Valencia...Las Fallas

Well,
Another weekend has passed and another great experience. We went to Valencia this last weekend (Eric, Conrad and I and we met my friend Kristin from Murcia there). We left Thursday evening, arrived rather late and couldn't get into our campsite, so we camped off the main road, by the ocean more or less. Friday, we settled into our campsite, which was south of Valencia - about 20 km, and almost wished we had stayed in the woods. The campsite had a lot for us of about 20 X 25 ft. However, this was covered with a layer of gravel. Of course, we brushed away the rocks and then tried for an hour of pushing/hammering in the pegs for the tent. We did eventually get it set up, had a quick nap since the night before was a little late, and then headed off for the day.

We arrived at 1, proceeded to the main square where we were told there were fireworks and firecrackers at 2pm every day. We couldn't make our way into the main square since it was already packed and the all the streets leading into it were as well. So we settled for our spot about 50 meters back from the square and listened to 5 minutes of deafening firecrackers and fireworks display. It makes sense now whey they have most firework shows not in the middle of a city! We hung around until 5, picked up Kristin, went back to the campsite, made a quick salad, and then headed back in around for St. Patties day festivities.

After the first Irish pub, we went through a few side streets and found ourselves at paella competition. I have had paella before in Linares (see blog entry), which is essentially rice, chicken and shrimp mixed with saphron spice and water and other vegetables. But these people were having a competition of in the open street, all of them had wood fires and a little stand to mount there huge bowl/plate that they would make their paella in. We watched a few people make it, then I started up a conversation with a few older guys (in the 40s) about what they were doing. They knew I spoke english by my broken spanish accent and proceed to tell me that one of the guys is moving to St. John's NB in July for 3 months. We met him, his family, his sisters family and they offered us to join them in eating the paella. FANTASTIC!! After a few hours with them, we continued onto another Irish pub and drank a few more rounds until about 4...

Next day, we headed back in about 3pm, and really took it easy. Toured around to see most of the fallas. I'll explain quickly what they are. They are huge caricatures made by people from the surrounding villages and areas that are sometimes depictions of society or satirical. Or, they could just be interesting figures. (this ranges from a falla dedicated to Disney images, to one of Bush and Bin Laden playing guitar together..) The whole purpose of this week long festival is to display these all over old Valencia, in the intersection of those narrow streets. Now, imagine sometimes huge fallas about 10-15 meters high and taking up the intersection. This whole festival culminates on Sunday evening, when they are all burned (except the best one) at midnight!! (They are often made of styrofoam with a wooden skeleton/infrastructure). To finish off Saturday, we headed out for dinner in a near buy village, went to the beach, had a bottle of wine and played with some firecrackers...Eric went crazy with these things. You could buy them in almost any little convenience store for cheap...really cheap.

Another aspect of this festival is the firecrackers. Since they can be bought anywhere, anybody has them. Little kids will be setting them off in the street beside you, and Eric for that matter, so the first day you are on the edge all the time..explosions all around you, all the time. By Sunday, I had grown accustomed to the noises and didn't jump everytime an unexpected explosion happened. And you could imagine the noise when they are set off in little narrow streets...

Anyways, Sunday was spent all day in Valencia. A little Bodellon in the local park (which was the old river that went through the city but when it flooded in the 50's, they redirected it around the city and converted the ancient river bed and walls into nice parks), then waited in an intersection with a falla that we wanted to watch burn. Around 10:30, they set off the smaller one. Then at midnight, they have a 3-4 minute firecracker/firework show and then the actual falla is lit using firecrackers that were laced around the caricatures and figures. This is quite humourous since people are gathered around for the display, move back a bit when the firecrackers go off, then slowly as the whole display goes up in flames, they get hit with the intense heat wave. So incredible...As you'll see in the pictures, it looks like a huge blaze which it was! So crazy that they have this in the little streets, but there were firefighters on hand spraying the surrounding buildings and trees to prevent anything. (that is a disclaimer for all of you people reading this thinking "what is wrong with Spaniards? Huge bonfires in the middle of their small streets?" Then, we went to the main square for the huge burning of the main falla after a very impressive firework display, synchronized to 2 Valencian classical songs. Oh yeah, we were in the main square again at 2 that Sunday to see the fireworks and firecracker display (I wore my ear plugs since we were in the actual square and the vibrations from the display really were deafening. Also, to give the magnitude of some of the noises, we could actually feel the power from the explosions at times.... In the pictures, that is what the picture of the mass gathering of people with the fenced off area. This area is the size of a basketball court and is devoted solely to the firework and firecracker display at 2pm and 1am every day.

All in all, a great weekend. This weekend is busier than ever with last classes for my one group of kids, spanish classes at the university, trying to plan our last time things with people and so on...will get to go to a bull fight this Saturday in Jaén. Will be interesting to see...Also have to pack and get everything organized for my 3 months of travel...
Thank you to those who have read this novel of an entry...pictures should be up this weekend..
AT