During my yoga adventure in Mysore, India I had seen the light (well, sort of). While caught by the -brutal- ashtanga yoga bug I had consulted the resident ayurvedic physician about a few health issues I am experiencing. She gave me an insightful diagnosis and recommend an extensive diet and lifestyle plan. I am very keen to take it all into practice and was aware that this would be a bigger challenge when I have a roaming lifestyle. I reasoned that if I want to take the yogic lifestyle (even more) seriously and make it as easy as possible to stick to the recommended diet, it would be useful if had the possibility to cook for myself and be stationary for a while. Before I left Malta to go travelling, I had decided that I wanted to check out the city of Valencia, Spain as a base after I would be done roaming. And two years after that idea came to me, I did have a little sniff indeed.

First Taste of Spain

I’ve always had something with the Iberian Peninsula and Spain in particular. In my mid-teens I went on holiday to Portugal with my parents and my sister. As very few people flew in those days to travel within Europe, we undertook the journey by car. We had been to neighbouring Belgium and France before and that was already quite different from the Netherlands, but by no means as exotic as the lands south of the Pyrenees. I was captured by the beautiful mountains of Basque country and the aridness of Castilla y Léon as we made our way past Valladolid and through Salamanca to the Portuguese border. On the way back, we travelled through Extremadura where signs along the road warned against throwing out burning cigarette buts as they could set the surrounding nature alight in an instant. Coming from green Netherlands I had never seen grass and bushes that dry. I can’t say I had any contacts with locals at that time, but I was charmed nevertheless. After that family holiday I visited Spain several times sticking to the cities of Barcelona and Madrid and tourist towns at the Med that can’t really be called Spain. Just before graduating from drama school in Amsterdam I had the desire to live in Spain. My Spanish was very shoddy at the time and I was well aware that it would be very hard to get work as an actress there, but already then, I had a strong longing for sunnier climes. I started building a career and forgot about any immediate move down south, but the longing for sunnier climates always remained.

Valencia Cool

Many years later in different circumstances, setting up base in Spain has turned from an old dream into concrete attempts to make it happen. Why Valencia? people ask me. After my life in Malta and on the road, I have very little desire to return to colder former bases like London or Amsterdam, yet I am keen to have a base in Europe. After the smallness and island mentality of Malta, I want to live in city with good vibes and plenty of culture and where it’s not necessary to take a plane to escape. I found Barcelona ‘too Catalan’ when I was there at the end of the last century, and I’m sure the region’s longing for independence and the current tourist zoo can only have made matters worse. Therefore, Spain’s second city is a no-no. I liked Madrid when I visited many winters ago, but the place is cold in winter and too hot in summer with no body of water of considerable size nearby. In addition to these points, Madrid and Barcelona are relatively expensive. Valencia, Spain’s third city, is a very decently-sized city at the sea with plenty of culture, intellectual live and general coolness. It looks nice in the ‘brochure’ (Youtube) too. And now I’m here I am instantly taken by a very good vibe. I find people very chilled and friendly and as it is a multi-culti place, you see and hear people from all corners of the world; foreigners who live here to work or study and people from abroad who are visiting. Compared to European countries located on more northern latitudes, the city is cheap as well. It’s definitely not affordable for all, as I was quite shocked by the amounts of tramps and begging people I saw on the streets. I couldn’t remember this back in the days when I was in Barcelona and Madrid. I am reasoning that the crisis, of which Spain is still recovering 10 years after the Lehman shit hit the fan, has had a big impact with very harsh consequences for some.

Valencians seem to know they live in a cool city, but they don’t feel the need to shout it of the proverbial rooftops. While Madrid and especially Barcelona seem to take the majority of the Spanish cool-city limelight, Valencia is just getting on being groovy. As Madrid is too big, too cold and/ or too hot for many, and Barcelona’s tourist circus is getting out of hand, tourist- travellers are looking for alternatives. Valencia has become quite big on the digital-nomad scene in recent years and I think the city is to attract more rather than less foreigners in years to come. Although I hope this will have a positive effect on the local economy and culture, I hope it doesn’t get out of hand. For now I can say,  Valencia is the dog’s bollocks, hombre.