Finally, September is upon us, and things have returned to normal in Valencia. Life in this city during the month of August is ridiculous. Everything shuts down, from the bakeries to the kiosks, to the shops. The free daily newspapers disappear from street corners, and half the restaurants are closed. The municipal pool is closed the entire month. All of the city pools are closed during the year’s hottest month. Makes sense!
And then, September arrives and everything instantly returns to normal, like a light being turned on. Yesterday, on the first, the streets and shops were full of people going about their day-to-day lives. It was refreshing, but also disconcerting. Businessmen hustled by me on their way to work, and I even got my daily free paper from the ADN guy at Plaza de la Reina… the same dude who’s been there the whole year and, on August 1st, suddenly disappeared with half the city. But now, he was back, passing out his papers as though nothing had happened.
It’s like waking up from a dream. All I know is that next year, I’m going on vacation in August.
You kow, I said exactly the same thing to my girlfriend as we came back from a week away today. “It’s like someone switched the city back on”…
Sad thing is, no chance of finding any of those premium parking spots now tho =/
I know some city slickers in Bilbao that look forward to August every year so that they can park and eat peacefully in restaurants, etc. without all the city crowds. It really depends on how you want to look at it.