This morning we stopped at Café y Té... one of the chain restaurants in Valencia.
I left to go to the bathroom and gave strict instructions for Mom and Joe to ask for the bill (la cuenta) when the waitress came. I even had them repeat the word after me before I left. Think I've said this before, but in Spain you have to ask for the bill or you will sit at the restaurant all day long. And once you ask, it can still take a while to get it. I came back and they looked up at me and said "You left us for 2 minutes and we failed at our only assignment." They didn't completely fail. But apparently when the waitress came all three stared at each other and the conversation went something like this:
Mom: ummm la quinta? (prounounced kinta) I think she said la quinta? (looking at Joe...who knows even less Spanish than here)
Joe tried some word that must've sounded like cafeWaitress: Café?
Mom and Joe: No no no, no caféThen they just looked at each other, turned to the waitress and said "check"... and she got the point.
Next, we headed to the train station. I had big plans to go to a wine tour about an hour away by train. I had never gone, but I had confidence I could get us there.
On the way:
Starting to see more and more falleras and falleros on the street. Every day they parade through the streets.
Train station
Buying the tickets and getting direction. Later, we will look back at this moment and see it as a sign that we should've just stopped here. Walking from the station to the metro, Joe realized he did not get back the right amount of change. He got back like 1 euro when he should've gotten at least 7. But there was nothing we could do about it then.
To get to this particular train departure, we had to take a convoluted route on the metro in which we got very confused, turned around, and lost... thanks to me not being sure of our stop and thanks to a Spanish girl with minimal English skills who tried to help but sent us on the wrong metro line. FINALLY, made it to the place where our train would depart and saw that we had about an hour to wait. So we waited. While we waited, we saw one train depart. Then, there were two trains left. Not being totally sure which one we took, Mom went to ask a lady where one of the trains went. The lady told her Madrid. Well, we certainly weren't going to Madrid. So I felt confident it was the other train. So we waited some more...sitting right next to the train we would board.
As our departure time drew near, we climbed on the train and sat. And waited...and waited. Hmmm...this train is not leaving on time...it is also very empty (only 2 people in our car). Then, one of the 5 men standing around in a yellow "I'm a train station security man/helper" vest poked his head in and asked where we were going. I said the name of the town and he said, "Ooooooh no. Ya ha ido" aka "It has already left."
Cuss word cuss word.
Asked the lady in the booth when the next one leaves... it didn't leave for another 2 or 3 hours. Cuss word cuss word.
Joe: "That's it. We're leaving." So we did.
Got back on the metro feeling like we'd just lost a big game. We had literally just sat on the wrong train while our train pulled away from the station. We wasted about 2 hours and 20 euros all because we just sat there and didn't ask the direct question: Which train to Requena?
We needed some drinks to help shake this moronic failure... well, I especially did.
Montaditos.. a place with cheap drinks. Cerveza and Tinto de Veranos (wine with a splash of sprite)
Then we meandered our way over to where my falla was starting to sprout. This particular day (Tuesday) was the day in Fallas called La Plantá. By midnight on this day, all the fallas have to be up (or planted) or else they are out of the competition.
At this point I should also explain that the sound of firecrackers have now filled the streets. They had been increasing each day since...well since like 2 weeks before. But now, you can't go longer than 30 seconds without hearing pop pop pop!
Saturday, I had gone with some roommates to buy fireworks. All I bought was little bombetas (the poppers you throw on the ground)...but anyone can pretty much buy any kind of firework. When we walked in the store and had no clue what to buy the lady just asked us "Big boom or little boom?"
Walking around town, you see children ages 3 or 4 and up setting off little fireworks on the sidewalks. They seem to have almost no supervision... or at least not what an American mother would consider proper firework supervision...(which would probably be no firework at all for a 3-year-old, right?)
Just try and imagine as best you can Valencia sounding more and more like a war zone...especially when the mascletá is going of in the distance.
Our infantil falla
Next, we went up the Torres de Serrano (the towers outside my building), which sadly, I had not climbed yet until this week.
View of our falla from above
Pretty shots...credit goes to Peg
Falla from even further up
Mom went exploring in a museum she wanted to see... I still needed more drinks to get over my pathetic day as a tour guide. So Joe and I sat by our falla in an outdoor café and had a few. Each falla has a falla house next to it, which is just a big white tent that all the people belonging to that falla can enter. There's food and drinks and music inside to enjoy. Outside our falla tent was this guy giving massages for 10 euro. Done.
Then it was dinner at Las Cuevas (The Caves)...one of the best restaurants we ate at all week.
Joe -- really excited about a Jeep he found
And after dinner was the first of the Castillos for the week (night time fireworks).
Starting Tuesday night, fireworks go off each night until Saturday night. Tuesday night was the earliest show...midnight. They shoot them from the same place each night. On this night, we went down into the riverbed to watch. A guy on the plane over had told Mom and Joe to not go in the riverbed at night...especially after firework shows. While we were down there waiting for the show, a Spanish man told us "Mucho peligro aquí. Peligro peligro."
Peligro = Danger
Of course Mom was freaking out. But we weren't the only ones down there and, as Joe pointed out, that dude was down there too. So we risked it and stayed in the riverbed, but left immediately after it ended. Because that IS when rando people (people like my roommates) just start shooting fireworks off all over the riverbed. The most dangerous is the borracho...that's Spanish for drunk. This firework is illegal... and the fact that Valencia has made anything illegal is incredible...considering the whole Fallas festival seems like it should be illegal. The borracho shoots off and goes in any direction it pleases....so you have no idea if it's coming or going. It's the one that our director told us follows vibrations so we shouldn't run from it... who knows if that's true. It's just insane.
I know fireworks are not incredible over tiny video screens on my blog...but watch this one.
This seven second video sums up perfectly the reaction you would have to a Valencian firework show. In this case, it's Joe's reaction to his first.
To get to this particular train departure, we had to take a convoluted route on the metro in which we got very confused, turned around, and lost... thanks to me not being sure of our stop and thanks to a Spanish girl with minimal English skills who tried to help but sent us on the wrong metro line. FINALLY, made it to the place where our train would depart and saw that we had about an hour to wait. So we waited. While we waited, we saw one train depart. Then, there were two trains left. Not being totally sure which one we took, Mom went to ask a lady where one of the trains went. The lady told her Madrid. Well, we certainly weren't going to Madrid. So I felt confident it was the other train. So we waited some more...sitting right next to the train we would board.
As our departure time drew near, we climbed on the train and sat. And waited...and waited. Hmmm...this train is not leaving on time...it is also very empty (only 2 people in our car). Then, one of the 5 men standing around in a yellow "I'm a train station security man/helper" vest poked his head in and asked where we were going. I said the name of the town and he said, "Ooooooh no. Ya ha ido" aka "It has already left."
Cuss word cuss word.
Asked the lady in the booth when the next one leaves... it didn't leave for another 2 or 3 hours. Cuss word cuss word.
Joe: "That's it. We're leaving." So we did.
Got back on the metro feeling like we'd just lost a big game. We had literally just sat on the wrong train while our train pulled away from the station. We wasted about 2 hours and 20 euros all because we just sat there and didn't ask the direct question: Which train to Requena?
We needed some drinks to help shake this moronic failure... well, I especially did.
Montaditos.. a place with cheap drinks. Cerveza and Tinto de Veranos (wine with a splash of sprite)
Then we meandered our way over to where my falla was starting to sprout. This particular day (Tuesday) was the day in Fallas called La Plantá. By midnight on this day, all the fallas have to be up (or planted) or else they are out of the competition.
At this point I should also explain that the sound of firecrackers have now filled the streets. They had been increasing each day since...well since like 2 weeks before. But now, you can't go longer than 30 seconds without hearing pop pop pop!
Saturday, I had gone with some roommates to buy fireworks. All I bought was little bombetas (the poppers you throw on the ground)...but anyone can pretty much buy any kind of firework. When we walked in the store and had no clue what to buy the lady just asked us "Big boom or little boom?"
Walking around town, you see children ages 3 or 4 and up setting off little fireworks on the sidewalks. They seem to have almost no supervision... or at least not what an American mother would consider proper firework supervision...(which would probably be no firework at all for a 3-year-old, right?)
Just try and imagine as best you can Valencia sounding more and more like a war zone...especially when the mascletá is going of in the distance.
Our infantil falla
Next, we went up the Torres de Serrano (the towers outside my building), which sadly, I had not climbed yet until this week.
View of our falla from above
Pretty shots...credit goes to Peg
Falla from even further up
Mom went exploring in a museum she wanted to see... I still needed more drinks to get over my pathetic day as a tour guide. So Joe and I sat by our falla in an outdoor café and had a few. Each falla has a falla house next to it, which is just a big white tent that all the people belonging to that falla can enter. There's food and drinks and music inside to enjoy. Outside our falla tent was this guy giving massages for 10 euro. Done.
Then it was dinner at Las Cuevas (The Caves)...one of the best restaurants we ate at all week.
Joe -- really excited about a Jeep he found
And after dinner was the first of the Castillos for the week (night time fireworks).
Starting Tuesday night, fireworks go off each night until Saturday night. Tuesday night was the earliest show...midnight. They shoot them from the same place each night. On this night, we went down into the riverbed to watch. A guy on the plane over had told Mom and Joe to not go in the riverbed at night...especially after firework shows. While we were down there waiting for the show, a Spanish man told us "Mucho peligro aquí. Peligro peligro."
Peligro = Danger
Of course Mom was freaking out. But we weren't the only ones down there and, as Joe pointed out, that dude was down there too. So we risked it and stayed in the riverbed, but left immediately after it ended. Because that IS when rando people (people like my roommates) just start shooting fireworks off all over the riverbed. The most dangerous is the borracho...that's Spanish for drunk. This firework is illegal... and the fact that Valencia has made anything illegal is incredible...considering the whole Fallas festival seems like it should be illegal. The borracho shoots off and goes in any direction it pleases....so you have no idea if it's coming or going. It's the one that our director told us follows vibrations so we shouldn't run from it... who knows if that's true. It's just insane.
I know fireworks are not incredible over tiny video screens on my blog...but watch this one.
This seven second video sums up perfectly the reaction you would have to a Valencian firework show. In this case, it's Joe's reaction to his first.
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