We have a guest room for a reason — we love guests! Come on over just like our daughter and her boyfriend did last weekend. We got one evening alone with Abi for delicious Nepalese food at Kathmandu, which everyone we know agrees is the best Nepalese (read Indian) food in Valencia. We were excited to have her and to meet the boyfriend. Apparently, he was prepared for a toastier grilling than I gave him. I did go easy; we didn’t want to scare him off. He’s such a good sport that he even came to our family call. Is he a keeper? That’s for Abi to decide.
Anyway, we did our usual tour around Cuitat Vella (Valenciano for old town) and ate paella (well, they ate paella) at El Forcat. It has an old-timey feel perfect for setting the paella ambience.They enjoyed the paella and our food was also delicious. At least now we have one option when people ask us where to eat paella, which originated here. The thing about paella is that it is traditionally for at least two (have you seen the size of the pan) and Steven and I have overlap only in the rice part. Allegedly the beach has good paella spots, but when we went there once, it was overrun with cruise ship tourists and we didn’t think the restaurant was great. The real locale to chomp some paella is Albufera, where our friends Stu and Sheri went, but we have not been.
Saturday night, we tasted French wines, which is obviously what you do in Spain, at The Wine Place. The owner is from Ireland, but has been here 20 years. He went back and forth between Spanish and English, although he did say more in Spanish. The wine was OK, but he was very informative, especially in Spanish. We all had a good time and then headed over to dinner at El Temple, where we have been before (unlike last time we managed to order only enough food for one meal — down from three when we went there with Sheri and Stu).
We hope they liked it here enough that they would consider coming for a longer stretch, maybe to escape winter in London.
In the meantime, I continue to practice my Spanish and develop a community of friends here. I attended another sketch club at the Cultural Center Gran Nau, which is part of the University of Valencia. It’s a beautiful series of courtyards that reminded me of the palace in Mexico City (minus the Diego Rivera murals) with exhibit spaces and plenty of opportunities for me to practice my fabulous art. See below for my perfect reproduction of a staircase.
I also starting going to a Spanish conversation group. Speaking is the only way to do it, so even though sometimes I feel like I am losing words in two languages, I’m determined to learn. In this group, we’re all struggling to some degree, so it’s a little more comfortable. I also got a haircut (finally!) with a hairdresser who is Chilean but has been here about eight years. We spoke entirely in Spanish and I think I probably might have understood most of what she said. I even stumbled through a few topics and I think I probably might have made myself understood.
This isn’t a political blog, but Tuesday can’t be ignored. It was weird for us, because the polls didn’t close until the middle of the night. We both separately woke up, peeked at our phones, saw a sea of blue and rejoiced. Now, as we say here vamos a ver or we shall see.
In an attempt to find New York bagels here (hahahaha), I walked across town to meet a woman who said that she is making them. She’s a lovely person, an urban planning professor who moved here from Milano, but is making bagels on the side. They had the right inside texture and chew, but are lacking the crunchy outside. She had said that she was still working on it and that a lot of customers were toasting them so she didn’t want to over-crust them, but still. We’re hopeful she will get it right because we do miss bagels.
Next weekend is moving day (again). Yes, there will be photos.
