Valencia travel log - Day #2 - The sea vs the noisy petards and the issue with the slow internet connection

We've just came back in our rented apartment here in Valencia after a day of exploring a bit more the city and the seaside neighbourhood. We walked about 18km (that's what the Health app on my phone says :) although my tired feet say it was even more than that.

Anyhoo...

For today we had a major objective: to get to the sea, figure out how far it is from where we are based if we don't take any public transport and spend some relaxing time on the beach.

We also wanted to find a laptop friendly place with a decent internet connection to maybe get 1-2h of work done.

Well, we managed to cross only the first one off of our list.

The walk to the seaside

The more we left behind the narrow streets from the old town area the more we discovered a completely different landscape. Very large boulevards, high rise blocks of flats, and a few faculties belonging to the University of Valencia.

What we enjoyed the most on this long walk was that the continuous noise of petards was beginning to fade away. It was such a relief. Plus the beautiful scenery along the way, the blue sky, the perfect weather, the palm trees...After a decent lunch at one of the restaurants nearby we just laid on the warm sand and enjoyed the sun, the wind, the sea.

I dipped my toes in the water for a few seconds only because it was sooo cold. To my surprise there were 1-2 brave souls who ventured completely into the water for a quick swim.

But most of the people there were sunbathing, having lunch, relaxing.

So that was the most peaceful moment of the day.

Here are some pics & gifs:

Some amazing palm trees in a park we crossed on the way to the sea.

The peaceful sea:

And of course some flowers I discovered on the way back on the seafront:

!

The return to the war like zone of the city centre

After we relaxed on the beach we stopped in a shopping mall hoping we'l find a cafe with a decent internet connection. It didn't happen.

I mean, we got there but the Internet was bad. This is another thing that surprises me here in Spain, and everywhere I travel and there are problems with the Internet connection. Because in Romania we have many things we could and should improve, but one thing we got right: we have a very powerful and cheap internet connection.

So after our failed attempt at getting some work done on the laptop we started walking back to the apartment through the beautiful park that crosses the city.

A few meters into the park the (now) familiar noise of petards was back. Small kids & teenagers & young adults were having so much fun cracking those nasty petards or launching fireworks.

Me and @dragosroua were twitching involuntarily at almost every loud noise and were amazed at the calm of everyone else around. It seems like these people are now immune to the loud sounds.

We imagine that if they've been raised like this with a petards festival every year they must develop some kind of special power that allows them to not even blink when a petards goes off next to them.

More cultural differences to ponder on.

As I'm writing this the noise level seems way lower than yesterday. There are some small petards cracking now and then but the noisy neighbours are not present anymore. And neither the super-mega-loud big petards that were scaring the sh*t out of me last night.

So far it seems a bit too quiet compared to the mayhem of last night. Me and Dragos were making jokes about this silence wondering when will the noise begin again. We felt like the parents of small kids who suddenly realise it's too silence in the house so they suspect the kids must be doing something bad somewhere.

But the night is young and Spanish people usually go out to party later in the evening. We'll see how this one goes by.

PS: Last night I finally managed to fall asleep around 1:30 AM after I put on ear plugs. They are a magical invention in such conditions, I'm so grateful I took them with me!

Here's the story about our first day in Valencia-The good, the bad and the ugly in case you missed it and have no idea why there are petards everywhere in Valencia.

Namaste

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Hi, I'm Raluca. Freelance copywriter, certified Hatha Yoga Teacher 200H. I have an educational background in communication and psychology. You can find me mainly on my blog at BeingRaluca where I write about communication, relationships, listening, sexuality and many more. Here on Steemit you can follow me @raluca.