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In case you have been wondering why I have been so quiet… I was gone for a couple of days with a friend to Spain. She and her husband bought a little villa at the Costa Blanca and I spend a couple of days there enjoying the sunshine. Imagine how hard it is to be back in rainy Holland!
The weather was lovely and we had a great and relaxing time but if you want to know my opinion of the Costa Brava…. terribly touristic! We were staying in Calpe which is very close to Benidorm and Alicante, so you can probably imagine the extend of the tourism over there. It’s december so a lot of the restaurants were already closed for the season. although a lot of older people stay there during the winter months. Which was pretty obvious if you walked around Benidorm. As you can imagine not a lot of authentic Spanish food around plus my friend is not really a foodie (really not) so that makes it hard to enjoy the better 
Spanish kitchen (which must be somewhere I am sure). We did go to the market on saturday in Calpe, but I always struggle to find a balance between wanting to spend ages taking photos and not pissing of my friend… 
We did go to Valencia one day and managed to walk around for hours not finding the centre of town… until we were ready to go back and ofcourse, that was when we found out that we went in the wrong direction!! The center was sort of… well… next to our parking garage… Tsss… Don’t tell anyone! We reached Valencia around 2 pm which is when all the shops close. Not very clever of us, I agree, but what can you do? So all in all I think Valencia is probably a beautiful city, but you just have to visit it at the right time and not walk in the wrong direction.
The region of Valencia is ofcourse famous for it’s oranges and that was pretty obvious when going through the mountains the next day as there was rows and rows of endless orange-trees, mandarins and lemons. I even brought home a bottle of orange wine. Not sure how that is gonna taste, as I think it is probably more a dessert wine, but I thought it was funny so will let you know once I have tasted it.
And now I am back in good old (and wet) Holland and I am so ready to get cooking! It’s been too busy but as far as I can tell right now it is going to be a quiet december so be prepared for me visiting all of you much more often!
Lots of catching up to do!
If you liked that post, then try these...
Happy birthday to me! by Simone (junglefrog)
Kitchen shoot by Simone (junglefrog)
HAPPY NEWYEAR!! by Simone (junglefrog)
Lunch pita and an award! by Simone (junglefrog)
Cooking class lesson 4; sauce by Simone (junglefrog)
Just one thing, Simone, the region around Valencia is not Costa Brava. Costa Brava is the Catalonia part just close to France. And I agree with you, I hate Benidorm and the surrounding country, it’s completely over-exploited… and ruined.
It sounds like you had a great time. I’m dying to go on a vacation. That orange wine sounds interesting also. You will have to let us know if you approve
Geez, talk about a globe trotter……today here, tomorrow there!!! Glad you’re back!!!
Glad you had a good trip!
Hey! Welcome back! I wondered what had happened to you. I’m sorry you had to come back to such crummy weather, though… Did you bring any oranges with you?
Welcome back Simone…aaahh! the joys of travelling and getting lost! I know what you mean about certain parts of Spain being terribly “touristic”!
Welcome back, Simone.I’m sure you took lots of beautiful photos from your trip..
I’m glad your back and had a nice little getaway. The orange wine sure sounds interesting!
I do want to move to Spain sometime
Hehe. Lovely pictures as usual.
Hi Simone, great to see that you visited Valencia! And yes it is a beautiful city better to visit it before 2 or after 5 pm
I also live in the Costa Blanca region but in the part not so close to the see, and also not so touristic and I can tell you it’s really beautiful here!! We are surrounded by almond and olive trees yards and yes the oranges taste absolutely great here, so when you visit your friend again in the touristic zone 
please pay a visit to us here, Julio and I would be delighted to show you around!! And lots of phototaking is allowed, haha 
Un fuerte abrazo,
Lara (y Julio)
Love the perspective, focus and lighting on the two photos in this article. We’d love to have a guest food photography post from you on our website if you’re interested.
Glad you had a good trip, even if it was too touristic for your tastes. I visited Costa Blanca in mid-September after a brief stop in Barcelona. I didn’t find it too touristy overall, although there were certainly spots like around the Algar Waterfalls that screamed tourist trap. My friend and I stayed in Denia taking trips to Altea (so cute), Calp (just to the Penon de Ifach which was cool), Valencia (loved it), etc. My favorite part of the trip was discovering fresh dates grow on trees and are delicious!