The invitation to return to Valencia for a series of lessons arrives as unexpectedly as hoped, because the thought of returning to the city of Calatrava immediately puts you in a good mood, with its unmistakable organic architectures that express symbolic visuals, musical and mathematical rhythms, with the allusive shapes of the bridges that "create bonds" as well as connecting banks – with tie rods and masses of steel suspended at the limit of the tension of a movement which, as in the Discobolus, are firm but perpetually ready to release all the energy, a surprising synthesis, in an ideal moment, of balance and dynamism.
You couldn't imagine that there was still so much to discover in a place that seems all, or almost all, absorbed in the most futuristic three hundred and fifty thousand square meters of the planet, occupied by the City of Arts and Science, with its visionary spaces in which to dream with wide eyes.
The tormenting contemporary dichotomy is, even in travel, always present: surface and depth, speed and slowness, external and internal. But on the second visit you can try to transform perceptions by relaxing expectations, deviating from the guides' directions, tuning time to the rhythms of the city.
You can then enter the architecture of the Reina Sofía, inhabit its spaces, the concert halls, attend the seasonal premiere of the Marriage of Figaro, savor the singing of the tenors that touches soft wooden walls, compresses enveloping volumes, reaches the eardrums following pre-established directions. But also walking the eight beautiful kilometers of the beach of Malvarrosa together with the students of the Polytechnic University which, with its futuristic startup incubator, is one step away from the sea. And even walking for hours in the river garden of Turia which allows you to reach every place in the center with bicycles and electric scooters or eating the best paella in the world overlooking the relaxing rice fields of Albufera and then immersing yourself in the crystal clear waters of El Sael with endless beaches dotted only by ivory shells and charcoal nudists. And, in the chapel where the Holy Grail is kept, try to understand where history ends and legend begins and again, a block later, refresh yourself under palm trees that pierce overpasses in experimental architecture that you find scattered everywhere.
The inhabitants have given the Reina Sofía theater the nickname of Darth Vader, because in the evening the structure takes on the appearance of the legendary character from Star Wars. The most ambiguous, most conflicted one, in which good and evil continually clash, as often happens in the communities we live in. And right here, favored by a series of concatenations of events and inattentions, taking advantage of the enchantment of the few minutes in which the setting sun bathes the lake up to the splendid Puchol pier, greedy eyes and hands steal cards and money, taking away, in a few minutes, your identity and autonomy as a citizen. However, the bad misadventure does not tarnish the feeling of tranquility that you have experienced for days, the safety of the young people and women who walk and meet at all hours on the beaches, in the dimly lit parks, along the lakes and artificial rivers of the city of science even in the middle of the night. Here you have the dreamlike impression that the future designed in Beauty brings with it serenity, smiles, good things and that everything is magnificently connected: men and animals like stones and trees and water and enormous buildings with the animated shapes of fish, dinosaurs, forests, titans' eyes.
The morning after the theft, the Reina Sofía once again has the lightness of Figaro's song because your soul does not fit in a paper wallet and no one can take it away from you.