fall in love with another Spanish city, lingering in every courtyard and getting lost as much as possible. It looks completely different at night too, busy instead of torpid and the lighting is inversed. The narrow streets are dark during the day with a blinding blue sky lighting up the sky. At night the streets glow and the skies are pitch. Most shopping seems to be done during the active evening hours or early in the morning. The middle of the day is one long sleepy siesta.
I notice changes during my last day though. Every church I pop into has a service in progress. Then I see people dressed in 16th century costume outside of one church, incongruously smoking cigarettes and chatting on cell phones. Fiinally, I'm walking down a major street and find it completely deserted, not just with foot traffic, but with cars as well, so now I know something is definitely going on. I come apon a police road block and figure that they must be preparing for a parade. Strange that no one is around though....
Circling back to the deserted streets I just came from, people suddenly start pouring into the streets. It's amazing, like something out of "The Truman Show", the streets were deserted and, as if on cue, people pack in! A parade does march passed, but it's extremely lame: a few horses, followed by the costumed people, with a school band bringing up the rear. The worst part is that people in a few horse-drawn carriages toss crappy items out to the crowd, who act like animals trying to get at these things! I can clearly see that what they throw are just cheap little candies and plastic shit, but the crowd (and not just youngsters mind you, but many older people who you'd presume would know better) pathetically knock each other over to get at this junk. Did they used to throw diamonds or something in former parades?
The event is the festival for Saint Vincent, who is the patron saint of the city. I visited the "crypt of the jail of Saint Vincent" on the festival day. Normally, hardly anyone comes down here to see the ruins of an old jail, but the place is mobbed on the festival day. Clearly this is because many people view some bones in the crypt as having something to do with San Vincente, but they don't even make that claim here! Some San Vincente reliquaries in the Cathedral get the same mob magnet pull as well. BTW, one of the items in the Cathedral is supposed to be the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus during the Last Supper.
Valencia was also the scene of one of the worst (yet entertaining in retrospect) hostels I stayed in this trip. Ironically named "home", it's noisy and smoky to an extreme and has terrible facilities, including a dearth of hot water and the worst, tiniest kitchen imaginable. This is literally one of those places where you're probably better off sleeping on the street. It would certainly be safer. My clueless Aussie roommates are ripped-off twice during their stay here! True, they are not the sharpest crayons in the pack as they were stolen from (probably drugged, although they are surprised when I tell them this) the week before in Barcelona, but their luck here is amazingly bad. First, they have a bag stolen from them that was locked in a locker. Then, someone sneaks into our room and rifles through all the backpacks, breaking the locks on theirs (I of course, have no lock on mine since there is nothing worth taking). The mind-bending part of this pilfering is that one of the Aussie guys was asleep in the room at the time and the bold thief lifted his wallet from a table less than a meter from his head! It seems that the thief was probably interrupted as he left all the backpacks piled by the door, where he was going through them.
When I hear about this lastest brash breach of security, I play detective by banging on doors and politely questioning people on our floor. I'm meeting some damned suspicious characters and have just discovered the most likely suspects in a roomful of Spanish guys who seem to live here, when suddenly a woman screams in a neighboring room! A German guy opens the door and shouts down to reception for a doctor. He may as well have asked them for a million dollars because that's how likely it is anyone working here will help him. Another traveler goes to phone for a doctor as I, and one of my Aussie roomies, help the German guy bring his girlfriend into the washroom, where she promptly collapses on the floor. After a bit we bring her around, only to have her violently vomit all over the place for about ten minutes. I never did learn exactly what was wrong with her as the German guy was being very closed-mouthed. It was probably drug related, but she managed to survive, even though no doctor every came.