Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain

The Virgin when I arrived

Plaza de la Virgin: and you can see the men working on her in the background

The Virgin completed! (All the colors are tiny little flowers!)

Women in typical dresses getting ready for the parade

Women marching in the parade

Parade

Woman with her kids in the parade

Street of lights!!!

Eiffel Tower of Lights!

The falla that won first prize: therefore it will not be burnt

The ladies and the Italian men

Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias

Aquarium!

Surfing in a wave of trash

SHARK!

Dolphin Show!

Women making buñuelos

Me in beautiful Valencia

Street paella

The ladies with Jack Sparrow

Elvis

Personal paella

A street in Valencia

I decided while on an adrenaline rush to purchase a flight to Valencia for the Las Fallas festival.  I had heard a lot of good things about it and I had been dying to see more of Spain, so I bought the flight even though I had nobody to go with.  Well, turns out nobody I knew either wanted to go or could afford it, so I as it turned out, I had signed myself up for my first solo vacation going to the biggest street party in Europe.  Oh my gosh!  As the realization set in before I left, I was terrified.  There would be sooo many people, I'd be in a city I didn't know where I don't speak the language (they speak Valenciana there), loud noises going off everywhere, and I'd be alone.  Sounds like a recipe for an anxiety attack right?  Well, I'm glad that that didn't scare me off, because I ended up having a really great time!

To preface about what the festival is, it is a celebration in Valencia, Spain every year to celebrate Saint Joseph... but let's be honest, it is really just an excuse for a party.  All over Valencia (the 3rd largest city in Spain) the people of each neighborhood create a giant structure made of wood, styrofoam, paper mache, and cardboard to show off to the world for the festival.  Every year there is a theme that the people of Valencia decide upon, but honestly, I couldn't tell what the theme was.  At the end of the festival they burn all of the fallas except the one that wins first prize, which goes in the fallas museum.  Among the things that go on during the festival,  it is basically NOISE NOISE NOISE PARTY PARTY PARTY.  At 8 a.m. of every day of the festival, bands march through the streets to wake people up while people trail the band with firecrackers.  At 2 p.m. every day of the festival there is a giant firework show in the center.  And then, around 1 or 2 in the morning there is another firework show along the river every night.  And then as you see in my pictures above, there is the big flower offering to Saint Mary where they fill the plaza with flower offerings to her and make her pretty with flowers! Other events include parades with people in traditional Valencian outfits and more fireworks, and bands, etc.  And then at the end, FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!

So anyway, when I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, I was completely misled.  On my flight I was the only person under 60 years old, and I was thinking... um... all these people are going to this big firework party in the street?  Whaa?? When I got on the metro that was connected to the airport to go to the center of town, I was one of maybe 3 people on there.  I was thinking, wow, this might not be as overwhelming as I thought.  Well, as soon as I got off the metro to try and find my hostel, I was bombarded with the crowd.  I could barely make it out of the metro there were so many people.  As soon as I climbed the stairs to see the light of day,  I was smushed from every side by people speaking so many different languages, all holding beers, and going in no uniform direction.  As I tried to orient myself, a firecracker went off and made me deaf in one ear for about 10 minutes.  I was trying to focus on my task which was to find my hostel, but wow it was so overwhelming.  When I managed to walk the 3 blocks in about 45 minutes and find my hostel, I didn't want to leave it for a bit, but I put my stuff down and went to find something to eat.  My hostel was right by one of the main plazas, the Plaza de la Virgin.  They were just beginning the flower ceremony as I walked up.  I had a sandwich at a restaurant and studied my map and tried to make a tentative personal plan.  After lunch I walked back to my hostel because when I had went earlier, my room wasn't ready.  It was so I went to take my things up to my room.  As I was organizing my things to go out again these 4 girls came in the room that were my roommates for the weekend.  They were all study abroad kids here in Spain (3 in Salamanca and 1 in Barcelona).  They offered me to tag along with them when they went out that evening, so I waited for them to get ready (which took forever) and then we headed out.  Almost immediately after leaving, we met these 2 Italian guys that were living in Valencia.  They offered to show us around since they lived there, so we went with them.  They took us to this AMAZING part of the city where the street was lit up with lights.  That area was definitely my favorite from the weekend.  That was where the falla was that won first prize.  We had also met up with the parents of one of the Italians and they knew a lot about the festival so it was fun to hear facts about what we were seeing.  We went to a bar to have some tapas later and I met some local people and that was fun to talk with them.  People in Valencia were so friendly!  At 11 p.m. in the bar, they turned out all the lights and sang a song to the virgin in the corner, which was cool because if I hadn't been with the Italians I wouldn't have known about it that always happens on the Saturday night of the festival.  So Spanish haha.  We walked around some more before heading to the river to watch the firework display for the evening, which was super awesome.  The next day after not getting much sleep, I went with one of the girls to the Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias, which was the area of town that Valencia was famous for with the very uniquely architectural buildings.  It was really cool to see!  We went to the Aquarium first which was of course, very awesome.  I think it is the biggest aquarium in Europe... but I could be wrong.  We went to a dolphin show at the end of it as well!  I felt like I was at Sea World!  After the Aquarium we (we had met up with some of Alexa's friends that weren't in our hostel) went to the Science Museum which was really hands on.  It had so many different types of little games and exhibits that were really interesting.  It was huge!  On our way back to the center I got some buñuelos, which are typical for this festival which are basically fried dough.  They were yummy!  After I took a quick nap at the hostel, I went out with the girls again to walk around.  We saw some more of the parade that had been going on for more than a day with all the people in their outfits (the girl's all had Princess Lea hair!!).  We ate some street paella and then later on saw another firework show, which was supposed to be the biggest one of the weekend, but I personally think the one the night before was better.  The next day, my last day, I went out and saw part of the 2 pm firework show and then sat down for my own personal paella.  Honestly though, I have had better paella in Andalucia...  Anyway, we walked around more in a part of town I hadn't been to yet before heading out to the airport.  The festival was sooo fun, and probably would have been more fun if I went with some people I knew, but there is always the future!!!