European Adventure 2015: Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Buon giorno to you but Arrivederci Italy.
We had an early flight this morning to go to Valencia, Spain. We took the express train to the airport and almost had a snafu. We bought the tickets from an automated machine, boarded the train and left. When the ticket collector came, he said our tickets were not validated (apparently a machine you need to stick your ticket in to verify it is real, but we didn't know or see anything about it). He said it was a fine of 50 euros each (approx. $55) but I guess because we looked panicked and are obviously not italian, he let us slide. So, beware when you take the express train to FCO.
The flight from Rome to Valencia was 2 hours and poor Alan was cramped. We arrived and took the metro to our hotel. Because Valencia is a smaller town and had a compact downtown area, the metro stops are few and far between. We had a 20 minute hike from the metro to our hotel. All the more reason I'm glad we only took backpacks! We got checked in and set out into the city.

Bienvenidos a Valencia! (Welcome to Valencia)

    What a beautiful city. We came here specifically to participate in the Las Fallas festival. This is a festival in honor of St. Joseph (or just Joseph to us protestants) and is supposed to signify the coming of spring. The roots of the festival are not completely known, but they believe to have started in the middle ages when carpenters would clean out their shops and burn the wood they used to hold candles after winter, as sort of a spring cleaning. It coincided with St. Joseph day on March 19. This festival occurs every year from March 15-19.
        Each neighborhood spends the year creating fallas or large effigies made of paper machete, wood, and styrofoam. There are two created: the large one (typically 4-5 stories tall) and a child sized one (usually much shorter). The large one is saterical in nature, usually dealing with politics, economics, or pop culture. The child one is usually themed for children and usually doesn't have an underlying meaning. Both are very whimsical. There are over 500 of these fallas scattered throughout the city and they are magnificent. The main purpose of creating these fallas is to burn them to the ground on the last night. Now do you see why Alan wanted to come; he is a slight pyromaniac.
   Along with burning these fallas, the city LOVES its fireworks and firecrackers. Walking around, I was surprised at all the small children (and I mean as young as 2 or 3) lighting fireworks. Since this is so commonplace, the Valencian people don't even flinch when one goes off. The dogs don't even react. Me, I'm jumping all over the place, covering my ears since I'm not used to it. I couldn't help but think: this wouldn't fly in the USA...too much liability. I think the last firecracker I heard went off at 2am. So, if you are a light sleeper, don't come here for this festival.
    Alan and I walked around admiring all of the fallas. They really are a phenomenal pieces of art. We stopped at a local place for food. We had chicken paella. Now, paella originated in Valencia and it is a major part of this festival. Let me just say, it didn't disappoint! And, it was cheap! So far, most things are cheaper here than in any other place we have visited.
    We made it to the center of town to watch the parade. This parade has the people of each neighborhood dress in traditional Valencian attire and offer flowers to the Virgin Mary in the cathedral square. Each lady carries a bouquet of flowers that is offered to a wooden Virgin Mary falla where the flowers create her attire. The traditional dresses are georgeous. In doing some research, I couldn't find any details behind the attire but I did find that the minimum cost of the dresses are 1,500 euros ($1600) and can go higher. To top it off, there were thousands of people wearing them. The parade started at 3:30pm and didn't finish until 11:30pm! Needless to say we didn't stay that long.
     We did take the chance to enjoy some of the festival food. We tried churros, buñeulos, pastry filled churros, and candy! Most of this food is only served during this festival so it is quite a treat for the people here. Buñeulos are pumpkin doughnuts that are deep fried and covered in sugar or dipped in chocolate sauce, yum! The overall winner was the churro!
   We slowly headed back to the hotel, meandering through all the neighborhoods and enjoying the fallas and street festivals. We wanted to take a nap so we could stay up later as this is a late-into-the-early-morning event. We woke up about midnight to find it pouring, so we stayed in until 1:30am when the massive firework event started. We watched the fireworks, which went on for 45 minutes, and headed back to bed.
   Overall, we both like Valencia. For a city that has been partying for a week now, it is surprisingly clean and the people are so nice.
Adios!

Yum! Festival food.

Delicious paella!

The parade. Whole families would march, little kids (including newborns), adults. All of them wearing their traditional clothes. The dresses were very pretty with full embroidered skirts. I can see why they were so expensive.