17 August 2025

My week took me to the south of Spain for a few days, to the town of Vera. My friend, Medi from Paris, had rented an apartment and invited me to join him Tuesday- Thursday, as his “couchsurfing” guest. For all the guests, I have hosted, I had never stayed as the guest of another Couchsurfer. Three days of “vacation”, free-lodging, in a quiet town, near the beach, with my own bedroom was not a deal to pass up. He planned to work remotely during the day and I knew I could entertain myself with my Kindle, reading on the beach, by the pool, or on the terrace. So, on Monday night, I took a bus from Valencia at 2:30 a.m. and arrived there at 8:30 a.m. I didn’t sleep great on the bus. But, I had three days to relax, read, and do a little sightseeing.

As it turns out, our mutual friend, Tomás from Valencia was also there. So, Tomás and I met up at the beach, had a beer, and decided to visit the town of Mojácar. This quaint town on a hill was settled by the Moors and features typical white buildings with blue trim…and lots of steep streets going up and down, all overlooking the Mediterranean on one side and long vistas of valleys and mountains on the other.

Tomás is a fun, young, hippie kind of a guy, originally from Chile.

That afternoon/ evening, we all had dinner with Medi’s friends Luis and Philipe from Portugal.

That night, we all went to a local gay bar, for another new experience for me. In the US, clubs all close at 2:00 a.m. But in Spain, they don’t open until 12:00 a.m., they start coming alive around 2:00 a.m. and only close at 7:30 a.m. We arrived around 1:00 (after a “disco nap”) and stayed until about 4:00. As late-night clubs could go, I was told this was very tame. The people we met were friendly. But no one was dancing. It was more like a corporate cocktail party, with people mingling and chatting. And that’s it.

We slept late on Wednesday. I made breakfast for us, and Tomás and I spent the morning by the pool. We came back to that apartment for lunch with Medi and then we went to the beach briefly before Tomás left. That night…dinner again with Luis and Philipe and then “early” to bed.

“Early to bed” means I woke early Thursday morning. So, seizing the moment, I walked to the beach to catch the sunrise.

After such a lovely start to the day, I made breakfast for us and returned to beach for the morning.

I stopped by the pool on the way back to the apartment and lo and behold, there was my friend Javier from Valencia! It was fun to catch up and spend s few minutes together before getting ready to head home to Valencia.

That afternoon, I took the bus back to Valencia, arriving home just before midnight.

I slept most of Friday.

On Saturday morning, Vicente and I spent a couple hours at the beach, then came home for lunch. He proposed a crazy idea. Ritchie Hawtins is a world famous techno/ club/ house-music deejay who was appearing that night at a nightclub near Valencia. If he could find cheap tickets, would I go? I’m not a huge fan of clubs and certainly too old for all night clubbing. But, this sounded like a more authentic club experience. So of course, I said “yes!”

The event was sold out. But at 10:30 p.m., he found cheap tickets on a ticket-swap website. So, we ate a quick dinner and then went to bed! We got up at 1:00 a.m., got the club around 2:00 and I can finally say that I’ve experienced apart of Valencia’s night life that I hadn’t before experienced.

I thought I’d be the oldest one in the club (and I probably was)! But we did see a few other people in their 50’s. Most of the crowd was in their 20’s. Note: Ritchie Hawtins is 55! It’s not a scene I want to spend a lot of time with. The drug use was more than obvious. But the music was fun and exciting. We left just after 5:00 a.m.

We slept late Sunday morning. We went for lunch at 2:00 at a neighborhood Chinese restaurant, and spent a relaxing afternoon watching National Graphic on TV and sleeping!

I’m really too old for this kind of a life. Fortunately, it’s back to school tomorrow. I need my routine!

Here’s wishing you fulfilling routines, interrupted by exciting, surprising and fun new experiences.