Search Results for: burriana

Castellón

¡Adios, Burriana! ¡Buenos días, Vila-real!

Our lease was up on our piso in Burriana at the end of June, but we still didn’t have our next place figured out yet, as we were waiting to find out where Dreamer would be placed within the Community of Madrid. We rented a moving van, followed by a regular car, and thanks to the generosity of our friends, we were invited to stay in the neighboring town of Vila-real while we awaited word of our next placement. We were surprised by how much we had accumulated in nine months, and we knew we couldn’t possibly take it all with

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Burriana / Las Fallas / Strolling

Finding Ninot: All aboard the Burriana Fallas Train!

Choo, choo! The fallas train is about to depart and take you all around our town’s different displays! Our small city featured a surprising number of fallas during their namesake festival this March. Yes, there was a real “train” that drove through the streets, taking passengers past each one. And yes, we did wait in line for an hour and a half to ride it. Before we get to the train, let’s take a look at what got us to this point: fallas, you’ll remember, are grand artistic monuments constructed in different cities and towns around the Valencian Community and displayed during the weeklong celebration, at the

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Las Fallas / Valencia

Is that ninot I see, or is it just a Fallas-y?

WARNING: there is a lot of male nudity depicted in this post! We are not kidding. In March of 2018, nostalgia drove us back to our first Spanish home to experience another Valencian Fallas celebration. First things first: we headed to our favorite fried dough place for an indulgent breakfast. A charanga, or small musical group common to street festivals, entertained the hungry line with that old Valencian classic. Seeing how the bunyuelos were made was equally entertaining. Speaking of can’t-miss Valencian treats, we could’t visit the city without visiting our favorite horchatería, Daniel in Alboraya.  Later, we enjoyed some

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Travel Stories

Mallorca: Buenas ensaïmadas por allí

As winter descended upon Madrid last year, we really started to miss the Valencian Community – the weather, the food, the language, the sea. So when we came across some discount plane tickets to Mallorca in November, we decided it was finally time to visit the Balearic islands off the coast of our old home. Of course, first order of business after landing in Palma de Mallorca was to try a local delicacy: ensaïmada, a flaky pastry made with lard (saïm in the Mallorquín language), and often filled with cream or fruit. According to our research, the best ensaïmada in

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Madrid

Moving to Madrid

Although we loved living in the Valencian Community, we decided to try living in a major international capital for our second year in Spain. The difficult part was waiting to find out where Dreamer would be working within the Community of Madrid – we didn’t want to rent a place until we knew. We still didn’t have any idea where she would be placed when the time came to take her mom to the Madrid airport in mid June. It was an opportunity to scout the city, as well as a preview of Madrid’s steamy summer. A couple of frosty

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Castellón / Valencia

Whirlwind sightseeing weekend: Monastery, rice museum

The last weekend in June (also our last in Burriana), we took advantage of having a car for our move to go to a few out-of-the-way spots that were still on our Valencian Community bucket list. First stop: the Monastery of Santa María in El Puig. Puig is Valenciano for “hill,” and indeed the monastery lies atop a large one. Guided tours are only given on a very specific schedule – there are no freeform visits, and of course it’s closed on Sunday. We decided to go on Saturday afternoon after the lunch descanso. Jaume I, the king who conquered much

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