VALENCIA!!!

Ok, so we went to Las Fallas this weekend in Valencia. For those who are not aware of what Las Fallas is, well to sum it up, it’s a festival of fire, fireworks, big statues, parades of fire, and big statues on fire.

When we stepped off the train on Thursday we found the entire citer center closed to all traffic and people everywhere. On top of the initial shock, there were literally fireworks everywhere. And by everywhere I mean that the entire time we were there people (kids and drunks included) were encouraged to light off as many and as big of fireworks as they could get their hands on. People were practically setting off explosive devices right underneath the police officers, who did think twice about it.

Thursday night we wandered the festival grounds which for all intensive purposes was the city of Valencia. We saw a bunch of the statues and the lights while we were waiting for the one o'clock firework show. Ever year each neighborhood of Valencia builds an intricate statue, which takes the entire year and more often than not costs over 80,000 euros to complete, for Las Fallas. On Friday night of the festival all the statues are burned to the ground in epic fashion.

I'm not sure what to say about the firework show other than completely and utterly awesome. Before it started we found ourselves in the middle a street packed with some of the 8 million people who attend Las Fallas on any given year. Where we were standing there was a band playing music right smack dab in the middle of the sea of people so we danced there for a while until the cannon shot went off signifying the beginning of the show. I can't do the show justice so I'll just say it topped anything I have witnessed in my time on Earth.

We spent the day on Friday at the Valencia Aquarium instead of going to the daytime firework show, which part of me still regrets missing but the aquarium was without a doubt a stellar experience. While there we went to a fantastic dolphin show and ate a mediocre hamburger. During lunch at the aquarium we could hear what sounded like hell opening up to the mortal world but instead was just the day firework display.

After the aquarium we had to make a quick turnaround to make it to the parade. None of us knew quite what to expect from the parade and once it began quickly understood that it was going to be something completely foreign to anything we had seen before. Try to imagine the street filled with devils and hellish floats all showering the crowd with fire. They had a rolling bonfire behind each float just so they always had a source of fire to light their combustibles. Needless to say everyone involved was left with their jaw on the ground.

The rest of the night we wandered around the area checking out everything until it got close to time to the burnings. Once we found one to watch, we got a good spot and waited. When it came time to burn, we were surrounded by an onslaught of fireworks and they burned that blanker down. Mid way through the burn they started pushing people back and lets just say the heat from the fire was too intense from where they ended up moving everyone to. I have to say the most impressive part of the burning was the fact that this series of events happened for every statue all of which were located in the nicest part of town. Totally mind-blowing.

The next day we woke up to an entirely different Valencia. There were almost no explosions in the streets and cars once again could drive where they were supposed to. For lunch we took a bus to the beach for paella. I only mention this because for anyone who think they will at some point be in Valencia and want paella on the beach, remember to make a reservation. In fact, if you want to eat anything other than Burger King, make a reservation. It may be because we were in town on a busy weekend but every restaurant we tried to go to only took reservations. Ultimately we were able to find a paella place that would seat us but only to a limited menu.....which still was awesome.

All in all, I am one hundred percent positive I will return to Las Fallas at some point. I would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind loud noises and the always present threat of spontaneous combustion.

Today is Monday and on Wednesday we have Spring Break and are leaving for Greece. We will be there 8 days in all, most of which will be spent in Santorini and another island. So if I don't update my blog for a while, do not fear, I am in a happy place.