Fallas Week.

Fallas was amazing. I just cannot believe it. It really was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. There are no words to describe it….

Day 1: Shiny Pants

I kind of already said what we did the first day, but we went to the Mascleta. We were pretty far away though.


Mascleta.

Then we went to the bullfight. Guay guay.


bullring



Later that night we met up, had some chocolate con churros, watched the fireworks. Good times. Then we came home and went to bed after that.




falla.


chocolate con churros


watching the fireworks

Day 2: Search for the Holy Grail… fail. Be in a Parade…. Success.

So Emily and I met up later on Tuesday. We slept in.

After comida, we decided to search for the Holy Grail. It’s in the cathedral in Valencia, and apparently it is the only cup that the Catholic Church recognizes. So, pretty cool.

We met in the courtyard as usual and then made our way to the cathedral… we crossed the bridge and then came across a parade of falleros. (girls in fancy dresses, men dressed somewhat like pirates, with a marching band following them around.)



We decided to follow them.

The police stoped traffic for them, and they just kept marching along. At one point we came across another fallero parade… we were then somehow in the parade? Haha. We just kept walking and ended up in the plaza de Ayuntamiento.

Then we decided to meander to Plaza de la Reina to find the Holy Grail.
We walked all the way around the cathedral. We saw St. Vicente de Martir’s arm behind the alter. Interesting.



We continued the search for the grail…I knew it was in a side chapel but not sure which one. Then we finally asked someone where the grail was.



searching for the grail...

Turns out they lock it the chapel for the grail after the morning hours… so that was a bust. We’ll have to check it out some other day not during fallas when a million people aren’t around.

Then I went home, chilled, ate, went to bed.

Day 3: Wait… St. Patrick’s Day?

Wednesday Emily and I met up really early in the morning to go to the book fair. It’s on Grand Via, and the book stands go on for blocks.

We spent well over a couple of hours looking at books. I was in heaven. There were new ones. Pretty ones. Kind of ugly ones. Old ones. Ones with really pretty old covers and ribbons. I was happy.

I ended up buying the complete set of “El Señor de los Anillos” (Lord of the Rings) and El Hobbit. Sooo excited to read them in Spanish.
(Also it is apparently my “goal/assignment” from Jenielle and Emily to memorize the little prologue saying before Ireland…)

“Tres anillos para los Reyes Elfos bajo el cielo.
Siete para los Señores Enanos en palacios de piedra.
Nueve para los Hombres Mortales condenados a morir.
Uno para el Señor Oscuro, sobre el trono oscuro
En la Tierra de Mordor donde se extienden las Sombras.
Un Anillo para gobernarlos a todos. Un Anillo para encontrarlos,
Un Anillo para atraerlos a todos y atarlos en las tinieblas
En la Tierra de Mordor donde se extienden las Sombras.”

Then Emily and I ate lunch on a park bench. Soaked up the sun. (I definitely got some color on Wednesday.) Then Jenielle met up with us and we went to the Mascleta.
After the Mascleta we went to Plaza de la Reina to watch ‘La Ofrenda’. (The offering of flowers to the Virgin Mary.) The falleros walk for a couple of hours with flowers until they get to Plaza de la Virgin. Then they offer the flowers to Mary, and they use all of the flowers to form her dress and decorate the Basilica.





















It was really pretty, all of the flowers, but it kind of surprised me that for something so sacred- bringing flowers to Mary- they just tossed the bouquets of flowers up to the top very nonchalantly to make the dress…

After watching the Ofrenda for a couple of hours we decided to make our way to the other side of Grand Via.

We decided to go to Portland’s and have a drink since, “Oh wait… what? It’s St. Paddy’s Day?” Right. Kind of forgot about that in the midst of Fallas. Nonetheless, we celebrated two holidays on the same day…. Nbd.

There was an Irish band playing in Portland’s though, and Mike was grilling some hamburgers outside. We asked him about them, and he said they were 6E with chips, but he also said that we could probably split it three ways and he’d bring us a knife. So that’s what we did.

It was the best hamburger ever, and the first ‘American’ food that I’ve eaten since being here.



how much would you pay for a hamburger?






we demolished it.

(Almost everyone I know has broken down already and gone to McDonald’s or Burger King for a meal… I still have not. Thank you Mike.)

We spent quite a bit of time in Portland’s, and then decided to grab some chocolate con churros and get a spot to watch the fireworks. We sat on the divider in the middle of the road on the bridge. Ate our churros. And then an hour later the fireworks started. (The first night the fireworks started being shot off at midnight… after that they started at 1 or 1:30 in the morning.)

So we watched the fireworks, and then Powerwalk Sam and Weaving Emily made it home in approximately half the time it normally takes to make it home. Then it was bedtime.


the street by our apartment... yes, it's all from petardos.

Day 4: Night of fire.

So Emily and I met up. Then we came across Angela and her boyfriend. We chatted with them. They were waiting for Julieta. So we waited as well.

Then we started towards Ayuntamiento to watch the Mascleta. We were about a block away when we heard it going off… so Emily and I decided to go to the park nearby instead then.

We sat and ate lunch. Then discovered that there was a Mercadona on Colon near Corte Ingles…this surprised us.

So we went in, checked it out… we didn’t really like the setup. Then we decided to walk to our home Mercadona instead. We wandered around Mercadona for awhile. I bought this cereal that has dark chocolate in the middle.

I really have been missing cereal this past week. So now even though I don’t have milk to go with it, I have been eating cereal. : )

Emily is like me, and drinks at least 2 glasses of milk with every meal… we severely miss milk. We discussed what it’s going to be like to go back to milk… and what we think our bodies would do if we attempted the gallon challenge upon arrival to the states. Haha.

Then we went home. Took a nap. We had plans to meet up and follow her family (who are falleros) to the Plaza de la Virgin.

I was waiting in the courtyard below, as usual, when I received a text that said she had been kidknapped by her family--- shoved in a car and not told where they were going.

So Julieta’s German friends were sitting down there waiting as well… We then decided to go to the Plaza de la Virgin and see if our friends would eventually make it there…






So I hung out with the Germans for awhile, and then Emily called me to tell me that she was in the fallero club’s building and she didn’t think she’d make it to the plaza anytime soon… so I made my way home.

Then Jenielle called me. We decided to meet up. On the way to meeting her, I ran into Marli and Nikki. They said they were going to look at the lights, and see the street that won.







So we met Jenielle, and all of us went together. It was pretty cool.
Then Jenielle and I were going to meet up with Emily, so we said goodbye to our friends, got some banuelos (like churros but doughier- many Valencians like them better than churros, and they are made with pumpkin- quite tasty…)

Then we made our way to meet Emily. It was super crowded… we were going to meet her on the other side of the bridge. We got trapped halfway across. We could not move.
The next 45 min Emily struggled to find us. Right before the fireworks started she found us. She was about ready to cry though… had been jabbed in the ribs a couple of times, been stepped on, stepped on some people, had people not let her through, shove her. It was not good.

Once the fireworks started we were all good though. They were hands-down the best fireworks I’ve ever seen in my life. They actually call them ‘Castillos’ here, because the fireworks are like a castle. They were perfectly timed. We even saw some that went up, came down a bit, went back up, came down a bit, and then went back up… how do they do that? It was amazing.

(I just wonder. There is a lot of sponsorship for Fallas- mostly alcohol and then Nestle- but who funds everything. Who pays for all the fireworks and explosives???)
Anyways, after fireworks it was crazy. Lot’s of people, and lots of people setting off borrachos. (There are petardos, which are your common firecracker. Then there are borrachos which are firecrackers that go off in every which direction… very dangerous. In fact, borrachos are the only thing the police here attempt to control. They don’t care about the massive amounts of people drinking, or smoking whatever it is they are smoking, or the petardos. Only the borrachos...)

Day 5: The burning. Why am I covered in flour? It is raining fire.

So it was the last day of Fallas. The day everyone has been waiting for. The day they burn everything. I woke up, ate some breakfast, and then met Emily in the courtyard. We then walked across town to meet Jenielle.

From there we went to the Mascleta. We arrived an hour early. There were so many people there already. We played ‘never have I ever’ a couple of times while we waited… I always lost.

Then they gave the 10 min warning. Then the five.

Then it started.

May I add that the last Mascleta is the biggest, and that this was the closest I had been to one yet.

The windows were shaking. Your whole body is pulsing with the explosives. I am almost positive that I suffered severe hearing damage. It was crazy. I recorded almost the whole thing. At the end it was SO loud and I was struggling to protect one ear with my shoulder and subsequently pushed the button to turn it off a little soon, but wow, way cool.

After this week, I am pretty sure I know what it’s like to be in a war zone--- minus the blood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REWO18QkSkk (This is the Mascleta--- watch it!!! It's CRAZY!!! and I was standing by the fence...)

So after the Mascleta we loitered underneath the awning of a building to eat our sandwiches. It was raining.

Then Emily and I went to La Alba and had some café con leche. We chatted. Watched the replay of the Mascleta on TV. We were amazed at how close we were to it. Haha.
Then I came home and took a nap and then ate dinner.

After that, Anne and I ran an errand for our madre and then met up with Christina to have one last look at some of the fallas before they were burned.






We first watched an infantile (little one) get burned. I thought it was pretty cool.



Then we grabbed some cream filled churros for a change and sat on a bench/ waited to meet up with Jenielle and Emily.

So Christina had to go to the bathroom and she went off in search of one. Anne and I remained in the park on the bench. It was good meeting point for everyone. All of a sudden these guys come out of nowhere. One is wearing a police hat, one a skirt, the rest are wearing black fro wigs. They are all really drunk. They come up and sit by/on us. I was soo confused. Then out of nowhere appear Emily and Jenielle. They are like ‘what’s going on?’ and we are like ‘we don’t know….’ Haha. So we just stay sitting on this bench (we are still waiting for Christina to come back). All of a sudden another guy comes and starts throwing flour on us shouting ‘bonsai!’

Emily and I lost it. I was laughing sooo hard at the situation. Random guys sitting on us. I am completely covered in flour. And I don’t know why.






Finally Christina came back. We then left them… and we were doused in flour. Haha. As if I don’t look out of place enough on the streets over here…

So we continued on our way. Then we found a big falla to watch burn. We were in the front row. I took a lot of pictures, and then Emily recorded it. It was so BA.
They string it up with explosives. Litterally blow it up and set it on fire.















(So I am sitting on the balcony as I am typing this. Ricardito just came out, asked me to help him set off some petardos. Haha. I lit them, and then he threw them at the courtyard below. Good times with the little kids.)

Anyways, after we watched a big one burn to the ground, we proceeded to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. This is the mother of all fallas. The big one.

There were again many many people. I don’t really know how many people can fit into the Plaza de Ayuntamiento… but I bet many people didn’t make it into the plaza. We were lucky. We were on the one side, right across from it.

The lights all went off in the plaza. It was completely dark. Then there was a fireworks display. Then it started on fire. It was really cool.

All of a sudden it starts raining chunks of fire. Like softball size chunks of fire. People are running out. The girl’s purse in front of me caught on fire. It was crazy!!!

I recorded most of this. Haha.

So Anne, Christina and Jenielle bolted out of there. Meanwhile Emily and I (being the pyromaniacs that we are) watched it a bit longer. (I’m fine. Didn’t catch on fire or anything…)

The best thing was that while it was raining softball size chunks of fire all around us, they are playing the epic “Valencia en Fallas” song. Great intense instrumental music, (they play it almost everywhere.) We sang along even though we don’t really know the words.

That was the coolest thing ever. Watching the falla burn with intense instrumental music and raining fire around us is actually the reason I came to Valencia. The most BA thing I’ve seen in my life.

Eventually Emily and I made it back home. We walked on Guardia Civil (the pedestrian road that lies between our apartments.) I showed her the garbage can that someone blew up. Then we played on the playground. And then went home and to bed.


Best night ever. So much fire. We officially survived Fallas 2010.