Featured posts on life in Valencia
I’m sure you’ve noticed the bronze figure on the roundabout on the Paseo de la Alameda. Looking like an enormous, weird sun-like creature with outstretched arms, it is utterly impossible to miss. It is one of the most characterful pieces of public art in the city. And almost nobody knows the story behind it. Here…
Valencia has two separate public transport operators, and the distinctions matter for children’s passes. EMT is the city bus company, run by Valencia City Council. Metrovalencia (metro and tram) is run by the Generalitat Valenciana. They have different cards, different eligibility rules, and different application processes — but between them, they cover the whole city….
Spaniards don’t like talking about money. It is one of the subtle cultural features that you only notice if you are in close daily contact — part of those mutually agreed, non-spoken rules. Even when I’m aware of the non-practical and dire consequences of this practice, sometimes I slip into being unable to control the…
Everyone who has spent time in Valencia knows Gulliver. You have probably walked past him, cycled past him, or watched children scramble over him on a Sunday afternoon. He is one of those landmarks of city life that you stop really seeing after a while. Which is a shame — because the story of how…
Last Friday, Atika and I were invited to the debut of All Over the Place: The Show, a live English-language show hosted by Alexey Timbul at Acting in English, right in the heart of Ruzafa. The episode featured different guests — and this first one was an entertaining, well-woven mix of stand-up comedy, Valencia history…
In Valencia, they don’t say “let’s have paella,” they say “let’s go for paella,” because it’s an outing, a spectacle, and a discussion waiting to become an argument. The first argument is about the word itself. Paella originally refers to the shallow, wide pan used to cook rice—from Old French paelle and Latin patella, both…