Viva Fiesta-Las Fallas

Las Fallas- literally translates to "The failures"

        Before reading into the history, my intuition was that the  hedonism celebrated during this week had something to do with trying to give up something during lent, failing and saying, "What the hell, let's live it up". It seemed logical, as it happens to fall right in the middle of Lent.  But apparently that has nothing to do with the festival... but nice try Brenna
         The majority of people agree to the basic idea that the original reason for celebrating was the welcoming of spring.  Some explain that the burning of "the fallas" grew from the tradition of carpenters burning their extra, unusable wood from the season.  Others claim it was from people getting rid of things no longer needed, placing these objects in a collective pile in each street corner and later burning them all at once... whatever the origin exactly, it has certainly grown into quite an extravangza!
       These days, each neighborhood corner has a collective of "falleros", people that work all year to design and create ther own falla (a giant paper maché figure in the form of a cartoon like animation).  These fallas can be "infantil" and thus only a few feet tall, or giant (taller than 10 story buildings, averaging 60 meters).  On the last night of Las fallas, all of the figures are set on fire and burned to the ground.  Of course there is some controversy over this, given that the larger fallas are estimated at 300,000-400,000 euros (all privately funded by the falleros). The majority are politically themed mockeries or at least make some sort of political statement.    These fallas are in the streets for a total of a week which still doesn't give even the locals enough time to see all of them (there are about 300 giants and 300 infantiles).

This is the gorgeous falla that won "segundo premio"

I couldn't put this one on facebook.  There are smaller figures from a larger falla.  I couldn't stop laughing and cringing!

So, I arrived on Saturday via a car full of 4 other lovely people.  2 of them were friends, Julietta and Xema, and the other couple were friends of Julietta, another really sweet couple.  So when we get to Valencia, Juietta, Xema and I are conveniently dropped off in a pueblo just outside of the city limit.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to Xema's family's house for home cooked Paella.  We had the traditional meat paella (chicken and rabbit) with seafood as starters (baby squid and mussels yum!)  I regret not taking a picture of the paella being cooked because it was done so in an awesome pop up gas grill set up in the kitchen.  Before we ate I went to my first Mascletá.  Everyday at 2pm each falla (so practically every street corner)  sounds off an explosion of firecrackers, smoke bombs and whatever else is used to cause an inconceivable amount of noise.   There were rows and rows of firecrackers hanging, and this was only a small version of the big one in the main plaza of Valencia. 

After good eats and good convo, we hit the city where I met up with my friend Adrian who lives an hour and a half south (although had never visited Valencia!) and we dropped our stuff off at my friend Julio's.  After shopping for essentials we set off with a full back-pack.  

Here is Elvis.. he is chillin' with John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and Freddy Mercury...but Elvis, is the KING

All of the streets were closed and full of people and parades.  There were thousands of people drunkedly parading and thousands more actually parading, in costume, towards the plaza of the virgin Amparo.  Each woman and girl carried a single flower to create a giant flower offering figure in the center of the plaza.... it took all day saturday and most of sunday to complete. 

 At any given point, one could conveniently stop and purchase fries, churros, or a giant mojito.  After exploring the excitement for awhile we decided to head towards the river park for a sit and a snack.  

Of course this wasn't really a rest as there was just as much fiesta over that way.   Additionally, everyone carries around fire crackers, sparklers , bottle rockets and anything that explodes, makes a lot of noise or produces a large amount of smoke.  It was all wonderful, Adrian is a just a wonderfully chill person to adventure with.  In the park we cut a deal with a wondering beer vender (ask me later what these people in Spain are called, you will think it's completely racist.. and the subject is for another blog).  So with 4 more beers to split we hung out and waited for the the firework show which was to start at 1:30... completely normal.  

This fireworks show was spectacular! Held over the river and lasting about 30 minutes, it was likely the best display of fireworks I have ever seen live!  One mind blowing moment was watching this one set go off, sink down, float back up and repeat 3 or 4 times.. whoa man, what?  

So it's 2am when the fireworks are over....time to go home? Absolutely not!! We're in Spain, remember?  So we headed into town and stumbled into a pop up discotech set in a tent.  Here you could order cubo-litros, aka a liter sized mixed drink.  Well , instead we opted for smaller ones.  We ordered two and go three tickets thanks to a little paper sticking magic.  Also, when I ordered my second drink, the guy didn't take my ticket... as you can see we're going down hill from here.  To order a gin and tonic you need to say "geen-tow-nic" otherwise, they have no idea what you want.  

So after that and a walk to the neighborhood Rusafa...the other side of town from where we were staying... we realized it was 6 am.  How do we get home? eh... let's ask.  So it took an hour to get home and we later realized it's about a 25 min direct walk if you know the streets and you're sober... duly noted!  

The next day Adrian and I pulled ourselves together and strolled along the river for an hour until we reached the "Ciudad de Artes and Ciensias" one of Valencia's few claims to fame, beside las fallas, but is architecturally stunning.  I didn't take photos this time as I had plenty from only a few weeks before (another fabulous vacation time filled with drinks, friends, foods, lakes and beaches)  

If you're still reading, good for you...it's a lot eh?  Ok to be brief we met with my friend Marissa, who stays in Rusafa and caught the light show. This is a picture from her balcony... piiimp

Then we had dinner with a huge group of people, caught the 1:30 firework show, ordered a liter mojito to share amongst 3 people (we decided it was very weak so Marissa, who wasn't even drinking any took it back to the guy and had him pour more in... get it girl.

After the show it was time for 3am concerts!!! These ended around 4 or 5 which was when I sadly parted with Adrian who stayed with Julio (after I told Julio that Adrian had nowhere to stay) and I went with Marissa (who didn't have room for him at her place... )

The downside of sleeping in a room facing a party street?  loud heart attack causing booms and explosion the entire night.  I did have quite a few interesting dreams so I guess I slept some?  Struggling through the next day we went to the giant noise explosion that is the Mascleta, ate delicious crepes for lunch, walked around to see Rusafa's fallas.. don't remember what else and eventually went and ate buñuelos for dinner.  This word means tissue, and handkerchief, but that is not what we ate.  Buñuelos the food is fried, puffy dough balls that you dip in chocolate... so kind of like churros but even greasier (which I didn't know was possible!)  To pass the time before the midnight setting fire of the fallas (quemas) we relaxed in a cafe and sipped, you guessed it, Mojitos while skimming through books on the Moda Vida era of Madrid in the 80's , listening to Ladytron, and admiring the modern art on the walls.  Yes, this is in fact the coolest bar I've ever been to, at least in Valencia.  I was going to take pictures, but I was tired and didn't want to be judged , and then forgot...

QUEMAS

When the firemen arrived, the fallera mayor set fire to the falla.  Not all 300 go off at quite the same time because there needs to be a certain amount of firefighters... otherwise buildings and people get set on fire.  So a 60 meter bonfire is.....HOT, really hot!  Amongst the immense heat and rainfall of ashes we stuck it through and it was absolutely amazing!  I had been sincerely missing bonfire the last almost 6 months... so this made up for all of the time at once.  

After this I caught a taxi with Marissa's friends who were on their way home, but they dropped me off in the center to meet up with others who were going to watch the last one go off.  On the way to the taxi I found a 2 euro coin... hhheeeeyyyaa.  So I was with a group of locals and travels and met one guy who is living in Dubai who has a friend that lives in... black mountain. Yeh, the one next to Asheville! That was so cool.  No one knows Asheville !   So there was a rumor that after the last quema, the firemen turn the hoses and spray the spectators... before we could find out if the rumor was true, it started raining.  I walked back to Rusafa in the rain; laughing, jumping on people's back, and carrying people until Vicent walked me to Marissa's and his roommate bought me a croissant (they insisted because they knew marissa's fridge was empty.... how sweet).

It rained all day the next day.. I was tired , said my goodbyes and got the heck out.  The end.

Thank you Valencia, that was life changing.