Spain: Valencia for Las Fallas festival

When searching for a final destination in Spain I happened upon the Las Fallas festival and was intrigued. We typically travel during 'shoulder' season, when the crowds are less but the weather is still pleasant and things are open. This was our first vacation where we went for the duration of a large festival. We rode the train from Madrid to Valencia and at first I wasn't sure, the train station in Valencia was busy and the workers weren't that pleasant. We found our way where we belonged and after about 30 minutes of walking got to our apartment. It was a beautiful studio apartment with a breathtaking view from the balcony. By far our greatest Airbnb.com find yet!

We got settled and wandered the immediate area then spent some time familiarizing ourselves with the festivities coming  up.

Bright and early the following morning I went out alone with the camera to capture some of the statues and buildings before the crowd. I got to visit an old church and wander the streets before the crowds were out in full force. It was a rewarding trip since no one was out for almost 3 hours and I got some great shots. To end my morning out I stopped in the large covered marketplace across from our apartment for breakfast supplies.

Our goal for the day was to find as many of the Las Fallas statues as possible, manned with our map we set off on our quest. It was so fun with the crowds around and although it was a lot more people than I'm typically comfortable with we felt safe and everyone we encountered was friendly. Here are some of our favorite statues by far not even a tenth of the ones we saw, those things are everywhere! We also learned some of the history of the festival and the insane amount of money that is spent to erect these statues yearly!

After a long day of walking around town we relaxed in our apartment until the evening fireworks show which we could view from our balcony. It was a wonderful first full day in Valencia. 

The next morning we ventured to the small spanish cafe downstairs for breakfast, it was standing room only and non-english speaking. The food was delicious and we ordered very effectively by pointing to everyone else's food. We decided to venture down to the main square for the afternoon firework show and dance, it was essentially hundreds of firecrackers being set off to some beat and dancers. It was so loud I still don't know how those people weren't deaf doing that year after year. Then we watched the start of the flower offering parade where locals representing different regions would dress in traditional clothing and bring flowers to the courtyard outside the church to construct a  large virgin Mary statue that is burned to start La Creme (the burning) on the final day. Any locals can pay a fee to participate in the flower offering and it is considered an honor. The design on the back of the virgin statue changes every year, this year is represented the tree of life. 

That evening we participated in a food tour of Valencia, it took us to some delicious restaurants and although it wasn't as through as the one in Madrid we liked it. I'm not sure I could eat tapas daily but it was nice to enjoy them while in Spain. We even got used to the late dining hours, 10pm being the typical local dinner time most restaurants didn't open until 8:30.

The following day since the winners had been announced we decided to seek out the ones we hadn't seen which of course meant quite a bit of walking. After finding all of them and relaxing over a long lunch we ventured to L'Exaimpler where all the lights were. We happened upon this information that a certain section of the city puts up lights like Christmas. I'm so glad we did, it was amazing to see. The lights danced to different songs and the crowd really got into it. We were out well passed one in the morning and thanks to our overly friendly 3 yr old got invited to enjoy a private party and dinner. Although the language barrier was pretty limiting we still had a blast dancing the night away.

 

Next morning not so bright and early was the final day of the festival, it had passed so quickly with all the celebrations. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that by the morning all these amazing works of art would be gone. Today we just took some leisure time to explore parts of the city we hadn't seen and revisit some our favorite statues before they were burned down. Pieces of the winning statue are preserved in the Las Fallas museum but it is considered a part of the offering to have your statue burned completely. I even heard that the winner sometimes feels robbed because their statue didn't get to burn completely. At dusk was the fire parade, we lined the streets around the colosseum five people deep. I had high hopes for the parade with such an awesome name but it was essentially just the people who set the statues on fire marching down the street to some music.

We wandered the streets for awhile longer and the atmosphere was defiantly charged. Everyone was looking forward to this climax of the festival. The smaller children statues are burned starting at 10pm and the larger statues are burned starting at 12am. After a crowded early (by Spanish standards 8:30pm) dinner at a local gem we headed to the statue outsider our apartment to await the first burning. It was such a unique atmosphere and I think some of it had to do with the finality of burning something that took such an effort to create. We were in the front row and the show did not disappoint, with a loud explosion of fireworks lined up the small statue was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. According to Maddy she got a 'sunburn' from the fire so we decided to head upstairs and watch the surrounding statues burn from our balcony. After the fire died down children joined hands and danced around the ruins singing songs.

 

It was an amazing sight, every large statue that burned was proceeded with aerial fireworks. You could see the burning men wandering the streets with their torches and large crowds following them. The statue directly below our balcony wasn't started on fire until after 4 am but the crowd was just as large and lively as ever. It was a sight like no other to be that close the the fireworks, literally right over our 6th floor balcony and then the flames from the fire reaching close to our building. The view was better for us then being on the ground.

 

The following morning the city seemed like a city reborn, no evidence was left at all of the fires. All the ashes and trash had been washed away and the streets were quiet. It was as if during the few hours we slept we were transported to a new place. We decided to utilize our final day to explore the Spanish country side, we hired a local guide who took us by car to a ruined castle, a local town, a waterfall and a small lake for swimming. It was a nice nature day and a good break from the last three weeks of just city dwelling. After coming back we all simply crashed from the festivities of the night before, our bodies obviously not having the restoring power that the city had in a couple hours.

The next day we were off, got a nice surprise of being upgraded to business for our flight to Turkey (first time for everything!) and before we knew it we were back in Bahrain headed for our Saudi home.