My goal for this trip was to visit the small cities and towns of Spain. That meant not focusing on Madrid and Barcelona. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. It is now famous for the Santiago Calatrava City of Arts & Sciences, a collection of museums, cultural buildings, an expensive aquarium and unfinished buildings built on a dried-up riverbed. Once upon a time Valencia had a river running through it. However, due to flooding, the river was redirected. The bridges still exist but in the area where the river ran is a chain of parks leading to the Calatrava extravaganza.

I took the high speed train from Barcelona to Valencia and was very interested to learn that Spain had a really had time figuring out where to put its high speed rail stations when they were designing the system. The country already had a modern, connected regional rail system. The routes of the high speed lines would not be on existing lines; they required fewer curves. Sometimes this meant that the high speed train would be outside of the center part of the city. It also meant there would be an option for the high speed station to be at the airport instead of the city center. In the case of Valencia, it meant there was no room for the new station anywhere exist directly behind the existing station. There had been political arguments about building a new permanent high speed station at the airport instead. Due to this, a temporary shed-like structure was built as the high speed station. While it is barebones in its design, it is still much nicer than most train stations in the United States, including the embarrassing New York Penn Station. The station is squeezed in directly behind the tracks of the local train station and the only way to get to the city is to take the shuttle bus that takes you on a very narrow path to doorstep of the older station. The distance is walkable but there is no walking path, everything is really squished in there.

My hostel was located inside the old train station. I really love this concept. It’s perfect for my style of backpacking. The old train stations are usually in the center of the city and have their own metro station. In the cities with good designs, the bus station is not too far away. If the station is built with good bones, the hostel rooms are quiet and you don’t hear the trains at all. This particular station had great bones. The hostel reception area served as a common area with beautiful high ceilings, a ton of light and most importantly, air conditioning.

I started walking around the gorgeous old station and made my way to the center of town. The plan was to walk to the Calatrava “world of wonder”. The heat got to me pretty quickly, though. I started getting concerned. Is this what the weather was going to be like everywhere in Spain? I thought September would be a little cooler? How would I be able to walk around cities and towns and go hiking up hills and mountains if the weather stays like this? It became more difficult to enjoy the beauty as the weather made me feel dizzy. I carried a big bottle of cold water with me but sometimes I found that the only relief was an ice cold can of beer for one euro at the air conditioned supermarket.

The beer-supermarket solution, of course, only works if the supermarket is open. Yes, I wanted to go to the medium and small towns. Well, that meant that supermarkets would definitely be closed during siesta time. You will think I’m exaggerating, I am not. Siesta in this towns lasts from 2pm to 7pm. At 7pm, the supermarket might be open for another 90 minutes or so. The system makes no sense at all. I understood that this is also why the clubs start up at 2am, but if all of the tourist attractions were open 9-5, how was I going to be able to see touristic things, buy groceries afterwards and then enjoy Spanish nightlife? The sad answer is that I would not be able to do all of these things.

Upon arriving at the Calatrava masterpiece, all of the architectural good-feelings arrived. Suddenly, I wasn’t bothered by the heat because I couldn’t stop staring at the amazing colors of white and light blue. I couldn’t stop staring at the majestic curves and lines, wondering how the engineering was done. What kind of imagination Calatrava had to design such structures. What kind of confidence and vision to convince politicians to build something like this.

Then I needed some shade. Luckily some of the structures create some form of shade. Lots of people were cooling off their feet in the many reflecting pools. I learned that entry to each of these buildings has a price. None of this is in the public benefit. The grounds are free but that’s about it. I figured I would walk to the aquarium to just to see how expensive it is. Along the way, I came across the very unfinished part of the area. I guess they ran out of money? Today, Calatrava’s buildings are all over the world but they have unfortunately come with incredibly expensive construction and maintenance costs that are so high, cities are rethinking their Calatrava investments.

My plan for the next day was to go to the famous Valencia beach. There was a direct bus from the city center, easy enough. There is a beach pretty close to the city center or you can take the bus pretty far away where there is not much around. I love that in Europe, they make nature accessible via public transportation. We absolutely do not do that in America. Try planning a vacation to Yosemite or Grand Canyon on public transportation. In NYC, there is a train to Breakneck Ridge in Cold Spring, but that’s about it. Try getting to Fire Island on public transportation without a local expert to guide you. The Valencia shore line goes quite far and there are many options for where to get off. I figured getting off farther away from the city would mean nicer beach and nicer water quality. Well, I think at the end of the day it did not matter at all because the beach was gross. The view is purely industrial. The sand was not fine. The water color was murky and dark. I thought this cannot possibly be it. Maybe I went to the wrong beach? Maybe the beach in the city is actually nicer? There were many people out and about on this beach, seemingly enjoying all of the things that I thought were terrible. I realized that I am not a local, this is not my beach and I do not feel that sense of Valencian pride. Spanish people, I would learn, are generally very proud of their history, their land and their nature. In this case, I could not appreciate the beach. It was time for Plan B.

In Spain, I would start a trend for myself. This would be a new little adventure for me. I had been searching for places in Valencia with nice views and this hotel pool kept appearing on the search results. I thought, “Well, I can’t go there, so what’s next?” On the bus returning to the city from this beach that I disliked so much, I realized… what if I can go to this hotel pool? I thought, I certainly have the travel confidence and I speak enough questions to be curious and ask to at least see the pool. Will they track me to see if I stay or not? I learned I wouldn’t have to worry about any of that. I just walked right in and grabbed a chair.

Ok that’s a bit of a lie. Actually, when I first got to the pool area, all I saw was a tiny little pool and I sat inside it and some people were looking at me weirdly. Then I saw a big staircase behind me leading to an elevated platform where there was the “adult pool”. Yes, I was sitting in the kiddie pool like a weirdo who had never seen a pool before. Whatever. I got a seat at the adult pool, went up to the bar, ordered a glass of white wine and enjoyed the view.

The next day, my goal was to go a little deeper into Valencia and find both architecture that isn’t so ridiculously beautiful and also see where the locals live. Of course, after a few hours of walking around it became so incredible hot that I had no other option but to return to the same hotel pool as the day before and enjoy being in Valencia without suffering. From the hotel pool, I could see the incredible amount of people enjoying the beach inside the city. It’s just not for me. Maybe I’ve been a pool guy all along?