We wanted to visit Valencia for a long time, but we haven't managed to do it yet.
On our way back from Porto we've found cheap flight tickets and an apartment in Valencia and stayed here for 4 days.
Valencia is located on Mediterranean sea, somewhere in the middle between Barcelona and Malaga.
Another kind of Spanish is spoken here - Valencian, it's a variety of Catalan.
The city is situated on the banks of the Turia.
The river used to flood regularly, and after a particularly bad flood in 1957 approval was given for the river to be diverted away from the city centre.
Since then the river bed has been transformed into a long urban park called Jardines del Turia.
It is one of the biggest urban parks in Spain, it surrounds the city center and can be easily seen on the map.
The park is located in a hollow and most of its concrete walls are covered in flowers and plants.
There are several playing fields, children playgrounds and cycling & walking paths in the park.
The owner of our apartment recommended us to visit Church of San Nicolas in the old city.
It was built in 13-th century but interior of the church was completed only by 1693.
And it was recently renovated. After visiting the church we went for a walk in the streets and visited central market.
The central market, Mercado Central, was constructed in 1928.
Most vendors sell food items, although souvenir shops and restaurants are located inside the market as well.
The prices here are higher than those in the supermarkets.
City of Arts and Sciences is the most important modern tourist destination in Valencia.
The construction of the city began in 1996 and completed in 2005.
The complex consists of museum of science, planetarium, opera house and open-air oceanographic park.
The initial budget of the project was estimated at around ???100 million but it ended up way over the budget and costed the city over ???1 billion.
And in 2014 the parts of opera house roof started to fall off just 8 years after completion.
The city has sued lead architect of the project - Santiago Calatrava.
After visiting city of arts and sciences we went to the the sea, took a look on the port and the beach and went back home.
