We didn't have school this past Thursday and since we never work on Friday, this meant a 4 day weekend. We took advantage of this and an amazing offer from one of our Aunts in Spain to spend the weekend in Valencia during the festival of Las Fallas. We stayed with one of our "cousins", Cristina, who is really I guess a second cousin but we had fun like we were first cousins. We hadnt seen Cristina for 10 years so we didn't know what to expect but she was so awesome and it was so great to spend time with her.
I guess I need to first explain the premise behind Las Fallas. Its still up in the air how the tradition originated. One theory is that the tradition originated from artisans throwing out their broken or useless works and burning them in the street to celebrate the spring equinox. Whatever the origin, Las Fallas is now a week long festival that culminates in some big fires. Every year, organizations and communities do fundraisers and host banquets to raise money to construct a Falla which is a very large sculpture made out of some sort of wood/cardboard ornately decorated. They can cost as much as 1 million euros and take over a year to construct. After a week of showing them off, they burn them in about 30 minutes. Badass.
We arrived by bus on Wednesday night at 1 AM. There was a big fireworks show that was scheduled to go off at 1:30 AM and we (unfortunately) missed a lot of it because it was impossible to catch a cab. But, we got over it and had ourselves a good time. We set out to see some of the Fallas and meet up with some of Cristina's friends. Jessica and I had brought the bottom half of a bottle of bad rum and manage to suck it up and drink it as we walked through the extremely well illuminated streets of Valencia. The amount of people out and about was impressive and the plazas around each Falla were totally filled with people dancing and drinking. Another popular thing to do was to throw fireworks that, when they explode, move in unpredictable directions like a deflating balloon. If they hit you, they can burn holes in your clothes or burn your skin so they are obviously a little dangerous. At around 4:30, the party ended and we had to head home but not without stopping and buying some buñuelos to snack on.
After getting back to Cristina's at 6:30 AM, we set the alarms for 11:00 AM so that we could get up and go to the Mascletá, a huge display of firecrackers that make an impressive amount of noise. You can't quite appreciate a description but after watching the following two videos, I think you can see that it sounds like a war has broken out and the city is being bombed repeatedly.
(The Beginning of the Mascletá)
(The End of the Mascletá...Impressive)
After an afternoon siesta, we headed back out to the city to see the top rated Fallas before they got burned at night. Some of the Fallas are absolutely astonishing. So intricate and so detailed that it seems crazy to burn them. Its like burning a work of art the size of a normal house. Which, in reality, would be pretty sick.
After dinner we watched the burning of the winning Falla and went home to go to bed. We watched the burning from a nearby rooftop. It was impressive and also strikingly serene to watch it all burn.
(The Winning Falla - Before and After)
On the following day, we rented bikes and rode them through this awesome park. The space was once a river but, after drying up, the river was turned into a park. So now, there is a narrow park that cuts through the middle of the city and goes all the way to the beach. You can see the park in green on this map.
Jessica and I decided to rent a tandem bike which ended up being one of the best ideas we have had yet. We rode the bikes all afternoon, all the way to the beach and back. Valencia is such a pretty city and it was so amazing to get out and see it...on a tandem.
All in all, we only had one slip up on the tandem which involved Jessica falling on her butt when she got her foot caught on the back handle bar trying to get off. I didn't get a picture of it for you guys but I did manage to commit it to memory as one of the funnier things on the trip.
The only thing funnier thing was when Jessica and I encouraged Chris to ride his bike through a seemingly shallow fountain / water reservoir and he ended up going in up to the gears and almost falling in. Ah peer pressure.
As you can see, I now have a digital camera again to replace the one I dropped and ruined the lens. This one is pretty badass and the pictures come out de puta madre.
If you read my blog, shoot me an update. I havent heard from some of you in far too long.
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La version en espanol viene un poco mas tarde...si viene...
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