Moncada in May

Fortunately for me and a few others, but not all, a four-day bank holiday weekend was a welcome break after the first two weeks of our Spanish work placement.

Friday night:

I was invited out to dinner with some of the teachers from the Collegio de San Jose in downtown Valencia. Two of the teachers kindly drove us into the city (thank you Carmen and Jose) where we met up with the others at the Black Turtle, a very busy upmarket burger restaurant in the Ruzafa district. After several hours here we moved on to a club where my local colleagues were split between English and Spanish language dance music. Although a terrible but enthusiastic dancer in my youth I didn’t partake in the physical merriment as I twisted my knee last year (not dancing btw) and it hasn’t quite recovered yet. Poor excuse but it’s the only one I’ve got, honest!

Saturday:

After a very late night by UK standards but not by local, I decided to spend the morning cleaning in the flat listening to some opera, happy in my element. The rest of the day was now mine to enjoy. This was spent typing up the lesson plan for my observed lesson next week and writing an assignment for an evening course that I am doing in the UK - which I have been putting off for far too long (L3 Award in Education and Training, the old PTLLs course).

Sunday:

A visit to the home of Levante UD to watch the King’s Cup rugby match between Silverstream El Salvador and VRAC Quesos Entrepinares, two teams both from Valladolid, with the final score 16-20 to Quesos. An excellent game of rugby in a very good stadium with every seat having an excellent view of the match. The weather was a little breezy which dictated which team used their kicking game in each half but the scores were pretty even with Silverstream trying until the final whistle to place the ball over the Quesos try line to no avail. A big thank you to one of local colleagues who arranged the ticket for me (thanks, Pepe!)

I then ventured down to Alameda for a stroll through the Jardine del Turia down to the Cuitat de les Arts y les Ciences, a gentile 5 mile walk interspersed with a couple of cups of coffee and a very nice ice cream. Not the ideal thing to eat when you have a beard.

Monday:

My flatmate and I ventured out on a visit to the old town in Valencia starting with a mooch around the Central Market before a long leisurely lunch at Escalones de la Lonja with grilled cuttlefish followed by fried squid washed down with a couple of glasses of red wine.  Having seen the size of the fruit and vegetables in the markets here and the choice of meat and fish, all procured locally, I can understand the attraction and the success of the Mediterranean diet combined with the low prices due to lower overheads than in the UK. Oh, and the wine is rather nice too!

Sitting outside the various cafes and restaurants in the sun, watching the world go by - I have become enamoured with the pavement café culture. This was followed by plenty of meandering through the old town and then plenty of visits to handbag, dress and jewellery stores that my flatmate wished to enter with me providing moral support and trying not to take the proverbial too much. That good intention did not last very long.

Tuesday:

An extremely leisurely day doing not much at all whilst trying to finish my UK assignment then later downtown to have a stroll around and to check on bus timings to Albufera. We left it a little bit late to go so we may go next weekend. So, after wandering through the leafy and attractive streets of Ruzafa the only thing to do was to find a coffee shop for a ‘café americano’, or two, and the obligatory small pastries. I think I could live here, this city has enchanted me …

Tomorrow, back to work.