A trip down south to Valencia

With holidays around the corner, and an impending goodbye to Europe for a few months, me and my friends decided to make a trip to Valencia, the third biggest city, located on the east coast of Spain, south of Barcelona, where we currently live. The reputation of Valencia amongst my friends and colleagues induced an expectation that was pretty damn high. But I’ll tell it now, before I even start, that Valencia didn’t disappoint. At all. In three days, we managed to hunt down almost every hotspot and to-do’s (mostly outdoorsy stuff…we couldn’t go into some of the cool museums they had). Here, I’ll be talking about the places we went and the personal experiences I had with Valencia.
(p.s. Pictures can be enlarged)

THE OLD TOWN

Wondering off in the old town of Valencia (also the city center) by your own has no shortcomings, because every square looks beautiful and picturesque, and every alley and street are worth getting lost into. But its always nice to get some information about the beautiful monuments, statues, cathedrals, churches and the backstory behind them. So, to learn a bit about Valencia, we did a walking tour around the old town. The tour lasted two and a half hours, and pretty much covered the history of the city right from the first century. The trip took us to fantastic gothic churches, historical buildings and grand palaces which was full of life. The weather was spectacular (21o C in summer wasn’t bad at all), there were lots of people, and it was impossible not to find dance, music and other performances in the squares. The highlight for me was Plaza de la Virgen, which was something you couldn’t miss in Valencia. It felt like it was the heart of Valencia, with the beautiful Cathedral, the Turia Fountain and Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados right there. The Central Market that was also close-by was huge, with a lot of local stuff for sale, most interesting (for me) being sea food, from squids to octopuses and clams, they had everything (I couldn’t take pictures because lots of people and chaos!).

Because the tour guide recommended us to visit a museum that enclosed an excavation of roman settlements, we went there too to see what it had to offer. Its name was Almoina Archeological Center and when I went inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes because it was huge. It felt like we entered into an entire roman town that had houses, storage buildings, squares, baths and even burial sites. I had visited a similar excavation site in Cologne, but this was far bigger and better. The city was colonized by Romans in 138 BC and was under their rule for as long as the 4th Century. It was amazing to see buildings that were thousands of years old whose remains were still preserved in site under the center of a modern city.

Plaza de La Virgen

Sights from the Old Town

 Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados

Almoina Archaeological Site (picture by Erik Salkeld)

CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

After walking through the medieval and pre-medieval streets of Valencia for just under 45 minutes, we were at the City of Arts and Sciences, which looked completely different from where we were previously. I mean, it felt like I travelled through time from the Ancient ruins of the Roman Empire to a futuristic city. The new-age architecture was stunning, something right out of a fiction novel. I later found out that some of the filming of the movie “Tomorrowland” was done in this location, and some of the futuristic buildings in the movie were real buildings of Valencia City of Arts and Sciences. We were there at the best time because on that day, at around 5 pm, the sunset looked beautiful. The red hue from the sunset reflected upon the magnificent facades of the futuristic buildings that made them look surreal, and we could only sit there and stare at its beauty, and take pictures of course.

Anyways, we were told that the whole “City” took 1 billion euros of initial investment, and god knows how much it costs to maintain it every year. It had a Science Museum, the Ágora (a multifunctional venue for events), Hemisferic (an Imax and 3d movie center), and the Ubracle (which for me looked like a general urban space where you could have a good view of the “future”). We didn’t have enough time to go inside but I can imagine that it would be equally brilliant.

Sights from City of Arts and Sciences

Behind the Sculpture is the Opera House of Valencia

The Hemisferic complemented by a spectacular sunset

The Umbracle on the right, Ágora on the center and the Science Museum on the left

THE GHOST RIVER

No, its not haunted, and they don’t call it that. The river is called Turia, but there is no river. Well, there used to be one back in the day. The Turia river used to run sort of longitudinally originating from the Mediterranean Sea towards the west of the city, and used to cause a lot of problems due to floods. The flood in 1957 was so devastating that the government decided to divert the river towards its western outskirts, creating a dry river-bed along the city. While the initial plan was to make a highway right in between, the Valencian Authorities decided to make the dry riverbed a park, and that was a very good decision in the end. They incorporated the residue of a problem into an essential component of the urban fabric that promoted wellbeing and inclusiveness, and improved the landscape within the city which was genius. The park had small ponds, gardens, managed and unmanaged trees, fields for sports and other activities, and it was very accessible to the public because it spanned throughout the whole city. Its something I could have never thought about – Turning a river into a city park. It was great.

A Garden in the Turia Park 

Some sights from the Turia Park

Underneath a bridge of the then Turia River, which is now a metro Station

The park spans through the city, along the river bed of Turia

It wasn’t only the city but the experiences we had and the things we did that made the trip special. I’m sure we wouldn’t have had as much fun if we didn’t eat the Valencian Paella (a dish with Rice, originally invented in Valencia but very popular all over Spain), roam around the city aimlessly, tired and hungry, without finding a good place for food, or if we didn’t try some of the Horchata (a sweet drink made of Almonds, milk and sesame seeds, which turns out, is pretty popular out there ), or visit some bars and try Agua de Valencia (a cocktail made up of a base of champagne with gin and orange juice) with some new people we met at the hostel, and if we didn’t decide to “jam” , singing songs in the hostel terrace with the new friends we made. I did have a few not-so-good experiences, particularly with my hostel room, but everything came with a package and in the end, it was an overwhelmingly good experience.

A traditional Paella for three!

A view from Torres De Quart (spot me)

I don’t imagine myself going back to Valencia again, because there are so many other places to see and so less time!!! But I’m really glad I went there because it’s a city that is definitely worth seeing.

New York, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas & D.C. - A summer trip to the west

For the most part of my time imagining places when I was a kid back in Nepal, it would mostly be about the United States of America. It had a lot to do with some of my closest family members living there. I remember that when I was around six years old, I would patiently, but eagerly stay in line to talk to my Uncle living in the states who had called us after months to hear his stories about the western, first world country. Of course, I was the last in line, after my Grandfather, Grandmother, Dad, Mom and my elder brother, and I would hardly get five minutes to say hello, but I would always be the last person to say goodbye to him and it made me happy. The stories from my Uncle and my elder brother (who later spent around seven years) about this giant country felt like an urban legend- something that would never come around in my reality, and this precise thought I had, compelled me to prove myself that I was wrong. And so, when a two-month vacation came around after my 2^nd Semester in Hamburg, I decided to go to this place that captivated me so much in my childhood. I had to do it, I just had to.

I was somewhat unlucky in the beginning because my flight from Frankfurt to Baltimore got cancelled and my trip got cut short by three days. I was very disappointed because I missed my trip to North Carolina, but was still excited to meet up with family and have an amazing trip.

The first thing I noticed when I made my trip from the Airport to my Uncle’s place were the highways. They were huge (I would later find out that it was nothing compared to the highways in Dallas, which were massive). The first day, I sort of embraced the American Culture and went to the mall. And it was there where I had my first culture shock. Because it was Labor Day, supposedly the last day of summer (I know, my schedule wasn’t very good), there were huge sales all over. When I think about it, I think I picked out a good day to visit the mall, not because prices were cheaper, but because I got to see what I thought was a huge festival inside the mall. The gigantic parking lot outside was full of cars, and it took us around twenty minutes to get a spot. Inside, the mall was full of people, in line for the fitting rooms, in line for the counter, and even for the toilet. I must admit, I was really impressed by the marketing strategies that every retail shop had, and was a victim to buying some stuff myself (which I probably didn’t need). But that was the thing. The red signs that read “SALE!!!” hung everywhere in every shop, and it was hypnotizing, and people (like me) were being bewitched into the schemes of low prices like moths to a flame (okay, maybe not the perfect simile, but I have to say, if you think about it, its arguably a good one).

United States Capitol, Washington D.C.

Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

The Washington Monument, Washington D.C.

For the rest of the few days I was there, I made trips to Baltimore, New York City, Boston, Dallas and Washington DC. While exploring these cities was my primary goal, I was also very pleased to meet all my relatives scattered all around (some of whom I met after years). The best experience I had was in NYC (although it might not be a fair judgement because I spent a lot of time in NYC). One reason why I liked the city so much was that it was full of energy. It reminded me of Berlin in many ways (the diversity, so many things going on, a hub for art, performance, culture, food and everything else). While I had heard NYC being famous for its people being rude, I never actually experienced it. I was mostly travelling alone, but I was never on my own, because I met a lot of people wherever I went and tagged along with them.

A panaromic view of Times Square

Another reason is that NYC captivated me with its iconic skyline. I got off a bus in midtown Manhattan the first time I went to NYC and I felt this overwhelming excitement when I made my way through Times Square, walking my way to Rockefeller tower and the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

Times Square at night

St. Patrick's Cathedral

 More than the place itslef, Hollywood’s influence on me is what I think made these places so exciting. Along with my walking tour in Greenwich Village, I saw several locations like the restaurant in which Llewyn Davis played in the movie “Inside Llewyn Davis”, Washington square park in “August Rush”, the iconic scene from Queensboro Bridge in “Manhattan”, and much more, which finally made it feel like Hollywood wasn’t in a galaxy far, far away. Besides that, I went to the “Top of the rock”, the top of Rockefeller tower and saw the skyline overlooking the city, which was fabulous. In the distance I could also see Central park spanning a huge area, and of course, I paid a visit there too.

Central Parking spanning a huge distance, as seen from top of the Rock, NYC

The iconic Skyline from Rockefeller Tower 

The observation Deck of Rockefeller Tower

Central Park, NYC

When I was still there, I realized that my initial plan to stay in NYC just for two days was far from enough. So, I decided to come back again, and I was very glad I did that because I could see a lot of places; I walked the high line, went through Chelsea market, battery park and walked the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight to name a few. Another reason was that I had the best Taco (inside the Chelsea market) and Japanese food EVER!

New York High Line, NYC

Brooklyn Bridge, NYC

It was obviously still not enough for me because I didn’t want to say goodbye to New York City when I left.  There were so many other things I wanted to do there like visit the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, see a Broadway musical, explore Central Park some more, see a Shakespeare in the park play, see a standup comedy at a bar and, oh, the list could go on for ages.  But I like to believe that leaving behind some stuff in a place always makes you go back to that place again. So I’ve got my excuse to go back again.

Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, Boston

Near Boston City Hall, Boston

Quincy Market, Boston, Massachusetts

Fort Worth Water Garden, Texas

It was a month-long travel and I did numerous trips to a lot of places, and compressing it in an entry just isn’t enough.  I couldn’t stop myself from writing about NYC because I loved it, and although I had only two days for Washington D.C., I liked it very much. But I didn’t have the whole experience to write something about it, or about Boston, Dallas and Baltimore. I was thinking of doing a first impression (could easily be a very ignorant reflection) entry about the States but I realized that the country is almost as big as Europe itself, generalizing an impression doesn’t cut it. I did see a few distinctive features about the country that I liked very much and some that I wasn’t so fond of. I guess the same could be said about nearly everything. I could understand the magnetic influence of the US on people from around the world, and how it delivered on the prospects of a good job and a promising future. For me, I should say I loved the places I visited but I don’t see myself living there for now (considering if I ever get a chance…beggars can’t be choosers).

It was indeed an incredible trip, which didn’t let down my childhood imaginations and which never disappointed my expectation. I still feel very lucky to have visited so many places in so little time, and I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am to my Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and friends who made this trip the trip of a lifetime. Thankyou fam!! 

The Nordic Island nation: A hunt for the northern lights and more

One of the very first real trips I had when I arrived in Europe was not at all where I had planned to go. Amidst so many list of cities I had in mind, I had never thought Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) would be worth visiting (in fact, I never knew about Reykjavik, or anything much about Iceland for that matter). In the end, I decided to join abroad the Iceland trip with my friends to give a shot at enlightening myself about the island country to the northwest of Denmark. It was on the 17^th of November, 2016 that I set my foot in Iceland, and I’m writing about this almost a year later because, to simply put it, of many failed attempts to describe about my trip. Every time I sat down trying to write about Iceland, I couldn’t express what I saw because I wasn’t visiting any historical monuments, landmarks, or taking cultural tours, or going to restaurants or visiting museums. All I did when I was in Iceland was explore nature, and it’s often that nature doesn’t have a story behind it, it’s just there, and all you can say about it is that it is beautiful. The first time in my life I was lost for words, and the words I finally conjured up were not doing justice to what I saw and felt at that moment of courtesy of the enthralling landscape and breathtaking scenery.

I wouldn’t say winter in Iceland was particularly a good idea, because of its close proximity to the northern pole, leading to harsh temperatures below zero and very short days. But the only thing that made me make the trip there was the possibility to see the famous Aurora Borealis, better known as the northern lights, and I had no idea that Iceland had so much more in store.

Arrival

I remember the moment I stepped out of the plane in Jomsom (a small town located above 2500 meters above sea level in the west of Kathmandu which is particularly known to be very windy) when I was heading towards Muktinath (a religious destination a few hundred meters above Jomsom). Yes, I had a pleasant surprise when the wind hit me and I had to clutch on to my jacket in my hands a bit harder. The winds in Iceland, however, were in a different league altogether. Anybody who had been there would always say that Iceland would blow you away. But I didn’t know that what they said had a very literal sense. The winds were so strong that, yeah, it could actually blow you away. At the airport, me and my friends were in the middle of a discussion on how we could reach our Airbnb apartment when we were walking out of the main entrance, completely unaware that the winds outside were as high as 50 km/h. After stepping out, I couldn’t mutter a single word, and I looked at my friend who was having the same trouble. With narrowed eyes, he could finally mutter, which I think was “shit!” I had a hard time gripping on to my mini duffle because the wind was so strong that it was constantly pushing it against my clutches and it was difficult to even breathe. It was pretty much the same all the time for the five days I was there. The most you could stand outside in the freezing winds was probably like, 5 minutes, before your hands would feel numb and you eventually had to go back inside a car or a building. But it was quite an experience. Needless to say Iceland figuratively blew me away, it almost literally blew me away as well.

The Golden Circle Route

We had four days to travel around, and although Reykjavik was a cool place to hang, there were better things to see outside of the city. So, we rented out two cars and went to several destinations close-by the city. We made our way through various stops in the golden circle route, the first stop to which was the Thingvellir National Park, whose main attraction was that it was the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 

Thingvellir National Park (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Thingvellir National Park (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Thingvellir National Park 

Thingvellir National Park, where the tectonic plates are diverging

The next stop was a hot spring Geyser which was also just five minutes away from the Golden Circle Route. Like other Geysers, the one we saw had a vent in the earth’s surface and every once in a while (like five minutes or so), hot boiling water would rush out of the vent up to several meters (check the video below). The shooting water would then be guided into the direction of the wind and the resulting phenomenon would look astonishing. Apart from this, another great location we went to was a geothermal area called Gunnuhver where you could see steam coming out from the surface everywhere (we walked through the steam and there's a video below). It looked like the whole area was covered in a thick mist. The steam was slightly acidic as it contained some amount of Hydrogen Sulfide, and sure enough, it wasn’t very pleasant to the nose (rotten eggs!!). 

Acidic Steam coming out from Gunnuhver (Picture by Nadin Brunnhofer)

We also made it to Gullfoss waterfalls, which is by far the best waterfall I’ve seen. It wasn’t very huge, but because the surrounding snow-clad hills and spectacular skies in the background gave a majestic, fairy-tailish façade to the waterfall which was ridiculously bewitching.

Gullfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

A selfie from the top of Gullfoss

Our last trip in the Golden Circle Route was the Kerid Crater Lake. So, basically, it’s a lake that is inside a volcanic crater. Nothing could be cooler than that. Except if the water is neon blue, and yes, it was. We reached there right when it was time for sunset, and walked around the whole crater, then climbed down towards the lake. I got so excited that I dropped my friend’s camera into the lake while I was taking pictures (I hurriedly took it out and we put it in a bowl of rice for three weeks or so and it started working again, so it wasn’t an unhappy ending). But I get to say that I dropped a camera in a Crater lake once in Iceland, which is pretty cool.

The Kerid Crater Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kerid Crater Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The Black Sands and Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

The Black Sands beach is a very rare beach in the southern coasts of Iceland, and as the name suggests, the sands are pitch black (even the pebbles). The reason the sands are black is because of volcanic lava flowing into the ocean, solidifying and then washing up to the shore. We woke up early the next day to go to this place and catch the sunrise there, which turned out to be a very good decision. Out of all the places we visited in Iceland, this was the best. The sunrise was downright mesmerizing, as you could see the first few rays of the sun approach the beach and reveal the enchanting and exceptional beauty of the black sands. The skies were a mixture of yellow, orange and blue, which was also being reflected by the surface of the sea, and the blackness of the beach provided a unique contrast to the whole landscape, and such a blend I believe could probably not be found anywhere in the world. We were so captivated that we spend around three hours there not doing anything, enjoying the sun and looking into the horizon. Some of my friends and I conjured up our strength to open our shoes and walk in the shores, which probably lasted for a minute because the water was ice cold. We walked further down the shores to find huge columns of basalt, which was also caused by lava flowing. If there is one place I could go again out of all the different places I’ve visited recently, I would choose the black sands beach.

Sunrise in the Black Sands beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Black Sands Beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The column formations (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Black Sands beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

We finally said goodbye to the Black Sands beach and headed to Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. It wasn’t as spectacular as Gullfoss waterfall that we saw the previous day, but the best thing about this waterfall was that the pool it made was frozen, and it was thick enough to walk in it. Also, you could see a spectacular rainbow forming right in front of it, and the frozen surface below would reflect the rainbow so that you could actually see a full circular rainbow, and it was amazing (check the video out below).  

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

We had some other places in our list but we spent a lot of time in the black sands and therefore couldn’t go. But it was a time well spent in the black sands, and we decided it was all worth it.

The northern Lights

Yeah, we didn’t get to see them.
We went for northern lights hunting three nights for hours by checking out some website about its activity and probability of occurrence, but we weren’t lucky enough to find it. We drove through gravel and earthen roads, got stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black and the freezing cold just to see if we could find the lights but we didn’t get to see anything. It was kind of disappointing because that was the whole reason I jumped aboard the trip, but I saw so many other things that in the end it didn’t matter at all. I guess seeing the northern lights will probably be an excuse for me to visit Iceland again.

In a nutshell

I have to say, the first holiday trip I had in Europe was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. Iceland’s sumptuous hills, skies, volcanoes, lakes and waterfalls bewitched me so much that I could go there again in a heartbeat. While I think the city Reykjavik is nothing out of the ordinary, the places outside is something that is completely out of the world. I’ve never seen any place similar to the places I’ve visited in Iceland before, and this unique landscape and natural beauty it has makes visiting this place a must for every travel bug. 

Somewhere along the road near the city (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kleifarvatn Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kleifarvatn Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The Crew (probably the reason why the trip was super fun)