Last weekend I got to see some of my lovely friends from TU at the biggest party in the world in Valencia—Las Fallas! The whole weekend was quite the experience, I must say. It started with taking a taxi to the bus station in Granada at 2:30 in the morning. Let me tell you: Spanish bus drivers and bus station security personnel are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They’re very helpful and cheerful, at all hours day and night (in my experience). This was a great help to calming my nerves about my first time traveling by myself in Spain.
During the bus ride I caught my first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea. I’m looking forward to actually visiting the seashore sometime instead of just looking at it through a bus window from the highway!
Nine hours and one cup of coffee later: Valencia! Sky so blue, sun so warm…I was very happy to get off the bus and be there. It’s a good thing I had already gotten over my American sense of personal space, because we were como sardinas en lata* in that crowd. I managed to find Ali and Emily after the Friday mascletá (explosions!) and then had a loooong sunshiney walk trying to find our hotel. Victory at last, 3 key cards por si las moscas*, and a siesta. Then: back to the party! Lots of fallas (giant paper mache constructions awaiting incineration), fried things (i.e. buñuelos—yum!), and at 1:30am the incredible fireworks display, which we watched from unexpectedly close as a result of inadvertently turning onto a street with no outlet and not wanting to fight the crowd to turn back. ¡Qué suerte!
On Saturday morning we made friends with a Spanish couple at the bus stop. They were so nice! Once in Valencia (our hotel was in the suburbs) we met Jordan and Elaine for the daily mascletá, which made for a happy little TU reunion. We walked around with our cameras out most of the day; also Emily’s fam came and it was delightful to see them. We stumbled in on mass at the Cathedral—win—and eventually it was time for the burning of the fallas. We saw some little ones, and a couple of big ones. What a way to party. By then we were thoroughly worn out, and we had a long day of travel waiting for us on Sunday, so we went home [hotel] and then parted ways to go home home [our cities] on Sunday morning.
It was sad to say good-bye again, but the next reunion is scheduled for Sevilla, Easter weekend. I’ll be más feliz que unas castañuelas* to reunite again! :)
Also, for more information on Las Fallas, see my pictures on facebook, and Ali’s blog: http://howispaindmytime.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading!
*I’m practicing using the colloquial expressions that I had to know for my grammar test yesterday, haha!
-like sardines in a can
-just in case
-happy as a clam
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