Since I would be arriving in Valencia after dark, I made Hostelworld.com reservations for the Home Hostel next to the Central Market.
When I arrived, it was dark and I followed the hostel directions to take bus 62 to the hostel, but no bus showed up and the bus sign only showed that bus 4 would stop and it was for the Central Market. I waited for about 15 minutes until I gave up and hailed a taxi. The driver said it would cost me about 8 Euros for the ride so I jumped in.
In the dark, it seemed like a very long drive, but then we got to the Central Market and the meter showed just 7 Euros so I got out and gave him 8 Euros for the ride. I easily found the Home Youth Hostel in the street just behind the Central Market.
When I arrived, it was dark and I followed the hostel directions to take bus 62 to the hostel, but no bus showed up and the bus sign only showed that bus 4 would stop and it was for the Central Market. I waited for about 15 minutes until I gave up and hailed a taxi. The driver said it would cost me about 8 Euros for the ride so I jumped in.
In the dark, it seemed like a very long drive, but then we got to the Central Market and the meter showed just 7 Euros so I got out and gave him 8 Euros for the ride. I easily found the Home Youth Hostel in the street just behind the Central Market.
When I arrived at the reception area of the Home Hostel, I was invited to join the others for dinner. They were serving up a free dinner of beef stew, gnocchi, and marinara pasta. I met an interesting group of people there from Canada, Denmark, Morocco, Germany, Uruguay, and China. What an easy transition to a new place.
This hostel was wonderful, with beds and no bunks, very clean, hot showers, and a great common area for mingling and scheduling activities such as pub crawls, city tours, bike rides, and visits to the aquarium. I shared a room with two others, a guy from Germany and a woman from Colombia.
The Central Market just next to our Hostel is amazing. The products, of vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, hams, bakery items, flowers, and gifts. It was a great place to explore.
There were several shops that featured these Serrano hams--used mostly in sliced meat sandwiches.
Lots of fresh seafood stalls since Valencia is on the Mediterranean Sea.
This vendor specializes in candied fruits and vegetables.
It is no surprise that this vendor is selling lots of varieties of olives after driving by miles and miles of olive orchards on the way from Granada to Valencia.
This vendor shows more than one way that anchovies are prepared.
This "beer hall" offers over 450 different varieties of beer for sale.
Although they do not have the free tapas found in Granada, I did enjoy some fabulous food, especially all of the tapas choices including fried artichoke hearts and calamari.
Meat paella
As I began to explore other parts of Valencia, I was amazed to see the number of quality graffiti on the walls and security doors of the vendors. Many of the vendors included the theme of the services they provided. Here is a small sample:
There are so many beautiful churches throughout the old part of Valencia. Here is the nearby Iglesia de Santa Caterina.
Valencia City Hall
I took the metro subway out to the beach area. Like many Spanish cities, I visited this metro takes you around the city with ease and the cost is reasonable. Too bad our cities do not have this kind of system.
Valencia Beach Front Area
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One of the narrow streets in the old town area of Valencia
I found it amazing that all cities I visited in Spain, were so clean. There was an absence of homeless people unlike that found back home in the US. These cities have numerous street sweeper machines like this one that continue to clean up all of the downtown streets. Plus there are individual street sweepers that clean up what these machines miss. Also, the local shopkeepers keep the front of their places clean.
Turia Fountain in the Plaza de la Virgen.
Torres del Serrano is flying the flag of the Valencian Community and of the city of Valencia, known as Reial Senyera.
It was just a ten-minute walk from the Home Youth Hostel to the train station where I boarded the train for a 3 1/2 hour ride to Barcelona.
I am so envious of what great transportation systems they have over here in Spain including trains, buses, planes, metros, trams, and inexpensive taxis. The highway I traveled on from the ferryboat landing in Tarifa to Valencia was modern, new, and smooth compared to what we now have in the US.
The costs are also reasonable at about $1.50 for rides on the city metros, buses, and trams. The train cost for this train to Barcelona was just 43 Euros--$49 USD.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my travel adventures there. That link is
https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold.
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
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