The Lifestyle That Keeps Drawing Us Back

One of the gifts we receive spending part of the year in two very different places is perspective. After nearly three winter months in the U.S. — including time in California and a wonderful stop in Atlanta to celebrate our son Michael’s 40th birthday — we flew back to Spain on February 22. We had missed our life here, and stepping off the plane felt like exhaling.

It’s been a whirlwind ever since. But a good whirlwind — the kind that reminds you exactly why you chose a place.

So, what is it about Valencia that keeps pulling us back? The lifestyle.

A City Made for Walking

We walk — constantly and happily. Our step counts have more than doubled since we arrived. Groceries, dinner with friends, doctor’s appointments, routine errands, an afternoon of shopping — all of it on foot. I’ve started Pilates at a studio twenty minutes away, and Ed has reconnected with a gym he joined a couple of years ago, also just a short walk from home.

When a destination is a bit farther, there’s always the bus. We just renewed our annual passes for 2026 — twenty euros each, roughly $22. That’s not a weekly fee. Not a monthly fee. That’s the whole year: any bus, anywhere in the city.

Community Comes Easily Here

I’ve been a member of the International Women’s Club of Valencia since we moved here in 2023, and I’m still amazed by the variety of activities on offer each month. Since returning, I’ve already attended the monthly coffee gathering — about fifty women, a lively buzz of conversation — where I caught up with friends I genuinely missed.

A dear friend offers a monthly “Drink and Draw” workshop: wine, creativity, and good company. I made a couple of new friends there, and we’re already planning lunch together. After finishing Virginia Evans’s debut novel The Correspondent, I thoroughly enjoyed a book club discussion along with the delicious Lebanese treats and a glass of wine.

The IWCV is one of those rare communities where newcomers are welcomed like regulars from the very first hello. (Women | International Women’s Club-Valencia)

Culture, Food, and Friends

Reconnecting with friends has been a joy. We’ve had lunch at a newly opened Spanish restaurant, shared calçots and grilled meats to celebrate these fleeting spring onions (see last year’s post on calçots: Calçots – A culinary Experience – Adventure BB), attended a wonderful performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, and an elegant and intimate performance of Tango in the Time of a Woman — a celebration of female artistry and charisma in tango.

In celebration of it being Thursday (reason enough!), we joined friends for a pre-lunch treat at a favorite osteria (oysters!) followed by fondue at a charming little French restaurant. That evening was capped off at an open mic night for local writers called “Club Hemingway.” Having met a couple who just moved to Valencia from NYC, we met up at a Greek taverna near our apartment to swap city notes over mezze.

Even Grocery Shopping Is an Experience

Grocery shopping here feels like more than a chore. Valencia’s Central Market — a stunning Art Nouveau building just a ten-minute walk from our apartment — houses more than 250 vendors. Stalls overflow with local citrus, fresh seafood, aged cheeses, and fragrant spices, and the hum of conversation fills the aisles.

Ed shops there twice a week, selecting fish from one of more than thirty fishmongers. Fresh fish or seafood finds its way to our table about three times a week.

Fallas: Valencia Turns Tradition into a Citywide Spectacle

Running beneath all of this, like a drumbeat that keeps getting louder, is Fallas. This is our fourth year experiencing Valencia’s most famous celebration, and we’ve learned to appreciate it on our own terms.

For the uninitiated: every March, Valencia’s neighborhoods erect enormous satirical sculptures — the fallas themselves — and the city spends two weeks celebrating with a devotion that is, frankly, contagious. What I love most is the Ofrenda, when thousands of falleros and falleras in stunning traditional dress carry flowers through the streets to build a towering floral tribute to the Virgin. The casals — the neighborhood groups behind each falla — cook enormous pans of paella in the streets, accompanied by marching musicians. The pageantry, the embroidered gowns, the sense of a city expressing genuine pride in its own culture: it gets me every time.

The daily mascleta in Plaza del Ayuntamiento — a precisely choreographed barrage of firecrackers and percussion that shakes the ground at 2 p.m. — I’ve made my peace with. It’s theater, really. What I’m less fond of are the random firecrackers that go off in the streets at all hours, which have a way of launching you out of your own skin when you least expect them. (You’ll find Ed’s post about Fallas here: MARCH MADNESS! – Adventure BB)

By the final days, when tourists arrive by the thousands and the city tilts toward full street party, we tend to make ourselves scarce. This year, we’re slipping away on March 17th — trading the crowds and the smoke of La Crema for five days in San Sebastián, a Spanish treasure we’ve somehow not yet had the chance to explore. We’ll save that story for another post.

Why This Life Works for Us

Time in the United States reminds us how fortunate we are to have family there and a place to return to. But it also sharpens our appreciation for the daily rhythm we’ve found in Valencia — the walkable streets, the ease of meeting friends, the fresh food, the cultural life just steps from our door.

At this stage of our lives, we’re drawn less to convenience and more to connection — to the small, everyday experiences that make a place feel alive. Here, life happens out on the streets, in markets, cafés, parks, and plazas. And for us, that rhythm feels just right.

Every time we return, Valencia reminds us why we chose this life — and why it feels so much like home.

Postscript

We just received word that our application for residency renewal has been approved: another two years of this wonderful life!