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TRAVELOGUE
The Quest for the Holy Grail In the decades that followed, Valencia turned the catastrophic flood of 1957, when 81 of its residents died, into an opportunity for the city’s complete transformation, which today, according to many surveys, is one of the most beautiful places to live in Europe by Robert Čoban
H
uge bonfires were burning in the squares of Valencia when we were there in March 2012. We are talking, of course, about the famous Fallas festival, which traces its roots back to the Middle Ages. At that time, near the end of winter, on March 19, on the feast of St. Joseph, local artisans brought their unsold handicrafts and generated waste to the nearest squares and burned them as a sign of welcoming spring. In the 20th century, year-on-year, the aesthetic and artisanal effigies that burn in the squares became more and more perfect so today you just
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feel sorry when you look at them because you know that all that beauty will disappear in flames on St. Joseph’s Night. A decade later, an Air Serbia’s direct flight from Belgrade brought
“This is due, in large part, to the port where a large quantity of the cocaine comes from Latin America to Europe. It is no coincidence that Luka Bojović was arrested there in February 2012. In the 21st century, Valencia
NO COUNTRY IN EUROPE HAS LEARNED LIKE SPAIN HOW TO INCORPORATE NATURE, HISTORICAL HERITAGE AND MODERN DESIGN INTO THE EXCELLENT QUALITY OF CITY LIFE us back to this magical city, which in 11 years, has become visibly wealthier, more orderly and embellished.
flourished because of that drug money, a lot of new buildings were built and huge amounts of money ended up in the city’s
budget. It’s just that, unlike us, they know how to reconcile public and private, so everything looks as it should in the end”, a friend of mine who has an apartment in Valencia told me while we were sipping on wine in a restaurant near Palilula outdoor market. So we arrived on a morning flight from Belgrade and after a half-hour taxi ride from the airport, we checked into a hotel on the beach. As it was still morning, Sandra and the children went to bed to catch up on some sleep and I, of course, rented a bike and set off along the long www.diplomacyandcommerce.rs