Sunday, November 29, 2009

Flying through the streets of Valencia





Last week I made a quick trip to Valencia for a few days.

I met up with some friends and ate at what has become the usual spot I go to, a little bar/tapas place called La Rentaora. Rentaora is a woman who cleans by the hour and there are paintings on the wall depicting this imaginary woman scrubbing the floors. The place is tiny, accommodating about a maximum of 25 people, with a large bar to the side taking up at least 1/3 of the space. On this visit I ordered the same dish I was introduced to before, a melted brie with violet jam. It’s to die for, absolutely delicious! The violet jam is somewhat of a mystery because I have since looked for it in several stores and the people I asked said they have never heard of it. I was hoping to indulge in this Valencian specialty during some evenings at home but for now it only remains possible to enjoy this delicacy when I go to Valencia and pay a visit to La Rentaora.

The best part of the evening was cycling through the streets of Valencia with a dear girlfriend visiting from San Diego and two other new friends. It’s a cool feeling dashing past pedestrians and cars, jumping on and off sidewalks and roads and flying through the old town of Valencia on a bicycle. Oh and the whole evening started at about 10:30 pm, typical of Spanish time. The biggest challenge was that there were four of us and only three bikes so we had to improvise new ways of adding on a second person to a bike set up for only one. At one point in the evening, the bike carrying two took a tumble to the side. It looked like one of those cartoons where the characters fall and it looks so painful, but afterwards they just get up, dust off, laugh, and keep going. Thank goodness I wasn’t on that bike! I’m looking forward to going back to Valencia just so I can go flying through the old town at night on a bicycle.

No comments:

Post a Comment