Valmabar, spain

Never heard of Valmabar Spain? It doesn’t surprise me, it’s a really small town, totally secluded, a hidden secret that only locals go to and no tourists even know about it… You heard it here first and you need to add this placeto your Spain itinerary!

Just pulling your leg, It’s a combination of Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona – yes, we’re combining them into one blog as we have been spending too much time dozing on the beach in Sicily and haven’t touched the laptop!

Side note/rant, and in relation to my really (un)funny gag, but I dislike what social media has done to travelling, its to the point where travelling is not something you do for yourself now but for others. People tick off countries just to say they’ve been there, and everyone online tries to make you feel uncool if you choose to stay in a resort and not an abandoned church 100 kilometres from civilisation and running water – I can’t stand the competitive, gamified nature of it. I saw a video the other day of a beach in Sicily and the caption was “POV you chose to stay in a tiny Sicilian village and not a big resort”, as if to say if you did stay in a large town or resort that you’re an uncultured swine. The thing is that I knew the place she was showing as we had driven past there that day. A) it is quite literally a resort, it’s old tuna factory they have turned into up-scale accommodation, and B) it’s about 15 minutes outside of a large town – this person was blatantly lying to make people feel insecure about how they choose to spend their money when on holiday – gross! To my delight I opened the comments, and she was getting called out as a liar, so I felt vindicated. Okay enough ranting, but it’s no shocker and it goes without saying, don’t believe what you see on social media.

Back to the subject at hand, sunny Madrid. It’s beautiful, but hot as all hell, and it doesn’t help that the government here is actively cutting down trees and reducing green spaces in the city, they say it’s to make way for much needed infrastructure developments, but public sentiment suggests it’s so that politicians can line their pockets through the land developers and buy another holiday home in Mallorca. We hadn’t heard many amazing things about Madrid, but we had a great time here! The architecture is very Renaissance, and although I haven’t been, Hannah said it reminded her of Paris – this includes the stunning façade that now houses the largest Primark in Europe. Spanning 5 floors I felt a bit sad that such a beautiful building now hosts a fast-fashion shop, but then again, its grandiose nature is certainly in keeping with the Renaissance period’s penchant for excess. On the topic of opulence, we visited the Royal Palace, which features room-after-room of pure indulgent, maximalist design, with superb craftmanship from floor to ceiling. It’s magical, but also farcical. The sheer amount of time and effort expended to create and maintain these spaces that serve either the wealthy monarchy or the even wealthier church is frankly depressing, especially when inequality and social issues and clearly evident – alas, worth seeiing nonetheless. We also visited the Prado Art Museum which is just excellent (and free after 5pm), the building itself is beautiful and it features artworks from people even I have heard of, and my limited art knowledge includes the Mona Lisa by that one guy, and the hugely underrated Nona Barge (my grandma), who’s magnum opus hangs at my mums house, it’s a painting of a spider with 6 legs. Anyway, the highlight here was The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, it’s like a madman’s Where’s Wally depicting the Garden of Eden, the garden of its namesake, and hell, it’s worth the visit just for this artwork and to get a glimpse into this kooky dude’s psyche. If art isn’t your thing there are loads of great plazas to grab a bite and a drink, and on weekends an expansive flea market that is fun to explore. Madrid holds a special place in my heart as I managed to get a great haircut here, and as we did a week’s worth of laundry – you can’t beat the creature comforts of a good trim and fresh clothes.

So, onto Valencia, and what an amazing place, I could waxl yrical about Valencia. It’s probably the only city we have been so far where I could see myself living. Our base was the chic Eixample area where we had a lovely shared apartment with a balcony that was perfect for afternoon Coco’s and evening wines. I keep saying this, but Valencia has it all, which meant every day there felt different. The town meanders along the Jardin del Turia, an incredible 9km park that was built on the dried riverbed of the river Turia, it stretches from the top of the old town, through the city and ends at the mediterranean, and we had a blast cruising through here on our rental bikes. A refreshing break from old towns and historical buildings is the City of Arts and Sciences, which is a true architectural marvel. Comprising several all-white buildings of unique design, the space reminds me of what they thought the future would look like in the 1960’s, full of sweeping curves and sharp edges, like something out of the Jetsons. The precinct is surrounded by turquoise pools of water, and they contrast so beautifully against the stark white of the buildings and the lush greens of the park. The beach here is pretty good too, with an expansive stretch of yellow sand and clean water, it offered a much-needed break from the heat. There are also great markets, traditional paella restaurants, modern cafes and lots and lots of palm trees – which gives Valencia a unique feel amongst other places we have been in Spain. While it might not overwhelm with attractions Valencia has so much to offer, it has an unmatched vibe and atmosphere that suited us perfectly, our days here disappeared quickly and left us wanting more.  

Big, bad, bustling Barcelona. Arriving in Barcelona we step out from the metro into the blazing sun to see that we are directly next to the Sagrada Familia, what a surreal moment. Once we’re in our room we spend some time decompressing before asking the age-old travel question “so what should we do now?”, and in Barca, there is a lot to do, too much for a 4-night stay. From beaches, to gastronomy, to shopping and history, it’s impossible to be bored here, which is great because after 7 weeks of travelling you can start to get a bit fatigued! My first question as we begin exploring - where’s all the tourists everyone talks about? It was nowhere near as busy as I expected, I don’t know if this is a result of the anti-tourist demonstrations or if early August is the tail end of the season, either way I wasn’t complaining. We spent a great afternoon walking around the gothic quarter, enjoying drinks on the plaza with some bonus celebrity spotting, and then an incredible dinner. I was eavesdropping on the table next to us and heard the man say the “the patatas bravas is amazing at that place just down there”, consider us sold. We got there at just the right time and snagged the last table by the front window, 20 minutes later the same man walks past, points to our bowl of salty, molten spuds slathered in brava sauce and says to his wife “see I told you they were amazing”, if I never see that man again I hope he knows the legacy he has left on my tastebuds. Other days were filled with the Sagrada Familia, a walking food tour, Parc Guell, coffee breaks, soccer matches at La Barceloneta and general wonderment. In Barcelona it goes without saying that the Sagrada Familia is a highlight – it’s worthy of all its adulation and more. Beyond the mind-blowing architecture it was Gaudi’s progressive approach to Catholicism that really struck a chord with me. His desire to create a church that welcomes everyone, celebrates natures beauty, showcases all members of his community, and that embodies positivity rather than fear, is a platform and message that resonates with everyone that enters, leaving you with an appreciation for those best tenets of religion; it’s capacity to unite people and be grateful for one another and the world around us. As an atheist it’s refreshing to see this, but sad to think that almost 150 years after they broke ground on Gaudi's masterpiece that his line of thinking hasn’t penetrated the church and society further. On a much lighter note, a special shoutout to my mate Jack for his suggestion to try Fast Eddies burgers, we had been eating really well (not), so I definitely deserved that double smash burger and fries! And with that, it’s adios for now Spain.

Hannah's thoughts:

Line ups, museums, free entry we love to hear that, haircuts, chaotic flea markets! Our accomodation was walking distance to everything which was excellent. However we were a bit unsure about it being in someone’s attic on the 5th floor. But it surprised us and in the end wasn’t all that bad. The host made a special mention that it had the most important thing, aircon, but also mentioned the second most important thing, a hairdryer. We both had a chuckle about this. We visited El Rastro a huge open air flea market that went on and on, this place had it all! We went early to beat the crazy crowds and the heat and by the end of it you could barely move. Jesse scored himself a pair of baggy basketball shorts (which have now become his garment of choice) in a mound of clothes labeled 2 euro, to which he asked these wouldn’t have been washed would they? I found myself some jewellery and some shoes, score for the both of us! We found out the Royal Palace of Madrid was free after 5 and us being cheapskates leapt at the chance. We lined up in the blistering heat with every other cheapskate and waited for 45 minutes only to be told at the entry that it was only free for Europeans and Americans… we felt cheated. We deliberated on the side and thought we might as well otherwise what did we line up for? Anyway we were glad that we decided yes, as it was a marvel and really showed how the other half lived, however maybe we only liked it because we had to pay $60…? Anyway it’s the classic case of you win some and you lose some!

When rating the countries and cities we have been Valencia is up there with our favourites. We hired bikes and spent a whole day riding around the beautiful big park surrounding the city, a really easy way to see all the sights in a very calm way. If you know me I am not a confident bike-rider due to a few accidents all caused by myself, but even for non-skilled bike-riders it was excellent and very comfortable, I only managed to ride into one pole! Jesse and I found ourselves trying to pinpoint what Valencia reminded us of, it had similarities to Queensland and I said it also could be like we were in Hawaii. We stayed in a sharehouse apartment in the heart of Valencia with a balcony overlooking a main buzzing street and I found myself saying I could do apartment life, maybe if the apartment was like this. Our host suggested a place nearby for ‘the best paella’ if we were going to try paella what better place to try it than its birth place! This was one of our splash out dinners as we had been playing it pretty safe. On a huge list of different paellas we chose one that sounded most familiar and although good, we couldn’t decide if we liked the bastardised Australian version more, however they were so different we couldn’t compare.

Before coming to Barcelona we had seen and been told so much, be careful for pickpockets, it’s extremely busy, they hate tourists, you will melt it’s so hot, unfortunately lots of negatives which then affected my perception of the place. So in our last leg of Spain we felt pressure to see and do lots of activities, and see and do things we did. Our first day we had a tour of the La Sagrada Familia. It is without a doubt the most amazing building I have ever seen. We aren’t religious people but boy did this cathedral nearly convert us. The sheer scale of the cathedral is monumental and the facade detail is so intricately done you are blown away before even stepping in. However when you do step in, your breath is just taken away. Our guide said that 98% of religious people forget to do the sign of the cross when entering because as soon as they enter they look up in awe. Inside there is an array of colours lighting up the room from the stained glass windows, in the morning it is stained with blues, greens and purples, and in the afternoon brilliant hues of yellow, orange and red spill out onto the floor and reflect on the walls. If that isn’t enough to blow you away the ceiling is 45 metres high with incredible detail, Antoni Gaudi really was masterful. Honestly I could have stayed in there for hours just looking around in amazement. The trick is to go a bit later in the day because when the tours are all done you can go back in and actually have some time with minimal people around and just bask in all its glory. The next day we went on a walking food tour which helped us become acquainted with the city, its history and the food. It was three hours of different delicious bites, meeting new people from around the globe and seeing areas that we might not have even known about. Highlights from the walking tour was talking to American college students about The Summer I Turned Pretty, getting wine up my nose with the Porron and meeting the famous local bird ’Tinti’ At Periket Tapas. Our last day we went to Park Guel and to be honest after seeing the Sagrada it is hard to measure up. Instead we watched many people trying to navigate the steps famously known from the Cheetah Girls 2 movie to film themselves doing the iconic choreography, we also tested out the gutter system pouring water all over unsuspecting people below. All in all our time in Spain has been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it phase, nearly two months into our six-month trip and we are kind of liking this whole not working thing. Bring on our third country Sicily, Italy!