Las Fallas in Valencia are seriously the coolest thing I've EVER seen in Spain!

[rebeccacita]

This past Thursday I met up with Ani (my Bulgarian friend here in Spain) and we took the bus to Valencia so that on Friday we could see Las Fallas- in other words, we went to go look at giagantic, painted paper-maché works of art, which the valencianos have worked on all year to make, and then watch them go up in flames in an awesome display of

Comments

[circadream09]

That is so very cool! Thank you for posting all those pics. I have heard of this festival but I had no idea the displays were so elaborate and larger than life! Amazing work. I'm glad you had a great time. I know now it's definitely something I'm going to have to check out when I finally make it over there. Your blog is better than a travelogue. I hope you know that :)
ps: please tell me there was an exit of some kind behind you when that fire started. It looks like you were blocked in by apartment buildings on all sides. I was trying to imagine the crush of people if that fire did get out of control! Also, why are so many people wearing red in that pic taken outside your friend's apartment?

a late response but....

[rebeccacita]

Yeah there was an exit... it was a whole street we were on- the falla pictured was in the middle of an intersection with apartments on all corners, so it just looks closed off.
As for the red, my best guess is that it's the color of the specific club (in Spanish I'd say peña) associated with that falla- I imagine it's similar to how in Semana Santa they have different "clubs" associated with the floats. I think it's the group of people (family and friends) who got together to help sponsor/organize that particular falla....
Thanks for the comment!

re: last comment!!

[anonymous]

notice the fire hose wetting down the apartment house!!
--Becky's mom