Taking Fallas to the Next Level

   Starting March 1st the noise began.  After my previous post of my first mascleta, there has been a lot going on in Valencia.  Everyday there was a mascaleta at 2 PM in Plaza Ayuntamiento, where the majority of Las Fallas was centered.  There were also the firecrackers that could be heard at different times in the day or night.  But things started to get crazy the week of the burning of the fallas, March 14.  Firecrackers were lit all night and all day.  Every morning at 8 AM fireworks could be heard all over Valencia called "La despertad".  After nights out until 4 AM the last thing I wanted to do was hear massive amounts of fireworks going off right outside.  It happened that there was a falla right outside of my apartment building. You may think, "wow that's awesome. You're lucky to be so close to one."  Well I didn't think so.  Not only would fireworks start at 8 AM but they would continue all day and night until 1 AM.  By around noon firecrackers were going off every five seconds, making it very difficult for me to go back to sleep.
   Wednesday night is when all of the festivals began.  Falleros (the citizens of Valencia who donated money and time to a falla) were out celebrating all day and late into the night -- with firecrackers of course. I went to a street festival that had a dj in a plaza and hundreds of students crowded around drinking in the street.
   Friday night was the final night of fireworks.  These fireworks put 4th of July to shame and we added a few firecrackers of our own once it was done.  Friday night is when my family and 9 friends from Granada arrived to experience Las Fallas.  My parents had different plans for the night so we all headed over to the street festival and had a great time.
   Saturday was a little more low key, but I got to see something completely insane that will never be legal in the US.  La crema is the ceremony where the falleros burn the fallas.  I have attached a link of my video that I posted on Youtube.  We were able to see two different fallas be burned that were all near my apartment.  This whole past week is an experience the I will never forgot, and I highly encourage everyone to come and experience this great festival for yourself.

My video of a Falla burning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6j-P4-DDnw

View of a Falla from my balcony

Falla down the street

Same falla burning

The other falla in a plaza right next to my apartment

Posiedon falla burning

 Procession of little falleras

 Biggest paella I've ever seen.  Being right outside of Estacion Nord

 La Virgen

Cullera

  After a week of partying in Valencia, we took a 30 min train ride to the south to one of the beach towns near Valencia.  The Granda squad, my brother, and I relaxed on the beach for a while.  Great way to end Fallas!

Andalusia

Malaga

 Our first stop on our trip in Andalusia was in Malaga.  We left Valencia at 2 AM on Thursday morning and had a 6 hour drive to Malaga.  During the way the weather started getting worse so by the time we got there it was raining.  Our hostel was a backpacker's hostel, which usually means the lowest quality, but we had dry beds and warm showers so I couldn't complain.  We were able to tour the birthplace of Picasso, which had some of his sculptures on display.  We were also able to walk inside the Alcazaba, a Moorish castle built in the middle of the 11th century.  It was a really cool castle built on the side of a hill with many different ways to get to the top.  It also offered a great view of Malaga and the Mediterranean.

Picture of me inside the Alcazaba looking onto the Mediterranean

Gibraltar
    The next morning we made our way to Gibraltar.  It was another rainy and foggy day but still fun.  Since we were in a bus of around 50 students we were able to get special treatment by the border patrol. I actually never had to open my passport to get into Gibraltar.  Once in the British territory we were given a tour of the Rock of Gibraltar.  We saw some really cool caves where the British used to have an army hospital back in WWII.  And, of course, we saw the monkeys.  There were so many of them and they were all very friendly.  I took a lot of good pictures with them but if you really want to see how crazy they are just look for a video of them on Youtube.  Since it was a very foggy day we were not able to see Africa, but on a clear day our guides said it is possible to see the coast of Africa.
    Another cool thing about Gibraltar is their language.  The official language is English, but Spanish is taught as a second language in all schools.  The street language is mix of both so everyone in Gibraltar speaks Spanglish.  It was really cool to hear our tour guides talking to each other.  Definitely a language that would keep me on my toes.

Chipiona
   We arrived in Chipiona after our visit to Gibraltar.  We actually didn't spend that much time in Chipiona, other than to sleep in our very nice hostel.  When we arrived the first night we got our first taste of Carnaval.  Everybody was dressed up and drinking in the street.  Lots of groups had instruments and they played them really loud.  And then it started pouring rain, so we called it a night.

Jerez

   Our only nice day of the trip was during our visit to Jerez.  Jerez is one of the largest cities in the region with a world renowned winery.  Our first tour was of the Ayuntamiento de Jerez.  This place was an old castle with Moorish baths and a very old pharmacy.  Another feature of this castle was their "camara obsura".  I don't think there is a correct translation for this but basically what this camera does is use lenses to project an image of it surroundings onto a white screen.  It was a cool invention that has been used for hundreds of years.
  We then were free to go out for lunch.  We found a great Mexican place that had insanely overpriced margaritas, but that's Spain for you.  On our way we encountered a large Spanish wedding being held at one of the churches.  It was interesting to see how similar it was to American weddings.  The only difference that we noticed were the number of crazy hats the women wore.  I probably saw 5 different kinds of mammals and birds on these hats.
  After lunch we toured the Gonzalez Byass winery.  It is one famous for its sherries and most importantly the Tio Pepe label.  It is one of the most widely exported wine in the world.  Personally I didn't enjoy drinking the sugary sherry but I guess it is pretty popular here in Spain.  The winery also had the biggest barrels of wine I have ever seen with Jesus and the 12 disciples names on the front.  So I found my name and there is a picture of me with my personal giant wine barrel.

Picture of the countryside from our bus

Picture of Jerez and the Andalusian countryside from el Ayuntamiento de Jerez

Spanish wedding

My own wine barrel

Cadiz

   Cadiz = Carnaval.  Our night in Chipiona was childish compared to Saturday night in Cadiz.  Saturday was the last party night of Carnaval and Cadiz is known for its wild Carnaval parties.  So after a quick dinner of turkey sandwiches, the night began.  I had picked up some pieces of costumes and in the end it all came together.  Since we stand out as Americans wherever we go we thought we might as well embrace it and rep it strong.  With our American style Kanye sunglasses and face paint we conquered Carnaval.  Our night consisted of drinking in the street and blowing party horns.  Another big part of Carnaval are the groups who sing comedic songs.  Some of the best live singers I've seen, would've been nice if I could have understood what they said.  My video seems to be making fun of the Chilean miners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhbuwcTEpA

   The next night we also were in Cadiz to witness the finale of Carnaval.  The fireworks were the longest I have ever seen with a music theme in the background.  It was also the closest I have ever been to fireworks that size and there were pieces of fireworks following all over us, some still flaming.  Check out my video of the finale of the fireworks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zApyu6-V03E

My two Wisconsin friends and I with our costumes

Fireworks in Carnaval

Fallas!

So today, March 1st, started Las Fallas.  This is the world renowned spanish festival held solely here in Valencia.  Rather than go into detail about what this is I'll let you guys take a quick look at the wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles

Since this morning I have been able to hear fireworks going off all over the city.  But the main event of each day is called "La mascleta".  Every day until March 19 there will be una mascleta in Valencia.  Basically this means that a plaza will be closed down and a fireworks will be set off around 2 PM.

I was able to attend the first mascleta of Las Fallas.  It was like something I have never seen in my whole life.  My roommate and I arrived at Plaza de Ayuntamiento an hour early and we got a great spot.  The fireworks started at 2 PM.  Watch the video and enjoy. Right around 2 minutes we could start smelling the gun powder and ash was falling all over.  The audio in the last minute or so isn't the best becuase the finale was crazy loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRlIocfzV4

There is also a link posted of the same mascleta, only from a better vantage point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857xDyoYGXo

Zaragoza

So my first trip since moving to Valencia was to Zaragoza.  It is a 4 hour drive by bus to the north of Valencia.  Zaragoza hosted Expo 2008 and is also home to a castle, el Palacio de la Alfareria, and a large cathedral, la Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar.

We spent three days and two night in Zaragoza and we had a great time.  It was everyone's first hostel experience and we were very surprised at how nice our place was.  There were seven of us and we were lucky enough to get a 10 bed room to ourselves, with our own bathroom and shower.

We were unlucky with the weather on saturday but we were still able to got out and take some good pictures.  Sunday was a great day and we went back to some of the places and got some better pictures.

The night life in Zaragoza was pretty crazy.  Our first night we were able to experience the spanish cuisine of tapas.  They were delicious, as it was just bread, ham, and cheese, a mix that cannot be beat.  Calle de Temple was packed with people both nights and I'm pretty sure that every kid in Zaragoza was there.

More trips are being planned.  And yes these planning sessions are being done after I have gone to class.

 Centro Mercado

 Cool Church

 La Basilica...in the rain

Picture of me with la Basilica 

 el Palacio de la Alfareria

Plaza Pilar and La Basilica on a sunny day

Living In Valencia

I have now been in Valencia for 1 month.  Its difficult to think that I have been here for that long but I can't say I'm not enjoying it.  I have spent many weekends at the beach.  On some of the nicer days it gets up to 70 degrees.  Over the past month I have done many things in Valencia, especially thanks to our erasmus club.  So this post will be about my life in Valencia.

My address:

Calle Yecla Puerta 16

46021 Valencia Espana

I live on the 8th floor of an apartment building that is right off of a major boulevard.  I am a 15 minute walk from my university which is great.  I have three spanish roommates, all guys from different areas of spain.  One is a soccer player and the other two are swimmers.  We all get along really well and I get to practice my spanish with them everyday.

One of the things that I really enjoy about Valencia, apart from the weather, is the bike system for the whole city.  It is called Valenbisi and there are stations all over the city.  I paid 18 euro for a year subscription.  It allows me to take a bike from the station right by my apartment to any other station in the city for free.  It is a great system that allows us to get around the city for cheap.  This has probably been one of the best purchases I've made in Valenica.

Downtown Valencia has a lot of cool stuff to see.  I've made two trips down there and there still is more stuff to see.  I have many pictures of old churches and buildings.  One thing that I associate with Spain is the plaza.  There are so many plazas, some larger and some tucked-away.  Another big thing in Valencia is graffiti.  I have seen some elaborate pieces of art on the buildings and walls of Valencia.

Another important area in Valencia is the park that is in place of the old river.  The city of Valencia decided to divert the river that ran through the city center along a different path, allowing the large park and City of Arts and Sciences to be built.  There are bike paths and soccer fields all along this park.  I have not made a trip here yet but I will soon.

A big attraction of Valencia is the City of Arts and Sciences.  I was lucky enough to travel to the Oceanagraphic (aquarium) of Valencia with our erasmus group.  It is a great aquarium with dolphin shows and lots of sharks.  

I also visited the Bioparc (zoo) of Valencia.  It was a relativley small zoo but nonetheless pretty cool.  It was mainly African themed with lions, giraffes, and rhinos.

 my room

 estacion del norte

main train station in Valencia

 Plaza Ayuntamiento

Centro Mercado

Valenbisi Station 

 One of the many churches

 Torres de Serrano

 Picture of the park from Torres de Serrano

Dolphin show at Oceanographic 

 some graffiti

 meerkats

King of the Jungle