I Believe in Love at First Sight

Malvarrosa Beach - Valencia, Spain (photo from the private gallery of Alina Pele)

12 September 2026 by Alina Pele

I really do believe in love at first sight. For me, it happened with Valencia.

My story began in January 2001, when I moved from the United States to Castellón, on the Costa de Azahar. At the time, Valencia wasn’t part of the plan. It was simply the city where my car would arrive a couple of months later, shipped across the Atlantic to the Port of Valencia.

In March, I came down to collect it. I still remember driving into Valencia for the first time and having a feeling I couldn’t quite explain. This is it. This is where I want to live. There was no carefully thought-out decision, no long list of pros and cons. I simply felt at home. I spent the day discovering the city almost by instinct. I wandered around the Cathedral and Plaza de la Virgen, explored the streets surrounding the Ayuntamiento, and slowly made my way towards the port. I passed the beach, watched the city change from historic streets to Mediterranean light and open sea, and somewhere along the way, Valencia stopped feeling like somewhere I was visiting. It felt like somewhere I belonged.

I went back to Castellón that evening, but something had changed. For the next two years, Valencia stayed in the back of my mind. Eventually, I sold my apartment in Castellón and made the move, even though it meant commuting back there for work. It was worth it.

And I have been faithful to that first feeling ever since. I travel a lot, both abroad and around Spain, and I have seen many beautiful places. But Valencia still has something different. Something warm, familiar and deeply homey. I love its historic centre, its plazas, its beaches, its neighbourhoods and its extraordinary architecture. I love that you can move from centuries-old streets to the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences and somehow it all still feels like the same city.

Valencia is elegant without trying too hard. Lively without feeling overwhelming. Beautiful, but still real. More than twenty five years later, I still understand what I felt that first day. Valencia has an unusual way of giving you everything at once: history and sea, energy and calm, beautiful architecture and everyday neighbourhood life. It is big enough to keep discovering, but small enough to feel like home. Perhaps that is why I understand so well the people who arrive here thinking they are only visiting, only renting for a while, or simply trying something new.

Sometimes a place surprises you. Sometimes three days become three months. Sometimes a practical trip to collect a car changes the direction of your life. And sometimes, you drive into a city and simply know. For me, that city was Valencia. And all these years later, it still is.