Wow.
The build-up was intense and it was virtually impossible
to ignore the fact that Las Fallas, Valencia’s renowned “fire festival,” was
approaching. Now, we are on the other side and looking around the city, you
would not be able to tell that the whole city had just come to a complete
standstill for 5 days of parties, parades, fireworks, explosions and general
incomprehensible madness. Nowhere else in the world could such a huge city come
to a complete and utter standstill like Valencia did – it’d be impossible in
London, for example. Nevertheless, Valencia pulled off one hell of a show and
did not disappoint at ALL.
I studied Spanish festivals as a topic during A Level and
of course, Fallas featured. It all seemed a bit crazy and reading and watching
videos online didn’t make things much clearer either. I’ve tried to explain to
many people what it’s all about but it really does have to be seen to be
believed.
Following La Criada a few weeks ago, the next major
Fallas event was the lights show on Calle de Sueca/Calle de Cuba which Alex,
Hannah, Anya and I went to a week on Sunday 10th. Each year, the street
is adorned with a sort of tunnel-style complex of lights and decorations and at
one end, is the ‘centrepiece’ which often pays homage to a global landmark. Last
year was Paris’ Eiffel Tower and this year just happened to be London’s Tower
Bridge! The light show is set to music and they literally seem to dance along
in time with rushes of lights ‘running’ up and down the street, until the whole
display is switched on at the end of the performance and it was truly a
spectacle. We then bumped into Chris, Sam, Paloma, Amanda and Issy and
together, we all visited a ‘Petardería.’ While in Britain, most pop up shops
often sell cheap clothing, shoes or handbags, or may be temporary offerings at
Christmas selling cards and wrapping paper, for example, the shops that pop up
in Valencia for fallas sell fireworks, firecrackers, bangers and other
‘exploding’ objects. Everyone in Valencia gets involved, from the youngest of
children; so much so that there is actually an awareness course and ‘exam’ that
children have to take to be permitted to use them. While the cheapest and
weakest of the bangers simply release a simple pop, some of them create quite
terrifying noise and I would not like to be standing right next to some of them
if they were to go out. While it may seem that there are safeguards in place,
seeing a 5 year old child set off a fairly strong explosive and then return to
it 5 seconds later does make you squint a little, fearful of an
after-explosion. It brings up the question of whether Britain is too obsessed
with safety regulations, or if Spain is far too relaxed with them. While they
seemed novel at the beginning, I was definitely ready to hear silence instead
of continuous explosions by the time Fallas had reached its conclusion.
Following a few more days of lectures, Fallas officially
kicked off last Friday and what an incredible few days they were. Anya’s
boyfriend, AK, had flown out to join us for the Fallas celebrations and Anya’s
birthday and we all met shortly before 2pm to go to the mascletà, a huge
firecracker/firework show which takes place in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento,
every day from 1st – 19th March. Each day, a different
group from around the city arrange the show, all in competition to be awarded
the privilege of providing the show on the final evening of Fallas, when the
Falla statues are burnt. Despite arriving early to try and get a good spot, we
couldn’t even make our way down the street from the metro, let alone get
anywhere near the square where the mascletà was. There were tens of thousands
of people and the atmosphere was electric. One thing I would say is Spain is
very relaxed (lecturers turn up late, deliveries don’t come when they say they
are, everything is always about ‘mañana’ (tomorrow,)) but for once, Valencia
was on time and at precisely 2pm, ridiculous explosions were ringing through
the area and radiating from the plaza into Valencia. Videos can’t quite capture
the magic of it all, even if it does seem crazy as it’s hard to see fireworks
in the day. The blue Spanish sky quickly became darker and darker as thick
plumes of smoke filled the vicinity; It was just crazy and really is something
that has to be seen to be believed.
While somewhat controversial, something I really wanted
to do while in Spain was to attend a bullfight. While each person has their own
opinion, for me it is a part of the Spanish culture (whether I agree with it or
not,) and just as much as Fallas is a cultural event, I wanted to experience a
bullfight for myself, as did the others. Following la mascletà, we popped to
the bull ring and after a big of confusion (trying to establish that we were
going to an actual bullfight, rather than a sort of rodeo-style parading of the
bulls,) we bought tickets for later that evening. Anya and AK then went
shopping while Hannah, Heather, Alex and I wandered a little out of town for
lunch. We sat in the sun with a glass of beer/wine and ate some incredibly
delicious tapas dishes and it truly felt like we were on holiday. We didn’t
have a care in the world and I really felt like we were ‘living the dream’ at
that point.
A few hours later, we made our way back to town where we
met Anya and AK and entered the bullring. I didn’t really know what to expect.
I imagined a blood bath and really gory scenes but I was somewhat surprised
that it was much more ‘cleaner’ than I could’ve ever imagined. While there were
moments where I gasped or thought ‘ouch,’ I think for me, the worst part was
the horses. They are used to put hooks into the neck of the bull, weakening the
muscles. However, while the matadors can escape from the torment of the bulls,
the horses, which have their eyes covered, stand there unaware of what is going
on and as a result, the bulls often charge at and gore them. If the audience
was unimpressed with the Matador, they would shout and whistle. If the audience
were impressed and entertained, they would cheer, clap and wave white
handkerchiefs in the air – it all felt very pantomime. Despite it being
somewhat violent, I could appreciate the artistic and skilful nature of the
work the matadors do whereas if it were to be compared to foxhunting at home
for example, I can see more of a reason for the existence for bullfighting
rather than foxhunting which seems to be simply about killing foxes, but of
course, this is all a personal opinion. Despite my apprehensions, I am glad I
experienced the event and it definitely helped me to see the opinions of the ‘for’
and ‘against’ camps, with regards to bullfighting. As the fight concluded,
having baked in the sun for several hours, we all returned home to freshen up
and eat before the first of many parties during the Fallas period. However,
each night I didn’t drink much and didn’t stay out too late as I wanted to be
able to get up early and spend the days taking in as much of Fallas as I could.
The following afternoon, Hannah, Heather, Alex and I wandered
around town a little seeing a few of the 700+ fallas (statues.) The sight was
quite incredible; on every other street we’d fine some huge futurist statue,
almost cartoon-like. Each year, the statues criticise culture, politics and the
world and evident themes this year were the financial crisis and Spanish
politics. While a lot was ‘over my head’ (perhaps I should take deeper interest
in Spanish politics?,) it was quite clear to see that they are used as a way to
publicly criticise things in society. Soon after, we made our way to an Irish
bar at Plaza de la Reina where we met up with a lot of other Cardiff students
to watch the Wales v England 6 nation’s match. I’m not the most patriotic of
people but being abroad has definitely brought out my Welsh/Britishness (rather
than ‘’Englishness.....’) and so I naturally supported Wales, taking along the
flag which adorns my wall. Heather and I were sat in front of the screen, the
patriotic people that we are and beside us sat 2 men wearing Welsh rugby
jerseys, along with the son of one of the men. They happened to be speaking in
Spanish and the little boy, supporting Wales, kept asking his ‘tio’ (uncle,) if
what had happened on the screen was good for Wales – it was cute to watch, and
not knowing anything about rugby, I often listened to the answers the ‘tio’
gave, so I learnt in the process too.
Heather reminded me of my mum, sat
on the end of her seat, tense, literally wishing she could push the Welshman over
the try line. There was a lot of anti-English sentiment in the bar (it seemed
that only the English supported England and everybody else wanted Wales to win,)
though there were some drunken English men who shouted remarks whenever Wales
did anything good.. I thought rugby was more of a civilised sport compared to
football? Wales needed to win by a 7-point margin to win the tournament.
Winning with a margin of 27 points, Wales had won, and everyone (apart from the
English,) were happy, especially the husband and wife who had been sitting in
front of me. It was quite weird be in this bar in Valencia, which was full of
tourists in shorts and t-shirts (despite the heat, I was trying to be as local
as possible in jeans and a jacket, no scarf though,) and when going to the bar
and saying ‘hola,’ to have the bartender respond in English.
Indeed, everyone wanted to grab some food quickly so we
popped to McDonald’s and despite ordering in Spanish, the lady spoke back to me
in English. I continued to reply to her questions in Spanish while she would speak
English. I can understand speaking English to accommodate tourists, but when it’s
quite obvious that I speak Spanish, why would she persist? Weird! That evening
we had drinks at Heather, Hannah & Anton’s flat. At midnight we made the
short trip down to the riverbed where there was a huge firework display. They
would be taking place over the coming nights, each being grander and more impressive
than the previous. The scale of the show was impressive and I didn’t dare think
of the cost each display would cost, especially has each one would become more
elaborate and ground. The others went for a night out but I came home as I
wanted to get up early the next morning and wander the city.
On Sunday morning, I made my way to the Plaza del
Ayuntamiento (square with the town hall) as I wanted to see the mascletà
up-close. The metro was crazily busy and it felt like being in London at rush
hour. Due to the sheer number of people that would go, I arrived two and a half
hours early, securing myself a place near the front. There was a huge parade of
the local ‘communities’ who each build a falla statue, complete with the
falleras (woman,) falleros (men,) and marching bands. I discovered that it costs
around 1,200EUR each year for the pleasure of being a fallero/a and that the
dresses the women wore cost upwards of 3000EUR to buy, and they change each
year! Perhaps the region has no money, but they seem to go all out for fallas!
The dresses are intricately decorated and crazily detailed and they each have
the same sort of ‘bun’ hairstyle with jewels and a metal adornment. Following
the end of the parade, the barriers were pulled forward and I had a spot at the
front of the crowd, directly opposite the ‘cage’ where the mascletà takes
place. A sort of little circus entertained the crowds for the next hour until
2pm when young falleras announced, in Valencian, from the balcony of the town
hall, ‘Senyor pirotécnico, pot començar la mascletà,’ and so began the
thunderous explosions. The display, which lasted for around 8 minutes, reaches
a climax where hundreds of deafening
explosions occur at the same time and the force and pressure from them created
insane pressures on my body and it literally felt as if my head was going to
explode, the strength was that powerful. With one final boom, the event was
over and the barriers were quickly opened and everyone ran to the cage. I didn’t
know why, but I didn’t want to miss out... so I ran too and a few moments
later, the team who had choreographed the display, emerged from the cage to
rapturous applause and cheers. From here, they then made their way to the
balcony of the town hall to be greeted by dignitaries and to wave to the crowds,
while the ‘Valencian Fallas’ anthem was played. It was just simply incredible.
After spending a long time trying to make my way through the crowds, I then
wandered the tiny, cobbled streets of Carmen to see some of the fallas statues.
Plaza de la Virgen had a 50ft wooden falla of the Virgin Mary and each day,
people would arrive with bunches of flowers which would then be placed between
the wooden panels to decorate her and I returned a few times during the Fallas period
to see the progress. That evening we had more drinks at Heather’s, followed by
a trip to see the fireworks again and a night out.
1) 
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On Monday morning, I was awoken by la despertà (the
wake-up,) where the bands go through the streets playing at 8am to wake the
city and others follow behind throwing bangers and explosives. While everybody
was in bed recovering from the night before, I spent 6-7 hours wandering the
streets trying to see as many of the fallas as I could. The fiesta was starting
to reach its climax and each little community was having its’ own little
mascletà, one of which I happened to see from the front. It happened in a
narrow street and so the echoing, on top of the explosions, made my eardrums
feel as if they were going explode in unison with the mascletà. Everyone was
out on the street playing with bangers, fireworks, having a beer and enjoying
the sun. I came across several communities which were preparing and cooking
huge paellas on fires made from pieces of wood – it all felt very rustic but
the atmosphere in the air was of excitement and happiness. I then met Heather
and Hannah for lunch before we went into town to meet Alex, Anya and AK for a
drink in the sun.
That evening, ‘La nit de foc’ (the night of fire,) began
with more drinks at Hannah’s flat before going to see the final firework
display at the riverbed and it certainly did not disappoint – My favourites
were fireworks which flew up into the sky, then sunk a little, then surged back
up and forward towards us, fell down a little and they continued to do this
over our heads. There were also cool glittering fireworks which, attached to a
long sort of ‘wire’ with a parachute attached to either end and so as all of
these crazy explosions were going off all around, they just quietly drifted
through the illuminated. Though an incredible spectacle, everyone got covered
in debris and when back at Hannah’s, we were all inspecting each other’s hair and
clothing, probably resembling monkeys preening each other.
Tuesday was the culmination of months of work for the communities
and weeks of countdowns for everyone else. In the morning, I spent a few more hours’
trekking across the city to see as much as I could. Despite my best efforts,
however, there was no way I would ever see anywhere near the 700+ statues that
were dotted across Valencia but nevertheless, I did my best to see as many
possible. That afternoon, I relaxed at home as I’d been on the go for several
days without a break, spending a few hours sorting through the hundreds of
photos and videos that I had so far taken during Fallas.
That evening, I
caught the metro into town to meet Alex, Hannah and Heather who had gone for
lunch and a wander before the ‘fire parade’ which was taking place that
evening. For some reason I thought perhaps most people had had Fallas-overload
and would be preparing for the burning that evening, however the streets were
PACKED with people and managing to find myself a good spot in the crowd, I
watched it alone. It began with dancers, followed by falleros/as and their
bands while individuals dressed in orange hooded gowns marched along either side
of the road with flaming torches – think of a rustic looking Olympic torch
relay. Coming ever closer, I could hear the squeal of fireworks and I could
soon see sparks flying around further up the street. As they approached, I saw
what it was – Hundreds of these orange-caped individuals with giant sort of ‘sparkler’
things, to which they’d attached additional fireworks which spun around,
spitting sparks all over the crowd – health and safety would NEVER let this happen
back in the UK! The man to the side of me had a hole burnt into his shirt from
a spark, but I seemed to have escaped hole-free. It was such a cool spectacle
and really did live up to the name of ‘fire parade.’
Following this, the four of us went for dinner before la
cremà – the burning of the fallas statues which happens across the city. The
first fallas, the smaller ‘children’s’ fallas were burnt at 10pm, followed by
the winning small fallas at 10.30, and the small falla at the Plaza del
Ayuntamiento. While trying to see the burning of the small falla, I lost Alex,
Hannah and Heather who were looking for Chris and Sam. There were lots of people
around, I had secured a good place at the front of the crowd and with the
battery dying on my phone, I questioned whether I would be able to find them
and not wanting to miss the final moments of Fallas after having seen so much,
I decided to stay in my spot and wait for the burning. At midnight, Valencia
erupted in fireworks and explosions as the 700+ falla statues were ignited,
including one a short distance from the Plaza which I managed to see. With the
use of explosives, it was in flames in seconds and I was sure that what was to
come was to be spectacular. At 00.30, the winning ‘large’ fallas was set alight
and as the town hall clock chimed 1am, ANOTHER huge firework display began in
the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, which culminated in a long string of sparklers
being ignited. It made its way from the balcony of the town hall, across the
square, around and around the falla and within seconds, there was an enormous
blaze before us. The flames were easily reaching 60ft (bear in mind that the
statue itself was 50ft high) and the heat generated from the flames was
incredible, bomberos (firemen) using hoses to fan the flames away from the
crowds. Music rang out across the Plaza and everybody cheered and shouted as the
falla fell to the ground and became a pile of burnt rubble. It felt as if the
city was at war with thunderous explosions occurring everywhere and it quite
literally was one giant street party. It’s quite difficult to describe how
electric the atmosphere was.
..And that was it. The time, the money and the effort had
all gone up in flames, Fallas was over and all that was left now was to clean
up the streets, which happened miraculously over night. Come the following
morning, it was hard to imagine what had been happening 12 hours previously
across the entire city and no doubt each little community promptly went back to
the drawing board to design a bigger and better falla for 2014. The whole
fiesta was an incredible experience and I am SO happy to have been here to
experience it. It really is quite incomprehensible and trying to describe it is
difficult to say the least, but I would urge everyone to come to Valencia and
see it with their eyes, should the chance ever arise!
No sooner had the explosions fallen silent, that it was
time to plan for the next event in our lives – Anya’s 21st birthday.
Wednesday saw most people recovering through the day (University and the city
was empty, how anyone is expected to attend classes, work or resume normal life
so quickly after 5 days of intense fiesta is unbelievable,) and I spent most of
the day just sitting down and organising more photos and videos from Fallas.
Hannah, Heather and Alex baked a ton of cupcakes and decorated Han &
Heather’s flat for the party we would be having that evening. Anya seemed
genuinely touched that this effort had been made for her and she couldn’t stop
saying thank you, bless her. At midnight, we sang Happy Birthday and presented
her with her cupcakes and shortly after, we went to a bar/club called Caribbean.
Even the clubs were worn out from Fallas and every single one, apart from Caribbean
was closed. We’d never been before but it was a great night! It was small
enough so you couldn’t lose people but there was still space to move, despite it
being packed to the rafters – she had a great night!
The following day Alex, Han, Heather & I went into
town to buy Anya’s birthday present – We had tried earlier in the week but the
number of people around due to Fallas made it quite impossible to shop. We
bought her a handbag, which she had asked for it and she LOVED it J!
Earlier that day, Anya’s dad had flown into Valencia for her birthday and we
were all invited to her flat that evening for drinks and cake. Following this,
Anya’s dad took us all to Carmen for the BEST tapas I have had since being in
Spain. I would try to name what we had, but there was LOT’S of it. The
restaurant was beautiful and I definitely want to go back sometime! We finished
dinner around 1.30am and everybody then decided they wanted to go for drinks,
but tired from Fallas and knowing I had teaching assistant the next morning, I
decided to give it a miss. I intended to cycle home but couldn’t find a Valenbisi
station but the walk home was only half an hour, and it was quite nice to get
some fresh air which wasn’t filled with smoke and burning from Fallas.
This weekend has consisted of rest and relaxation for
everyone. Heather, Alex, Hannah and Anya have, what we are naming, Fallas Flu
and everybody feels a bit run down and exhausted after such little sleep and
doing so much – it was worth it though!
The next week will be short – I have one lecture on
Monday, one on Tuesday and on Wednesday, I will be flying back home for Easter!
I can’t believe I’ve been here for nearly 8 weeks, it has absolutely flown and
I don’t want to go home! Though I am looking forward to home comforts and
seeing everybody, I don’t feel ready to go home at all. This is a stark
contrast to France where by the time a trip home had arrived, I was more than
ready to get out of there. I think a lot of it has to do with Valencia being so
much bigger than Chambéry, there’s always something to do and I can never get
bored and miss home! I’ll spend a few days at home, a few days in Cardiff and
will be going to Shrewsbury for Alex’s ‘home’ birthday celebrations and I think
Anya will be doing something at home for her birthday too, so although being at
home, I don’t think there’ll be much time to rest as I want to see people and
do things J
When I come back to Spain, I’d like to arrange some trips
across the country to visit some other places, but at the same time, I know
there’s still so much of Valencia left to explore and discover, before I go gallivanting
off across Spain – we’ll have to see who is interested in doing what! I’ll only
be here for 3 weeks before popping home (well, to London) again for my friends
21st Birthday and to see Beyoncé live which I’m VERY excitied about.
Flights are going to probably cost close to £200 as it’ll be over a weekend,
but again, it’ll be worth it and I need to do as much as I can now as I don’t
think I’ll be having so much fun in my final year back in Cardiff. Everyone
back home has just finished for Easter and they’re right at the end of their
courses, it’s scary to think that’ll be me in 12 months and this degree has
flown. SO, I need to make the most of this opportunity both improving my language
skills and having funJ! I
also can’t wait to get back as then it’ll be deemed appropriate to wear short
and visit the beach all of the time.
Exciting times ahead!
¡Hasta Luego!
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