Valencia: fallas!

The first time I remember hearing about fallas was in a Spanish culture class at NKU. I knew that they were tall figures that were burned on the last day of the celebration. Random, right? Anyway, it never especially intrigued me, but I tucked that bit of information in the back of my mind. I never, NEVER would have guessed that I would experience this in person, in Spain two years later!

And it just kind of happened. Olga encouraged me several months ago to see the fallas, and since Valencia is fairly close by train, it seemed doable. What really encouraged me to look more into it was when Jordi, Laura’s husband, encouraged me to see it as well. María Jesús, a super-nice teacher from Solivella, lives in Valencia and offered to take me sometime if I was interested in seeing it again (reminder: I spent several days in Valencia with Katie in October/November). However, I rarely saw her during the pre-Valencia planning ideas, so it seemed extremely awkward to go up to her and say, “hey! Can I come with you to see the fallas? And can I hang around you since I’ll have no idea what to do?” :-) Add the fact that the weekend of the fallas was a week after the major Paris trip with Amanda (meaning exhausted and broke, bwahaha), I pretty much dismissed the idea from my mind.

And then poof! God opens up more opportunities! When I went to Barcelona with Olga and Inés, we found out that Inés lives in a village outside of Valencia. I casually asked if she was going to see the fallas, and she was like, OF COURSE! :-) She then asked if I wanted to come with her. As in she’d drive, we’d stay at her parents’ house, hang out together, and...I wouldn’t have to pay for anything. WOW. There are just some people in life that you “click” with right away, and Inés is one of them. We figured out more details during the breaks of the Wednesday Teaching Course, and since she teaches in Montblanc, our meeting spot was...perfect!

There was a possibility that her roommate would come as well, but she changed her mind. I was secretly relieved, because...well, I just didn’t know the company very well. What if I was suddenly in a situation where I was surrounded by drunken partiers? Inés seemed nice and decent enough, and she knew in advance from both Olga and me that I’m not one of THOSE people. :-) Anyway, we met in the school parking lot on Friday late-afternoon (this is March, by the way) and had a pleasant drive to Valencia (over two hours). We went to her house first, and her parents are really nice! They speak Valenciano, which is...hmm...okay, people from Catalunya would call it a dialect of Catalan, but most Valencians would consider it a separate language. :-) Ines declares it to be a dialect, so I’ll call it that. Anyway, it’s very similar to Catalan. They all spoke in Spanish with me (but Ines would often talk in English for the practice. :-) Her dream is to be an English teacher), but it was nice to have that “Catalan ear” where I could figure out what was going on. :-) I was also given my own room! For free! :-)

We had a nice supper with the family (Ines’ just-turned 19-year-old brother was in and out during the whole weekend, mostly because he plays in the band), and later Ines and I took the train (her dad drove us to the train station) to Valencia the city. Clarifications: Ines, her brother, and her boyfriend are all musicians and do or have played in important bands during the fallas. Also, by this time, it was night. Okay, the train was completely PACKED with people. It was insane. You were literally standing elbow-to-elbow with everyone during the whole trip...and usually you were closer than that! It was a bizarre experience, and one that I later found out would be pretty much the norm for the whole weekend! :-)

We met up with Ines’ boyfriend, Eliás, and I was very relieved to find out that he was nice and not weird or obsessed with parting or anything. The three of us got along really well, and there is NO way I would have survived the fallas experience without their native-Valencian help and company. The Valencia I saw with Katie had completely changed. There were so many people. I can’t even find the words to explain how many people were there! But yeah, we basically were smushed into people the entire weekend, and the comparison I frequently made was that we were like sheep. Slow walking, pushing, shoving, following the herd dumbly....ha! We saw some of the fallas, which is impossible to see them all since there are hundreds and they’re scattered all throughout the city. Ah, one sad thing for me was that I couldn’t bring my camera that first night. Ines and her mom were (wisely) preventative and said that I should only bring a small amount of money, one form of ID, a cell phone, and put in all in a small purse hidden under my coat. So I used one of Ines’ purses all weekend, and it turned out to be such a good idea. They know what they’re talking about! Not only for pickpocket protection...but just the fact that my normal purse wouldn’t fit between me and the other people in front or to the sides of me! :-D

The main thing to see that night was the epic fireworks display. We waited around on a bridge, talked in both Spanish and English, and when the fireworks finally started, it was totally worth the craziness of the crowds. Sooo cool! There were all sorts of “shapes” and different kinds, including ones that looked liked butterflies, parachutes, etc.

We also saw a beautiful lit-up area where you walk under (kind of like the light display in Valls) as well as a huuuge figure of...of...a virgin/Saint made entirely of flowers. It was incredible! And then we wandered around the city center looking at as many fallas as we could. Again, fallas are basically painted wooden statues/figures. They typically criticize a social or political aspect of life (both in Spain and internationally), and people actually make a living and work all year long to make these fallas that they burn the last day (HOWEVER, they always select one that is placed in a fallas museum). Some of the fallas are absolutely amazing...detailed, interesting, funny, silly, poignant, or else creative. However, I will say that I was appalled by some of them. Some are just weird, some had political slams that I didn’t understand, some were just plain ugly, and some were really, really awkward and embarrassing. So the actual fallas were a mixture between epic, weird, and disturbing to me as a whole. Cool to experience though!

But the whole ambiance of Valencia during that night was...awful. It was the closest thing I’ve seen to...well...utter drunkenness. I was sooo thankful that Ines and Elias didn’t drink, but I’m pretty sure we were the ONLY people in the whole city who were not, for lack of a better word, completely wasted. It was disgusting. They were definitely...um...happy though! A lot of awkward shouting and dancing...and streets full of trash, litter, and, well, um...urine. Gross, huh? Yeah. So part of me liked the wandering-the-streets thing that night, but most of me was completely disgusted with the human population and just wanted to get out of there. And guess how long we stayed out? Completely sober? 5 or 6 in the morning!!

We took the (crowded) train home, and we were yet again surrounded by drunken idiots (note: guys seem to be more idiotic than girls :-D). I was sooo tired. Most of these people are used to this sort of thing for fallas, but it was all new to me. I actually slept in the train and was only occasionally woken up by a group of drunken guys who were singing on the top of their lungs. To this day and for as long as I live, I will always associate “We Are the Champions” with drunk guys singing in Valencia. Horrors. They even kept singing after half of the train shouted at them to be quiet! :-)

Ines poked me awake when it was our stop, and her wonderful, patient father was there waiting to take us home. We got home at 6:30am. I have never stayed out like that before in my life! So weird!

We slept for a few hours and then got up to go back to the city to see (or rather, hear!) the mascletá, which is like a bunch of fireworks without the....fireworks. :-D It’s like the sound of fireworks with just puffs of gunpowder rather than colors. We plodded our way through a bunch of people yet again (but this time in the daylight with sober or else fairly-sober people. I can handle that so much better!) to see the puffs of smoke. The coolest part of the mascletá is feeling the vibrations of so many...booms (I told you that I can’t remember words in English! :-D). It was incredible.

Ines and I then spent most of the day in the city, looking at more fallas, relooking at the flower virgin thing (this time with a camera!), soaking in the environment, seeing the falleras (women dressed up in 1600-1800 outfits with coiled hair), eating a packed lunch from Dori (Ines’ mom. Yes, I DO think of Finding Nemo everytime!), eating at Valor, the special chocolate restaurant that Katie and I ate in when we were there together, and just having a good day. I was tired, but I enjoyed that day SOOOO much better than the creepy night before!

My favorite falla was actually the 1^st-place winner: a hunter, kids, and some animals. It was just really detailed and fun. One that really weirded me out was one with Obama dressed up as Snow White. Yeah. Still don’t get that one. :-) What else...hmm...ah, there was a fun one about musicals, and my favorite parts of that were the parts with cats (from the musical Cats that I’ve never seen) and the Phantom of the Opera. The most awkward ones were things like overweight, half-naked natives and one of Eve...as in Adam and Eve. Yeah. Since most of these are like half the size of or bigger than houses, seeing gigantic naked figures are embarrassing. No pictures there! :-)

That evening, we went back to the house and later drove to Elias’ town (bigger than Ines’ town, but smaller than Valencia the city) to meet up with him and some of his friends to see the cremá, the famous burning, in that town. Ahhh....how glorious it was to experience that OUTSIDE of insane Valencia! We waited around for the burning to start, so we had some snacks at a cafe. Their friends were nice enough, but it was kind of weird “hanging out” with strangers. :-)

We saw two burnings, and the first one was the most exciting to me (probably because, you know, it was my first one!). It seemed to take forever for them to set up! I just wanted to chant, BURN BURN BURN! Haha. The fallera lady and the guy, dressed up as a....a....fallero? started the firecraker thing when the firemen were all ready to go, and I was as close to it as I could possibly get until Ines and Elias grabbed me by my jacket and forced me to stand a safe distance away. Boo! Haha. I was entranced by the whole thing. The lady started the fuse, it burst into fireworks AND set the falla on fire. And then it was burning...soooo cool! I felt a little bit like a pyromaniac or something. :-D The firemen were nearby with hoses, and it was interesting to watch them work (hosing houses to make sure they won’t burn, etc.). And to see that beautiful falla collapse to the ground...wow! Kind of strange, a little sad, a huge “waste” of money (depending on your cultural point-of-view), but totally epic. I was all bouncy and happy after the burning and wanted to chant MORE MORE MORE! BURN BURN BURN! But I restrained myself. :-D We then walked as a posse of friends to see the second one. But like the other one, it took forever for them to be ready to burn it. We went to yet another cafe place, and it was there that I was feeling more and more tired and blah. It was 1 or 2 in the morning by that time, and this falla area had loud music playing. Plus, the falla was ugly. :-D Eventually they did burn it, but by then, I had lost my enthusiasm and was more like “huh, that’s cool....can we go now and sleeeeeep?” :-) We did leave shortly after that, and it felt incredibly good to get some sleep!

And now’s a good time to talk more about Dori. The whole weekend, she made such wonderful food for us. And a cool thing? I had a whole weekend of delicious and famous Valencian oranges and orange juice! Freshly squeezed/blended every morning! So fun! I had some good conversations with Dori, and I just felt welcome in their home the whole weekend. She also knew exactly what we should wear the whole weekend (jacket, short sleeves, etc.), and the lunch she packed for us was great because all of the restaurants were packed. I could not have seen the fallas on my own, this much is certain. It was so nice to be surrounded by experts! :-)

And that Sunday, we went to Ines’ grandmother’s house to eat lunch. I’ve met so many grandparents and in-laws of friends since I’ve been in Spain! :-) Everyone was really nice, except the little 4-year-old boy was feeling shy and blah. But I had a good time with everyone else, and I ate the famous Valencian paella there as well! Free and homemade!

Oohhh...and buñuelos! I tried amazing buñuelos, which are little donut thingies. Really good!

Ines and I left later that evening, and I was given a HUGE bag of oranges, a bottle of home-squeezed orange juice, and the extra buñuelos. And believe me, I slept in a LOT the following morning. :-D It was a good time, but I would NOT have done it without someone like Ines and her family!

But to be able to experience just a unique cultural experience? SO COOL! :-)