Come On Baby Lights and Falla

Thursday: A Castle and The Virgin

As the week progressed, each night got louder and louder outside the hotel. There was a small falla and falla house RIGHT next to our side of the hotel. We went to sleep and woke up to the sound of the fiestas of Fallas (oh and don't forget the sound of random firecrackers every 2 minutes).
Each falla (or the majority of the fallas) have a band that goes with it. This morning we woke up to band practice. The song this band is playing was played all the time during Fallas.




Feeling better about my tour guide abilities, today was the day I had planned to go to the castle in Xativa (name of the town). I had seen that Thursday was going to be one of our good weather days and I figured we'd be getting tired of the crowds in Valencia. So an excursion to a castle 45 minutes outside of Valencia seemed perfect. I was right.

On the way to the train station... more falleras on parade. And mucho más people surrounding the train station.


This fallera was just waitin for some tourist to take her picture.


Video of parade. No floats or anything like that.
Just fallera after fallero.


In the train station.
Joe doesn't look so sure after our last train disaster.


But we made it!
Castle : This Way.


Sharing my snacks with a kitten on the way up the hill.


Peg and Joe on a ledge


Mom and a castle


Country comes to the castle...and finds a cannon.


She brought two pairs of binoculars to Spain. And yes, she used them at the bullfight. Sicko.



Joe on another ledge


Joe not being very smart on a ledge


Mom's turn


Tah Dah


King of the Castle


Up until this point Mom had been full of questions about Valencia, Fallas, architecture, history, food..you name it (well, all except the bullfight. She knew all about that thanks to Hemingway). And all these questions had been directed at me.
"Emily, why do you think that building has (enter random architecture piece)?"
"Emily, what do you think that (enter random item) is for?"

But luckily the castle gave her something to read...and it was in English!


Joe needed a break on the way from the bigger castle to the smaller castle.


And a snack


The castle was pretty empty this day thanks to Fallas.
Self-timer picture of the three of us.






Geeeeze...act like you've been somewhere.


Photo shoot leaving the castle





Little restaurant at the castle. Clearly it is time for cerveza...Specially since we've never had cerveza on top of a castle!


Cerveza con Gato


Chao castle




Towns around Valencia also celebrate Fallas. We ran right into yet another parade of falleras and falleros at the bottom of the castle.


Joe and Mom trying to get a picture with the parade..


One person saw them and made gestures that said "Come here come here...we'll take a photo with you." Then some more falleros joined...and before we knew it, everyone was in the picture.
Can you find the foreigners?


The Falla parade in Xativa was slightly comical because it seemed that more of the falleros and falleras were parading around (in their nice outfits) while smoking cigarettes and drinking at the same time. This wasn't so much seen in Valencia. So kinda like The Miss America Pageant vs. Miss Universe.

Xativa falla


Fallera familia


We stopped for a snack at a kebob restaurant and had fireworks going off all around us...
Fireworks shot off by children.



Do those mothers look like they're supervising to you?


But... es normal at this point. You almost want to question children that DON'T have a firework in their hands.


Falla on the way back to train station.
Alice in Wonderland!


Tweedles



Caterpillar


Cheshire Cat


March Hare


Mad Hatter


Queen o' Hearts


On the train, Joe was asleep within 40 seconds of leaving the station... and Mom was right behind him. I had effectively worn them out.

Back in Valencia...we run into more falleras on parade. But something is a little different about these. "Hmmm.. oh yeah they are flowering the Virgin now," we realize. More on that later.




We went to see the main illumination streets which were near the train station: Calle Sueca and Calle Cuba. We were told we HAD to see them. That they always win for their illuminations. Of course, that means EVERYONE else HAS to see them also. So, we dive head first back into UNBELIEVABLY crowded crowds and begin to inch our way down Calle Sueca.


And by Calle Sueca I mean VEGAS!
You wouldn't believe these lights!



Follow the lights to the falla

You taught me everything I know about exterior illumination

Falla at the end of Calle Sueca... not much time to take lots of photos when you're in a current of people.

We found Spanish Dylan!... or really we probably found South American-living-in-Spain Dylan.

Moving our way around the falla was hell. The whole crowd in the street had to funnel through this narrow sidewalk area. There were moments we did not move at all and the fastest we moved was about 2 shuffles every 5 minutes. Then, you would look down and see some insane mother pushing a baby stroller next to you. Sometimes empty. Sometimes with baby. Either way... who brings a stroller through this crowd? The crowds of Fallas are not just young drunk people. The people are of all ages... from babies to grandmas... everyone comes out for Fallas. We even saw a significant number of people in wheelchairs. Making our way through this crowd, we had some angry old people pushing us around...especially Joe.

Joe's head is somewhere in there.

We had one more illumination to see, even though we barely had energy to push through more people. Luckily, we were able to go the back way to get to Calle Cuba

and follow the lights to the falla.

Then we exited via the main illumination street of Calle Cuba.

A picture looking back at the falla

Purple light chandeliers? So worth fighting the crowd. But luckily this street wasn't AS crowded as Calle Sueca.

Magical

Leaving Cuba...

Looking back to take some final pictures

Smaller falla on the way out

Next, we went to check on the Virgin...in the Plaza de la Virgin.
Here she is from earlier in the week.


From the back

Starting Thursday at 4 p.m., all the different falla neighborhoods parade through Valencia to come and flower the Virgin. This lasts until 1:00 in the morning, but that still isn't enough time for ALL the falla neighborhoods to come through and finish her dress. So it happens again from 4:00-1:30 on Friday.

Find the one that doesn't belong...

The boys are wearing their fallero outfits and the women are decked out in their fallera dresses, except now they have a lacey veil draped from their heads and down their backs.

The pattern of people in procession went like this:

1st- Falla women, children and men walking.

2nd- A little band from the falla playing music. (like the one we woke up to this morning)

Then after that... the next falla group, the people and their band playing whatever song it is playing. So if you stood in one spot to watch it all, you'd hear at least 3 different bands playing 3 different songs.

They walk by the Virgin and hand off their flowers to the guys in charge of actually putting the flowers on her. Then, they process out of the plaza. Almost everywhere we went we ran into this Virgin-flowering procession and would have to either cut across it or find a different route. But at least this procession makes sense...they have a goal. The other 49 fallera parades we've encountered (like the one from earlier this day)... I have no idea where they are going or where they came from.

Behind the Virgin is normally the fountain.. but you can´t see it due to all the flowers surrounding it.

Virgin and the passing falleras

Another shot of my falla... I just love it. For an explanation of what it means you'll have to look at an earlier blog ¨Warehouse of Falla¨

Semi-delicious dinner ...We walked and walked to find a restaurant with a free table (I've already explained that "waiting lists" don't exactly exist here... and IF they do, you're still not guaranteed a table in a specific amount of time). We just needed a place to sit until the firework show and eating was the only way we could get that.

Cheese salads and some type of lobster dish.

Checked on the Virigin again after eating... comin' along nicely guys.

Then made our way to the fireworks. After the first night of fireworks (which were at midnight), the rest of the firework shows are at 1:00. And from the second night on...we were waiting a minimum of thirty minutes on the streets for fireworks. Time for the "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing"- pass- the- time type of games.
We also learned that while standing on the street is better than the riverbed (as far as fireworks chasing you are concerned), it doesn't mean you are completely safe. People in the riverbed would sometimes toss a firework up into the crowd on the street. People on the street were also shooting fireworks off. While walking home, a borracho firework shot off about 20 feet in front of us and whizzed into a group of people on the sidewalk. We picked up the pace and sped past the scene as a girl started yelling at whoever it was she thought had shot the thing. All the while thinking "please don't let me get hit by a firework...please don't let me get hit by a firework."
Getting a taxi home was not as easy this night. We had to walk a good thirty minutes after the show to our hotel...but after about 10 minutes we were at least far enough away that we didn't have to worry about being borracho targets.

Tired tired puppies we were after this night.