My friend and I are still here in Tarragona in July. I am testing the waters of being an au pair and my friend commutes every day to Barcelona to work with small children in an English summer camp. Safe to say we needed a break from children and explore more of Spain. He suggested we see the city of Peñíscola in the Valencia region of Spain, one of the Pueblos Más Bonitos (Most Beautiful Towns/Villages) in Spain. Although I had trouble pronouncing the name (my American mind kept thinking “Pensacola”), I agreed. There is too much of Spain I still haven’t seen.
Our trip almost didn’t happen. I went for a run in the morning a few hours before we were supposed to leave. I took my credit card with me to take out some money before I hit the train station and I lost my credit card. After many tears, waking my parents up at 3 AM, and going through a huge ordeal, my parents told me to go and use my Spanish credit card and we would figure out the money later.* I’m so happy that I decided to put the horrible morning behind me (train being delayed for over 30 minutes included), because boy, was I surprised.
After getting dumped off at the train station in Vinaros, which recalled memories of James Bond being dumped off in the middle of Morocco with nothing around in Spectre, my friend and I trudge to the bus stop (and once again, waited an insanely long time) and made our way into Peñíscola. I was stunned. It was absolutely beautiful.
By the time we got there, it was about 2 PM and we were famished. We found a nice restaurant (I believe it was called Hotel Restaurant La Molina) along the boardwalk with a nice view of the old city. Our menú only cost €11 but we got a first course (canelones for me, of course), a second course (“shared” paella … more like I ate 1/5 and Dan ate the rest), dessert (melón, for me), AND I ordered a water and my friend ordered wine and we were each given one liter bottles! For €11!
When we were so stuffed it felt like we were having food babies, well at least I felt like having a food baby, we made our way up to the old portion of the city away from the French tourists. There was this cool looking fort thing … and SURPRISE! They used it to film some shots for the best show of all time Game of Thrones for the setting of Mereen. As Dany is my favorite character, although I don’t think she was filmed here, I was so excited. I even found the part where Tyrion tells a woman on accident that he wants to eat her baby. Here is the clip and I can say I saw all of this!
The town really is beautiful. We even found a bar tucked away on the border of the cliffs and sea where I enjoyed a nice mojito and looking over the cliffs at the brilliant blue sea. It was really beautiful with the castle and the sea right next to each other. The whole town was full of white buildings, like the typical Spanish buildings you see in Andalucía. I was actually in awe of how pretty it was.
If you have a day to kill and you are near Valencia or even Tarragona/Barcelona, I totally recommend this place! It was something different and something beautiful. When I had heard it was a “pueblo”, I was a little nervous, but honestly it was an amazing experience.
*Some really nice au pair girls found my credit card sitting on a fence in Tarragona and contacted me through Facebook! Instead of having to wait for a replacement card, my parents were able to reactive my card. Crisis averted!
