Valencia: Las Fallas

After a long absence and a whole lot of procrastinating, I'm back to finish up the blog. I'll recap my trips to Valencia, the region of Asturias, Morocco and Barcelona.

First up, Valencia. A beautiful ocean front city on the eastern coast of Spain, Valencia is the nation's third biggest city. It's also home to Las Fallas--probably the craziest festival in the history of the world. To mark the beginning of spring, celebrate carpentry and honor St. Joseph, Valencia becomes the destination in Europe for two weeks every March. Each neighborhood in the city builds its own elaborate float out of cardboard and paper-mache, some several stories tall. The floats, or "fallas", are left up in different parts throughout the city during the festival for tourists and locals to admire. There's also nightly firework shows and a whole lot of people causing mischief (us included) by buying firecrackers and setting them off at all hours of the day. On the final night of Las Fallas, all the floats except the one judged to be the city's best are burned. That's right, all that hard work is gone in a matter of minutes, turned into a smoldering pile of ashes. Hoarders, they're not in Valencia. It makes for one great show.

We managed to cram 18 or 19 people into an 8 person apartment in downtown Valencia. Hey, we're college kids on a budget, right? Everybody's got to sleep in a closet at least once in their life.

Valencia is also the home of paella, a delicious rice dish that might be Spain's most famous food. We had it at my home stay every Tuesday afternoon for lunch. People were cooking paella in the streets before firework shows just like Americans grill up hot dogs and hamburgers before football games.

The nightly firework shows are great. They draw big crowds too.

Mike and Paige getting ready to watch the show.

This was by far the best firework show I've ever seen. This one especially caught my eye--looks like white hot night doves.

Since they're Spanish, they need to have street concerts until at least 2 in the morning. It wouldn't be a party without them, right?

Me, in front of one of the children's Fallas. The main ones are much taller. Each large float was accompanied by a small children's one.

The streets of Valencia. Mike and I often wondered what it would have been like to have visited Valencia on any other weekend. Very different, I'd imagine.

No, this is not the Klu Klux Klan. It's how they celebrate Easter in Spain. I'll post pictures of the real thing that I witnessed during Spring Break through the streets of Madrid. A really creepy way to celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection if you ask me.

La Mestalla, home to Valencia C.F., one of Spain's better soccer clubs. The stadium is right in the middle of a residential area--just kind of pops up.

Me being me, I took many more pictures of the stadium. I won't bore you with those here.

Valencia oranges!

They also parade around the city in very traditional garb. The ladies' hair-dos are especially impressive.

I think this one has something to do with Moses in Egypt.

This one too. And, wow, what lips!

If the whole sports broadcasting on land thing doesn't work out, I could go for the "under the sea" route.

It always comes back to soccer for the Spanish.

Valencia's university. Really modern design. Feels very cold.

Valencia is another very proud region that is clearly Valencian first and Spanish second. Valencia's flag, seen here, is a much more common sight than the bandera de España.

It really is a pretty city. I'd love to go back to see what a normal Valencian weekend looks and sounds like.

The city's center square, filled with Fallas and tourists.

They really put a lot of work into these things.

It's so packed during the festival that restaurants just set up tables in the middle of the streets. It would be a nightmare trying to drive through the city during Las Fallas.

Buñuelos: little pieces of heaven. So good. So bad for you.

Andrew lighting a firework to put into a plastic bottle at the beach. One of the many objects that we tried to blow up over the weekend. It really is a fire lover's dream: the police encourage you to light fireworks off in the middle of the street!

The beach is beautiful too.

Valencia's own language, which is really a dialect of the Catalan spoken in Barcelona. Pretty similar to Spanish.

Pinocchio and Geppetto.

Lady Gaga?!?

The infamous World Cup final post-match interview between captain/goalkeeper Iker Casillas and reporter/girlfriend Sara Carbonero.  How's this for journalistic objectivity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkegbYHApv8

Making dinner one night in the apartment. It really was a fun experience, jamming all of us into the place. The tile floor my closet wasn't that good for my back though.

La Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciences (The City of Arts and Sciences), a veritable water world. A really cool compound that has a bunch of museums and an aquarium.

Some nice boats in that harbor.

This guy's pretty talented.

This place would have been a little more spacious. And a tad more expensive, methinks.

Great beach.

Some of the older parts of Valencia are really cool.

Kids must love Las Fallas. I saw a lot of kids no older than seven throwing fireworks around with minimal supervision. Living the dream.

Had to have paella in Valencia. Although, to be honest, it fell a ways short of what my host mom cooked up every week.

Photographic evidence of my bed in the hall closet. I almost felt like Harry Potter.

Valencia's cathedral. Supposed home to the Holy Grail--the cup Jesus drank out of at the Last Supper. We didn't see it when we were there because viewing was closed for the festival.

The cathedral.

This is the fossilized arm of a saint. I forget all the details but it's pretty creepy to have an unattached ARM sitting in a church.

The maitre'd.

This the float that we went to see for La Crema--the burning. It was huge, maybe 40 or 50 feet tall if my memory serves me correctly. Not sure what theme/scene they were going for though.

And, there it goes. It was a sort of enclosed area surrounded by apartment buildings and it got really hot, really quick. I had to stop taking pictures at one point because it felt like my face was melting off.

Smiling in the face of danger. Great picture if I do say so myself--props to the nice Spanish guy who took it.

It looked like a war scene. I'm not sure how in control the firefighters were of the situation.

That's right--the firefighters are called Bombers in Valencia. That's reassuring.

All in all, the trip to Valencia was probably the most fun weekend of my time in Spain. Pure locura--craziness.


Also, go here to watch the above float burn. It's quite a sight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qKtB3DZVgw