#11 – You’re going to hear a lot about the “Spanish lifestyle” this month, mostly because I didn’t do jack shit but sit on the beach and drink and eat and sleep. If you’re doing anything else in Valencia they tell you you’re doing it wrong.

Pensat i Fai

“Pensat i Fai.” That’s Spanish in Valencia for “To think and to do.” And to be fair, I thought about doing a lot of things during my time in Valencia. The actual doing part? Yeah, not so much.

Life moves slow here. Like, really, really slow. Think “your uncle after a Thanksgiving feast” slow, and then think slower. There’s no rush to anything. If you get out of bed, drag yourself to lunch (there’s no chance you’re making it to breakfast) and then somehow manage to plop yourself back down on the couch (or better yet, the beach) you’ve had yourself a busier day than probably 90% of town.

Here, one glass of sangria turns into another, which turns into another, which turns into a nap, which transitions into another glass of sangria, which somehow just morphs into your next nap. There’s no rush. And if you do happen to be in a rush, good luck. You adjust to their speed, not the other way around.

For this particular Saturday, I went on a little morning bike ride before stopping in for what many Americans would consider a “brunch,” but no. This is different. It’s not breakfast, it’s also not really lunch. In Spain they call this an “Almuerzo,” which is more of a pre-lunch, lunch (wild, I know). A bocadillo and some sangria sets you up real nice for your first nap of the day on the beach.

I will say, once you have a pre-lunch-lunch, any plans you had to do anything remotely active for the rest of the day come to a screeching halt. From noon to sundown it was pretty much exclusively a mix of napping, swimming, sangria and napping for me.

There are 52 Saturdays in this wild year I’m living. No one ever said they all had to be wild.

Highlights

• Three naps in one day. That’s teetering on an overdose.
• A box-full of sangria will run you about 1.50 euros at the corner store.
• Nude sunbathing.

Lowlights

• Probably could have done the naps without the whole biking part.
• They still refuse to sell me Bud Light in these countries.
• Nude sunbathing. (with the good comes the veryyyy bad, very saggy, very much permanently engrained in your brain)