Las Fallas in Valencia

All my pictures from Las Fallas are posted here.

Las Fallas is something that my friend DeeDee had told me about (she's studying in Alicante, Spain), and after hearing more about it from an American we met in Madrid (who absolutely raved about it) I decided to try to make it to Valencia for what is considered one of the most spectacular festivals in the world (it helped that RyanAir flies direct from Marseille to Valencia, and my roundtrip tickets were only 75 euro!). Las Fallas is a week-long festival in the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia in Spain. It's commonly known as a fire festival, with fireworks displays every night, people setting off fireworks constantly in the street, and a finale with more fire seen since the Great Fire of London in 1666 (too soon?). The city commissions artists to build humongous sculptures and statues throughout the year, and throughout the week they're displayed throughout the city. On the last night, every one of them is burned to the ground except for the one that has been judged as the best, which is immortalized in a museum.

We left for Valencia after classes on Thursday, and made it to the city with no problems. In all, our group was 6 people: myself, my housemate Chris, and 4 girls. When we arrived, we arranged to meet with the "landlord" of the apartment we were renting. With the festival, there weren't any hostels in town, but we were able to find a company in Port Saplaya (10 minutes outside the city) that was renting apartments. It seemed a little sketchy, especially when he asked me to pay 30% in advance. Everything turned out ok though. After getting the keys, we took a taxi ride to apartment, dropped off our bags, and headed back into town (it was St. Patrick's Day after all!). In town we found the streets packed with people. And not just young people partying. There were whole families in the streets, with little kids (and adults) lighting off fireworks everywhere. You couldn't go more than 2 minutes without hearing a firecracker explode near you. We saw people wearing Guinness St. Patrick's Day hats, and went in search of our own. The bar that had been distributing them didn't have any left, but the girls found some Spanish guys outside who gave them theirs. We started talking to a group of 4 people (2 guys and 2 girls, half Spanish, half Italian) who spoke English and ended up going to their apartment building to watch the fireworks that were at 1am. You could not have asked for a better venue. Their apartment was about 4 blocks away from where the fireworks were being launched, and from the roof of their 10-story building it was magnificent. Better than any fireworks I've ever seen. One of our new friends informed me that Valencia is famous for their fireworks, and that those at the Olympics are usually Valencian.

In the morning we were awakened to what would become a theme of the weekend; fireworks going off right outside our window at 8:30 am. However, once up we were able to take in how amazing our apartment was. It was a 3-bedroom apartment with 6 beds, a large living room, dining room, and our own fully-stocked kitchen. The building was literally on the beach, and we had an amazing view of the sea out of our balcony. My friend McKenzie and I decided we were going to save some money by cooking meals, and went to the corner grocery store to stock up. We bought 25 euros of groceries with which we were able to make a large breakfast and dinner for 6 people. For breakfast we made scrambled eggs with mushroom and onion and eggs in a nest, and for dinner we made a HUGE thing of pasta and I made fried potatoes (aren't you proud Grandmere?).

We had a while before the bus to Valencia came, so we went and relaxed on the beach. The whole weekend the weather was amazing (sunny and 70s) and I was in shorts for most of it. When we finally made it into the city we spent the afternoon walking around, exploring, and watching the endless series of parades. Many of the locals dress up in a traditional Fallero costume, and the whole festival is nonstop parades.

After heading back to the apartment for dinner and a quick nap (the Spanish don't go out until well past 11pm) we came back to explore the city. Besides visiting some local bars, Chris and I bought our own fireworks, which were incredibly fun (and cheap) to light off (video of one of them here). For the nightly fireworks display, we headed to the plaza where most people watch from, which is RIGHT next to where they launch the fireworks. This meant that you could feel every explosion going through you, and that the fireworks looked like they were going to land on you. It was an absolutely unreal experience. I got a pretty good video here. I know it looks like it would be the grand finale, but that was only at the beginning.

On Saturday we were (again) woken up to fireworks which sounded like bombs going off under my bed. But it was (again) a gorgeous day. We packed up and, after getting a kebab, headed to the beach to await the bus. As our flight on Sunday left at 7am, we'd decided not to book a place to sleep Saturday night. Unfortunately, this also meant that we would have to carry our bags with us everywhere on Saturday. Luckily though, I had the idea to go to the train station in town where they had lockers. Feeling significantly lighter, we were able to walk around and explore. We spent some time walking around an area that's very similar to Chinatown, where they also had the winning statue. After seeing that, we walked over and got a good spot for the annual Cabalgata del Fuego (fire parade). Once the sun goes down, this parade starts up one of the main streets in Valencia, ending at their version of the Arc de Triomphe. It starts with people in traditional dress marching up the street but culminates in people dressed in crazy costumes wielding spark shooting staffs and pitchforks. There were people on stilts, a horse shooting fire, and a giant mechanical turtle with 6 men inside shooting fire everywhere. This is definitely a video worth seeing.

We finally headed the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, witch is the city hall square, in anticipation of the grand finale: the burning of the largest statue. As we got there 2 hours early, we were able to get amazing spots. While waiting we met all sorts of people: a Slovenian, Brazilians, 5 Penn Staters, and someone I knew from the Pittsburgh Jewish scene. Finally, at 1 a.m. they lit off a spectacular fireworks display, and then burned it down. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I can't even describe it, you have to watch the video (found below).

By the time this all finished up, it was already 2 in the morning, and we decided to head to the airport. We all settle in on benches near the RyanAir counter, and got in a few hours of sleep. The trip home was unremarkable, with a lot of sleeping, and when we finally got home all of us went our separate ways, to prepare for midterm exams and go about our lives, but forever changed by the spectacular experience that was Las Fallas.

If you want to find out in more about what Las Fallas is, this website covers everything.

You can find other videos from the weekend on my youTube page