Hi there,
Our initial idea was to go to Porto since we wanted to buy the house there, but as soon as we booked the flight, all the accommodations that were at a relatively decent price had disappeared.
There were only accommodations left between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per month with terrible qualities. In addition, the kitchen was poorly equipped, none had a work area, and most did not even have a dining table. I contacted the hosts, and the answer was a resounding “no”; no work areas, no to improve the kitchen equipment, no anything.
We investigated in many cities, but in mid-May in Europe the situation was impossible to find accommodation.
Miraculously, a friend of Diego’s got us a contact from a woman who rented an apartment in Valencia, which I already told you about in a previous post.
To give you some context, I lived in Valencia for several years and ended up hating the city and the country in general. The bad education of the people, the decadent health system, the doctors who do not know what they are doing and do not care if you die, public administration that does not work, illogical schedules for everything, absurd waiting times for any procedure, jobs that look a lot like slavery, poor salaries, etc.
That’s why when we finally sold our apartments and left the few belongings we had left in boxes, my idea was never to set foot in Spain again.
When they offered us the apartment in Valencia, I was already fed up with Latin America. Although Spain is third world, even so, several things improved with respect to the experience we had had since November 2021.
First, being in an apartment with normal conditions. We had the help of Diego’s parents, normal supermarkets (we missed LIDL too much), we had our well-known doctors to do annual check-ups, the possibility of buying the things we needed on sale, cheap creams and skincare if we compare with Latin America, go to a gym with affordable prices and, in addition, be relatively close to Porto in case we needed to go for a few days to do some paperwork.
Arriving in Porto was like arriving in paradise and we were more than happy that afternoon walking around the city. But in Valencia the first thing you notice is the dirtiness of the airport.
When I was in the car from the airport to our accommodation, I thought and remembered how ugly Valencia was and I felt a little defeated for having to return to that city that disgusted me so much. Then I comforted myself thinking that it was just a strategic stop that would allow us to rest and do many pending things.
The first thing we did was join a gym, which was a 25-minute walk from our accommodation, and we organized ourselves to go at 7AM and work out 2 hours a day.
Although we have never stopped exercising, perhaps we had a year or more without setting foot in a gym. I prefer to train alone at home and that was what I did at Diego’s house since I had weights and all the necessary material. But since we had already sold everything, the only thing left was to go to the gym.
Even though the facilities were good, and it was new, the classes that interested me the most, which were BodyPump and BodyCombat, were taught poorly, were shorter, and the LesMills methodology was not followed, and this was a big mistake. We complained, but the instructor did what he wanted. We were from the first moment wishing that he would go on vacation so that they could put someone decent.
Then we started going to all the medical check-ups that we had pending, so during the month of June we were very busy.
I hadn’t bought anything since November 2021 because of the absurd prices in Latin America and I took advantage of the sales to buy everything we needed: clothes, equipmen. I also made my respective skincare purchase from The Ordinary. I bought a new computer and sold the old one.
Since we bought two new suitcases, I took the opportunity to better organize the things we had left in Diego’s parents’ garage.
As Diego had no one to do bike routes with in Valencia, on Friday afternoons he went to Almussafes to do a route on Saturday morning with his teammates from the triathlon team.
By July 1st, most of the things we had pending had already been completed, so the work of looking for houses in the north of Portugal and continuing to gather information about everything we needed to go live there began. The idea was to go to Porto as soon as we had a list of all the houses that would suit our needs. We had reserved the apartment in Valencia until September 25, so I wanted to have the house purchased before that date.
As Diego was going to Almussafes on weekends, he took the opportunity to try to see his friends. In the 3 months that we were in Valencia, he only saw 2 of his friends. So that you can see how people are in Valencia.
In addition, he learned that many of his friends had depression. When he told me, I felt really lucky. Our biggest problem at that time could be finding dirty accommodation or having to catch a plane the following month if we didn’t like the destination. Even if we didn’t feel that way, we were privileged.
In short, the stay in Valencia helped us to lead a routine life. We had 7 very intense months and we needed a little tranquility. We were lucky to find decent accommodation which also gave us the peace of not having to fight with the host about the usual problems.
The only thing that we lacked in Valencia was having the possibility to go cycling through the fields and having areas for trekking relatively close as we had in Almussafes.
We took the opportunity to do our annual medical check-ups, to update our clothes taking advantage of the sales, to finish managing everything that was pending on the blog and other social networks, to watch the pending series and, above all, to rest. In addition, we dedicated all the necessary time to our priority, which was to buy the house in Portugal.
We only went to Agadir not to lose the tradition of traveling on my birthday. We didn’t travel more because you already know that I don’t travel in high season.
Although some things improved being in Valencia, it was a shock to return to a place full of rude and bitter people. In addition, in Latin America we hardly saw smokers and in Spain everyone smokes. The streets of Valencia are covered with cigarette butts, dog excrement, gum that is already black and other liquids. In Valencia it doesn’t smell like smoke from cars like in Latin America, but it smells like garbage, urine, cigarettes or dog poop.
The stay in Valencia was not bad and it passed quickly because I was clear that it was just a transition period. But it is a city that is not pleasant either to live in or to do tourism for all the things that I mentioned before.