Valencia in January

Dear friends,

Twenty years ago, I started a travel blog. I maintained it for 9 years, with 69 blog posts through 35 countries and hundreds of cities and landscapes. I loved it SO MUCH, the photographing, the writing, the putting together, the sharing. I don’t know why moving to NYC in 2013 made me stop. I certainly wasn’t travelling less, or taking fewer photographs. But my sharing efforts did largely spiral into social media posts (that greedy chestnut).

I’ve been wanting to get back to it, the blogging. Both an effort to replace my addiction to social media (I’ve been weaning in some fashion), and to record my wanderings more long form. I have yet other (audacious) desires with these posts, which is to galvanize my community (you, yes you) to <stand up, fight back> against war and genocide and homegrown prejudice and to <radiate love> to you, yes you.

So let me just jump into it.

JAUNT: I’ve been missing my beloved little sister Simi so much this past year, along with her three babies (they will always be babies to me, but the oldest is now 15, and the twins are 13!). My monthly visits to Philly are on hold, because she and her partner were finally able to take a sabbatical after several years of family crisis and elder care, and now the whole family has landed up in Valencia for a year!

This January, Josh and I made our first ever trip to that magical mountainous region of Spain, arriving at a sprawling villa in Alfinach (with a pool! a paella kitchen! garden cats!). There are orange groves nearby, and sometimes the children (including me) would come home from school with pockets full of oranges that had fallen from the trees. Valencia oranges are addictive, tangy and sweet and flavourful. I probably ate a bushel’s worth while I was there.

The sweet beach town of Puçol is a short bus ride from Alfinach, and while I did not partake in Simi’s Monday morning cold plunge in the Mediterranean (srsly wtf), I did stroll the boardwalk with my mom (whose visit overlapped with mine for a hot minute) and eat some yummy beachside paella.

I did, however, go swimming in a regular pool with Simi a couple of times. I used to swim competitively in high school but haven’t since (30+ years!). After I got the hang back, it was exhilarating — as long as I accept the fact that what used to be a 20-minute warm up (ten one hundreds) now takes me almost an hour. Also fabulous was a hike Josh and I did with Simi and the twins in Sierra Calderona Nature Park. We took in stunning sunset views atop El Piacaio, and the climb was not too hard on my ever more arthritic knees.

Of course, some of my favourite memories were with the fam. We played Alan’s great card game, “Do I Even Know You” (with great hilarity), and unsuccessfully tried to learn how to twerk from YouTube. Quinn and I watched music videos for his favourite songs, and practiced the dance moves from Aurora’s “Cure for Me.” Vesper introduced me to some great songs for my 2025 birthday playlist, including a new song (Cracker Island) from an old fave (Gorillaz). And when I walked the twins to school one beautiful morning, Esme told me how every morning she liked to thank the mountains all around us (the kids are alright).

The train to Valencia drops you right in the city, but getting to/from the station from Simi’s pad required some bus timing or getting picked up if the bus was done for the evening. Josh and I trekked into the city a few times and loved all the arty and food offerings. The city boasts beautiful old world architecture, narrow winding streets, and palm fringed plazas - including a magnificent banyan tree in Jardin del Parterre that is almost 200 years old! I do so love an old tree. Valencia shopping is stylish (and affordable), and the Mercado Central has many lovely gifts and food items (albaricoque jam! paella socks! croquetas de bacalao!)

I loved visiting Hortensia Herrero Art Centre, housed in a former palace. The Spanish artist Juan Genovés’s paintings were my fave for their three-dimensional bird’s eye view of crowds. Shoutouts to Icelandic/Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s Tunnel for Unfolding Time and Anish Kapoor’s hilarious and warped mirror installation (Josh’s delighted face makes me laugh every time). The Archeology Museum (H/T to Mary for the rec) was an architectural feat: a buried layer of the city excavated but still underground, with a glass ceiling at ground level that doubled as a shallow pool. Another architectural marvel was Calatrava’s famed opera house: it looks like a spaceship perched gracefully in a lovely linear park.

The wild and wonderful Cafe de las Horas serves the famous Agua de Valencia cocktail - far too sweet for me, but the decor is maximalist stunning. We also came upon a museum/depot of Big-Heads - giant sculptures that are part of the Corpus Christi feast day parades. And last but not least, to satisfy Josh’s Atlas Obscura heart, we visited the narrowest building in Europe, and the Cat Door, a sweet tiny door in a wall for cats.

CARE: I am in extreme existential distress about so many things: How the American government is violently targeting non-citizens (and sometimes citizens). How the courts are not responding or when they are, are being ignored. How we are funding Israel to conduct a livestreamed genocide in Palestine. How free speech and due process are disappearing. How science and arts organizations are being wholly dismantled. How the environment and the very earth itself are under attack.

It’s not possible for me to feel useful on a national scale, so I’m going local. The NYC DSA’s anti-war group. Jackson Heights Indivisible’s immigrant support efforts. Love Wins’ food pantry. Any and all marches, including the May Day rally at City Hall that drew tens of thousands of beautiful creative funny outraged New Yorkers (see Josh Steinbauer’s beautiful video). Since the election last year, I’ve been holding an hour long Zoom (Sundays at noon Eastern) where we talk about what we’re doing to self-care and mutual care, and then spend 25 mins engaged in a creative act of your choice. DM me for the link. We get through this together.