Las Fallas

Nothing I can say can describe the event that is Las Fallas. However, I will try to give you all a sense of what went on the past few days...basically the biggest party in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people come to Valencia to see over 500 wooden and paper painted creations, called Fallas(fayas) for 4 days and on March 19th (Saint Joseph's day) the people burn the fallas, some of which cost over a million dollars (some are more than 6 stories high), and then the festival ends. However, the festival is so much more than that. Starting on March 1st, the town hall of the city puts on a sort of fireworks display in main square everyday, which is more like hundreds of bombs going off at the same time for 10 minutes. Starting on Thursday, los castillos began, which an enormous fireworks display that happens everynight until the burning of the fallas. No one can sleep during the night because of the amount of fireworks that go off (even children set them off constantly) and likewise during the day you can't go 5 seconds without hearing some sort of explosion. Literally I imagined myself to be in a warzone. Everynight from Thursday on I stayed up way into the morning, and on Sunday night I stayed up until the sunrise, which we saw on the beach. Here is a picture summary of Las Fallas:
This is my favorite picture of los castillos, more to come...

This is the parade of the offering, where hundreds and hundreds of traditionally dressed people (the dresses cost a fortune) walk through the city to give flowers to the Virgin Mary (to be seen later).

This is my friend Jackie and I in front of the falla that won second prize, a huge one that fits into a tiny sqaure. Each falla deals with a theme, mostly vices to be burned, and this one is about two teenagers out on the town being tempted by various things(see the marihuana leaf on the cell-phone) with a large angel shooting an arrow at a devil, respectively representing good and evil.

My friends Josh, Chelsea, and Jackie in front of the largest and most expensive falla (close to a million dollars) which also won first prize. It's hard to believe that they spend so much money on something so beautiful and then burn it, but that's the beauty of the tradition.

This is my madre Lola making a paella for the festivities; we also celebrated my rommate Zach's birthday this night.

Here is a good picture of the castillos on Sunday night, the biggest night. More than 400 tons of fireworks went off in this one show.

This is a picture of me and my friends at a verbena, an outside dance party, the night before the burning of the fallas.

Later that morning we went to see the sunrise on the beach.

This is a picture of me in front of the falla named "I want to be a freak" which depicts an enormous Micheal Jackson.

This is the completed Virgin, with offered flowers covering everything. Very beautiful.

This is the burning of Michael Jackson. All of us Americans decided to see this one burn, of course.

Later we went to the plaza of the town hall, where the last falla is burned with fireworks and such, very exciting and a lot of people.


Then, the fiesta ends and everyone goes home. Many people were sick because of the lack of sleep, etc. I hope you enjoyed what I could say about the fallas!

Granada, Córdoba

¡Hola a todos! This weekend I decided to get a taste of Andalusian Spain, in the South where the Muslim Moors occupied this part for over 700 years until 1492. As a result, there is a large Muslim influence and it is quite different from the rest of Spain. My sister Lisa studied in Sevilla, also in Andalucia, so I'm sure she's an expert.

We left Valencia on a night train Friday morning at 1am and stayed in bunks on the train. I was with 3 other random guys, quite an experience. At least I was able to sleep the whole time. We arrived in Granada at 9 and then began our day. We started with the Cathedral, which was very impressive, and then headed to the main site in Granada- the Alhambra. This was the main palace of the Sultan until the Christian Reconquistas took over the city, and fortunately the Catholic Monarchy decided to keep its Moorish appearance. It was unlike anything I had ever seen- beautiful Arabic inscriptions covered all the walls, and the gardens, which were meant to mimic paradise, were breathtaking. We spent the remainder of the day here, and explored just about everything in the complex. Here are pictures!






The next day we took a bus to Córdoba, and saw the main Cathedral there, the Mezquita. This cathedral is very unique (and incredibly famous) because it retains most of its Muslim style as a mosque (the christians built a cathedral in the middle of what was a mosque). The entrance is a beatiful orange tree garden, where the Moors would wash themselves before entering for prayer. Inside is likewise a forest, but of hundreds of columns with double arches, decorated in Muslim style. The sight is breathtaking.


Afterwards, we hit up a tetería (thanks for the recommendation, Lisa), where we had some Arabic influenced food and lots of fun. These are my friends Jackie and Katie.

The next day we walked around Granada and soaked up the sun and the city. This lookout point had a great view of the Alhambra and we went there during the day and the night for a beautiful light up view of the Alhambra.

Then we got on a train and headed back to Valencia! I didn't have a bed this time, and it was very uncomfortable, but I got a couple of hours of sleep before getting to Valencia at 5 in the morning. Needless to say, I slept in this morning. It was a great weekend, and I can't wait to return to Andalucía to visit Sevilla!

Xátiva, Fútbol, Castellón (finished)

¡Hola! I had a very busy weekend and it was loads of fun! On Saturday the group took a trip to Xátiva, which is a small town near Valencia where there is a hilltop castle(that seems to be a theme in Spain). It was a great day, very hot, and we did a lot of walking. Mostly just very pretty views and cool old castle ruins.



On Saturday night I went with my roommate and a few other people to a Valencia soccer game(fútbol). The staduim was huge! I walk by it almost everyday, but the inside seems a lot bigger than the outside. The game was fun and Valencia won!


On Sunday it was my roommate Zach's birthday, and he knew of this band playing in Castellón, a town about an hour from Valencia. They are actually from Memphis, his hometown, so how crazy that they were so near us on his birthday. We went to the beach there for the day and then to the concert...it was a good one!


As a last note, Valencia's Fallas is starting next week, which is a large festival which I'll explain more of later, but there was a Fallera on the mountain in Xátiva dressed in typical Fallera dress, very pretty. Fallera's are girls which are elected from their neighborhood each year to represent their falla during Las Fallas. It's a big honor to be chosen, and one of them is elected the Fallera Mayor, the girl who represents all of Valencia. Here's a picture.

One last thing-I've started to put my original photos on the blog, so if you click on the pictures now you can get a full size version if you like. Ok I'll update later on! iHasta Luego!