Valencia

Our trip to Valencia was exciting, to say the least. It started on Saturday morning, March 17, around 9:00am. We took the metro into Madrid, where we met up with approximately 3,000 college students, who had all arranged public transportation, in more than 50 coach buses. I have never seen such organized chaos. 

The ride to Valencia was about 3 hours, and we stopped on the way at one rest stop. This is a picture of the line into the restaurant, to use the bathroom: 

Once in Valencia, we had a hard time getting to apartment. It was our own fault, because we didn’t know which bus to take to the neighboring town, El Saler, where we had lodging in a beach-front apartment with Hali and her roommates. 

We felt like such tourists! After about two-three hours of speed-walking around town, trying to catch a bus that we didn’t even know the stops/route for, we finally gave up and took a taxi.

The apartment was for four, but Hali and her roommates made a reservation for five, but when we all got there, we ended up being nine. #OnlyinSpain.

That night, Angela and Alejandra and Jenna and I took the bus (which we were now familiar with) back into Valencia, for dinner. We were starved—we hadn’t eaten all day! We stopped at the first cheap-ish looking pizza joint that we stumbled upon, and we downed two family-size pizzas and two liters of soda in record time =P

It was Saturday night that we were first to exposed to the crowds and craziness of Las Fallas, and got to see some cool things in Valencia.  

There are over 400 Fallas throughout Valencia—the Falleros that build them sign up and pay through what is essentially a neighborhood organization. Each Falla has formal Falleros that represent them, who kind of serve the role of Miss State USA, representing their Falla. There are Falleros and Falleras of all ages that represent each Falla.

We met up with everybody for dinner. Clockwise from left: Daniella, Hali, Jenna, Angela, Carolina, Julia

A typical Spanish food is called Paella, and apparently, Valencia has the greatest Paellas in the country. We didn’t get to eat any though, despite our best efforts, because we were never really in Valencia for lunch. Sad!
People were cooking Paella on the streets, though. Basically, it looked like there were Paella tailgate parties on every street corner. 

Hanging out and “partying” all night on Saturday was quite the experience. People were just dancing and drinking in the streets, nonstop! The crowds were incredible.

While Hali and her roommates went back to the apartment, the girls and I decided that we would just stay out all night and wait to take the bus back. It was almost dawn, anyway! We stopped at a supermarket to buy sandwiches for lunch on Sunday, and then we took the bus to El Saler on Sunday morning.

Our plan was to go back to the apartment to change, and then go to the beach by mid-morning.

The beach is always fun, no matter how tired you are, or what time of day it is ;) And the good thing was: we had great weather to sleep on the beach for as long as we wanted on Sunday!

Of course, I brought my Frisbee, too ;) 

And we had a delicious picnic, for lunch.

And we just hung out, in the sun, all day =)

Following our three-hour nap, playing, and eating on the beach, we went back to the apartment on Sunday afternoon to shower and rest some more. I did Angela’s hair in an inside-out French braid; I knew my Mom would be proud ;)

Then we headed back into Valencia for another night of food and Fallas!

We got some rest on Sunday night. Monday was a federal holiday in Spain, el Día de San José, also, el Día del Padre, so there was no class. March 19 is also the day that the Falleros burn their Fallas. We wanted to get to know some things around town, so we spent the day in the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias en Valenica (the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia). We went to the aquarium and the Science Museum in the Ciudad, and then we passed some famous ancient towers and palaces in the evening.

Waiting for the bus in the morning...

Ciudad de Artes y Ciencas

The Oceanográfic is the largest aquarium in Europe!

Buying nutella crepes at the aquarium

Birds at the aquarium… rather: Birds in the aviary in the “tropics” section of the aquarium ;)

Playing in the Science Museum

Passing some famous buildings

On Monday night, the highlight of the night was supposed to be staying in the streets to watch the Fallas burn at midnight. That was awesome… but what was even cooler was what happened before that…

We walked around the streets of Valencia for a while, and we ended up standing by a Falla on a random side street where there weren’t very many people. Around 11:00pm, we asked the Fallero a question about the tradition of Las Fallas, and HE INVITED US INSIDE! Usually, only the Falleros are the ones that get to go in the fence, surrounding the Falla, but the Fallero not only invited us in to get a closer look, but he CUT A DOOR OPEN and let us stand INSIDE THE FALLA! It was REALLY EXCITING! We couldn’t believe our luck, and their generosity. We stood inside the Falla with the nice Fallero and just talked with him for like an hour. How sweet!

The theme of our Falla was political satire. There was a figure of Obama, with a caption that was written in Valenciano. 

The nice Fallero GAVE Jenna the caption sign, AS A GIFT, since he knew she is from the USA! JENNA GOT TO KEEP A REAL PART OF A FALLA WAAAHOOO!! #Soexciting.

The Falleros explained to us that the Fallas had a burn-schedule, an assigned time when their Falla would be burned, because the firefighters had to be present. The burn-time for our Falla wasn’t until 2:00am, but unfortunately we had to leave sooner than that. We had to take the metro to the bus station, and our bus to Madrid was scheduled to leave Valencia at 3:00am. We were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to see our Falla burn, but they gave us directions to the nearest, large Falla that was scheduled to be burned at 1:00am. 

After a thrilling night of battling crowds, breathing smoke, watching the firefighters, and making friends with some nice Falleros, (who took our pictures, and gave us their business card, and whom I plan to email!), we caught the bus back to Madrid at 3:00am, and promptly fell asleep. We arrived in town around 7:00am on Tuesday, and got home around 9:00am. 

Jenna and I went to class together from 10:00a-2:00p on Tuesday, and then I took a much-needed nap when I got home. Zzzzzzz.

After such a dose of intense and exciting worldly-Spanish culture, I would love to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans one year ;)

Next weekend, my host dad, Gerardo, is running a half-marathon in Segovia. Wish him luck!
Love always, ~Taylor