Semana Santa - Stage 1.1
Las Fallas of Valencia
My vacations for Semana Santa began on 18 March. Steph, Darlene and I had plans to go down to Valencia to see what Las Fallas are all about. Darlene's host brother, Cote, offered to drive us down there and let us stay in his apartment for the fiesta. Free transportation and a place to stay cannot be passed up, so of course we said yes.
We drove down on Thursday afternoon to avoid the traffic on Friday, though I was still recovering from a stomach flu that hit me Wednesday. I had forgotten how much fun road trips are with your friends. We put in the mix that Liz had made and kept our eyes open for any Toros on the side of the road.
When we arrived in Valencia the traffic was already crazy. There were roads blocked off everywhere. Cote drove to his apartment, but then told us that we wouldn't actually be staying there. I guess it is an apartment belonging to his work, so all of his co-workers were staying there as well. He told us that if he showed up with three girls, everyone would think there was going to be a party. (I was under the impression, and still am, that Las Fallas WAS a party.) Instead, he said, we were going to stay in a couple of dorm rooms at the University. One of his friends works there, and he hooked us up.
Now, the girls had been joking for a while that Cote was going to put Steph and I in one room, and say Darlene would have to share a room with him. He has a bit of a crush on her. And now we were absolutely sure that was going to happen. Darlene was less than pleased. But we all got settled in and ready to head into the center of town.
There was a train stop right outside of the dorm, so we hopped right on. Unfortunately, it has a payment system like that in Phoenix: buy the ticket on the platform and you won't get fined for being caught without one. No one was checking for tickets on our train, luckily, but we knew better for next time.
As soon as we got off the train we could hear kids setting off fireworks. These weren't just the little, dinky fireworks that you can buy for fourth of July. No, these are the giant ones that I think only professionals should be allowed to set off. And you never knew when one was going to set off right behind you, right in front of you, as you walked over it. But no one (except us) seemed bothered by it at all.
We crossed the bridge going over a long park that borders the inner city of Valencia. There were hot air balloons all lit up and of course more fireworks. Many of the people passing us were all dressed up in traditional costume. They looked fantastic. Eventually, we made it to the plaza de la Virgin where every year they construct a humongous Virgin María made out of flowers. She's gorgeous. Women in traditional costume (presumably participating in some version of a Miss Fallas pageant) paraded by after dropping off their flowers to honor María. They looked absolutely fenomenal.
We had planned to meet up with some of Cote's friends, but not until later, so we decided to sit down and have something to eat. We crammed ourselves into a tiny, packed bar (aka cervezeria) and immediately ordered sangria. We also got two different types of bocadillo and some patatas bravas. It's a good thing our meal was giant (because we were starving) because we were walking walking walking all through the city for the rest of the night.
I guess Cote and his friends couldn't decide where to meet, so we spent half the night walking past every different Falla in the city. Of course, Cote hardly gave us time to snap a photo of them. Finally, we stop for a minute. Cote disappears inside a cervezeria and returns with a soda + wine. He offers a taste to us all. The wine coke is a common drink here (who knew?) and they call it calimocho. The only way I can describe the taste is: wine float. If you've had wine and you've had an ice-cream float and you like both of those things, then you'll like the calimocho.
Finally, one of Cote's friends meets up with us. However, our next move was to follow follow follow him through the city again until we met up with everyone at some little bar. (I must add that at one point during all this wandering we happened upon a bar-b-que. In the street. Literally coals on the pavement with a grill set on top.) They bought us beers, we sat down, we chatted for a bit. And then they said we were going to go watch the fireworks...from the roof of some girl's apartment. She had left them her keys. And now I can tell you that fireworks are really great from on top of a roof. Also, concerts, as there was one going on in the street below us. The fireworks were over at about 1:30 am. The night was still young, so we decided to go meet up with other friends who were bartending at an outdoor concert.
After another long walk we arrived at the place where the concert had just ended. Everyone was drunk, and leaving. But since Cote's friends were the bartenders, we were able to snag a beer before they closed the tent. What remained once everyone had left was a mud pit. A giant field of mud. And mud is not that much fun when there's no music to listen to, but we stayed to chat for a bit.
Darlene and Steph thought they had done enough for one night and decided to walk the now only few blocks back to the dorm and go to bed. I am going to graduate and have few nights remaining to have fun, so I decided to stay with Cote and his crew. While they decided where they wanted to go, Cote thought he would confess to me how much he loves Darlene. Clearly, he was drunk. Literally, he said, "Estoy enamorado de Darlene". That's real serious in case you don't speak Spanish. And he went on to explain the whole situation to me, which I'm not going to do because my posts are already waaaaay too long. Finally everyone decided we were going to (take the train to) a different bar.
We all got on the train, but somehow (I don't pretend to understand the brains of males) Cote must have thought we had a thing going because I sympathized so well to his situation with Darlene. He spent the train ride trying to kiss me. As that was clearly the end of my fun, I said we should go back. Instead of figuring out where we needed to go, Cote just got off the train at the next station. He asked a couple in that station where we needed to go and we followed their directions. They had also boarded the same train. All the while, Cote is trying to make out with me. I'd had enough, so I called Steph. Cote pulled me off the train at the next stop so we could catch a cab.
There were no cabs. I was visibly irritated at this point, but Cote seemed to think he could make me happy again by buying me churros con chocolate. In a normal situation, that would have worked. However, it was 6 am on the morning of the crema. I wanted to be asleep and away from this weirdo. FINALLY a cab came and drove us back. It was 7 am before I got in bed.
Las Fallas of Valencia
My vacations for Semana Santa began on 18 March. Steph, Darlene and I had plans to go down to Valencia to see what Las Fallas are all about. Darlene's host brother, Cote, offered to drive us down there and let us stay in his apartment for the fiesta. Free transportation and a place to stay cannot be passed up, so of course we said yes.
We drove down on Thursday afternoon to avoid the traffic on Friday, though I was still recovering from a stomach flu that hit me Wednesday. I had forgotten how much fun road trips are with your friends. We put in the mix that Liz had made and kept our eyes open for any Toros on the side of the road.
When we arrived in Valencia the traffic was already crazy. There were roads blocked off everywhere. Cote drove to his apartment, but then told us that we wouldn't actually be staying there. I guess it is an apartment belonging to his work, so all of his co-workers were staying there as well. He told us that if he showed up with three girls, everyone would think there was going to be a party. (I was under the impression, and still am, that Las Fallas WAS a party.) Instead, he said, we were going to stay in a couple of dorm rooms at the University. One of his friends works there, and he hooked us up.
Now, the girls had been joking for a while that Cote was going to put Steph and I in one room, and say Darlene would have to share a room with him. He has a bit of a crush on her. And now we were absolutely sure that was going to happen. Darlene was less than pleased. But we all got settled in and ready to head into the center of town.
There was a train stop right outside of the dorm, so we hopped right on. Unfortunately, it has a payment system like that in Phoenix: buy the ticket on the platform and you won't get fined for being caught without one. No one was checking for tickets on our train, luckily, but we knew better for next time.
As soon as we got off the train we could hear kids setting off fireworks. These weren't just the little, dinky fireworks that you can buy for fourth of July. No, these are the giant ones that I think only professionals should be allowed to set off. And you never knew when one was going to set off right behind you, right in front of you, as you walked over it. But no one (except us) seemed bothered by it at all.
We crossed the bridge going over a long park that borders the inner city of Valencia. There were hot air balloons all lit up and of course more fireworks. Many of the people passing us were all dressed up in traditional costume. They looked fantastic. Eventually, we made it to the plaza de la Virgin where every year they construct a humongous Virgin María made out of flowers. She's gorgeous. Women in traditional costume (presumably participating in some version of a Miss Fallas pageant) paraded by after dropping off their flowers to honor María. They looked absolutely fenomenal.
We had planned to meet up with some of Cote's friends, but not until later, so we decided to sit down and have something to eat. We crammed ourselves into a tiny, packed bar (aka cervezeria) and immediately ordered sangria. We also got two different types of bocadillo and some patatas bravas. It's a good thing our meal was giant (because we were starving) because we were walking walking walking all through the city for the rest of the night.
I guess Cote and his friends couldn't decide where to meet, so we spent half the night walking past every different Falla in the city. Of course, Cote hardly gave us time to snap a photo of them. Finally, we stop for a minute. Cote disappears inside a cervezeria and returns with a soda + wine. He offers a taste to us all. The wine coke is a common drink here (who knew?) and they call it calimocho. The only way I can describe the taste is: wine float. If you've had wine and you've had an ice-cream float and you like both of those things, then you'll like the calimocho.
Finally, one of Cote's friends meets up with us. However, our next move was to follow follow follow him through the city again until we met up with everyone at some little bar. (I must add that at one point during all this wandering we happened upon a bar-b-que. In the street. Literally coals on the pavement with a grill set on top.) They bought us beers, we sat down, we chatted for a bit. And then they said we were going to go watch the fireworks...from the roof of some girl's apartment. She had left them her keys. And now I can tell you that fireworks are really great from on top of a roof. Also, concerts, as there was one going on in the street below us. The fireworks were over at about 1:30 am. The night was still young, so we decided to go meet up with other friends who were bartending at an outdoor concert.
After another long walk we arrived at the place where the concert had just ended. Everyone was drunk, and leaving. But since Cote's friends were the bartenders, we were able to snag a beer before they closed the tent. What remained once everyone had left was a mud pit. A giant field of mud. And mud is not that much fun when there's no music to listen to, but we stayed to chat for a bit.
Darlene and Steph thought they had done enough for one night and decided to walk the now only few blocks back to the dorm and go to bed. I am going to graduate and have few nights remaining to have fun, so I decided to stay with Cote and his crew. While they decided where they wanted to go, Cote thought he would confess to me how much he loves Darlene. Clearly, he was drunk. Literally, he said, "Estoy enamorado de Darlene". That's real serious in case you don't speak Spanish. And he went on to explain the whole situation to me, which I'm not going to do because my posts are already waaaaay too long. Finally everyone decided we were going to (take the train to) a different bar.
We all got on the train, but somehow (I don't pretend to understand the brains of males) Cote must have thought we had a thing going because I sympathized so well to his situation with Darlene. He spent the train ride trying to kiss me. As that was clearly the end of my fun, I said we should go back. Instead of figuring out where we needed to go, Cote just got off the train at the next station. He asked a couple in that station where we needed to go and we followed their directions. They had also boarded the same train. All the while, Cote is trying to make out with me. I'd had enough, so I called Steph. Cote pulled me off the train at the next stop so we could catch a cab.
There were no cabs. I was visibly irritated at this point, but Cote seemed to think he could make me happy again by buying me churros con chocolate. In a normal situation, that would have worked. However, it was 6 am on the morning of the crema. I wanted to be asleep and away from this weirdo. FINALLY a cab came and drove us back. It was 7 am before I got in bed.
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