las fallas

so, one of my roommates, anna, just went to valencia (eastern coast of spain). it is a gorgeous town and once a year (which happened to coincide with semana santa - holy week this year, which, by the way, is not normal).

she just got back and was showing me her pictures (some of which are here) and it made me think back to eight years ago, scary i know, when michael, jonathan and i took a little road trip from sevilla to valencia to meet up with jonanthan's brother to see the fallas.


we left on a friday night, and drove all night (lucky for me the guys wanted to drive, so i got to sleep the whole time, or as well as you sleep in a moving car curled up in a ball in the backseat). we arrived in valencia by about 10 am or so, ate breakfast (churros, of course), crashed on the grass in a park, met up with nate (j's brother), and ate lunch (paella, which is best known from valencia). we then walked around to see the huge, ornate, political satyric floats which spend tons of money constructing and spend basically all year making. then the night came. after some yummy sorbet and another little nap, we headed out to stake our place close to one of the top prize winning floats/statues.

now picture the scene. there is this huge satyric statue the size of a building wedged in a little plaza between 4 or so apartment buildings. there is a fire truck or two close by with firemen and fire hoses. the streets are packed. yes, there is a little barricade on all sides a little back from the firemen, hoses and statue/float, but we're pretty close.

so, the fireworks start to go off around this whole scene. and then fireworks start to shoot out of the statue/float. some shoot out and some are just sparks within. basically there is a huge building-size fire going on, controlled by the fire hose, but wedged between buildings that are really not that far away. they are closer than i am and my skin feels like it is being singed. crazy and amazingly cool. massive amounts of fire, smoke, heat, flames, and madness.

so, that's the fallas. definitely a sight to see and definitely worth the drive.

michael, jonathan, and i then took off after the night was over (i'm guessing based on spain, around 4 or 5am) and headed back to sevilla. i again got to sleep and they got to drive. fun times. and one of the many fun road trips the three of us took in '00-'01.