Las Fallas: Valencia

I am really getting behind in posting! Las Fallas was already two-weeks ago I think... and I have already made another trip to Extremadura, that I will have to talk about later! Any way Las Fallas is a festival that takes place in Valencia. It lasts a week, but we went on the last day, which is also arguably the best day. What this festival consists of (besides the usual things that all festivals consist of: food and drink) is "muñecas" or "fallas" which are large to giant sculptures that artists spend the year making only to have it destroyed on the last day of the festival in a giant flaming ball of gasoline and fireworks. One falla is saved each year (I think it is a contest-so the 'best' one is saved) and sent to a 'falla museum'. The entire city is filled with these sculptures. We spent the whole day walking around trying to see them all before they burned and we didn't even scratch the surface of the total falla population. I will try to include as many pictures as I have patience to load, because they are all so cool! Most of the time the statues are satirical and make commentary on politics and political leaders. (so, a lot of that probably went over my head, and I just enjoyed them at face value).

Going to Valencia for a day was hectic. We left at 8am, got there at noon and then left at 5am the next morning to get back at 9am. It was a LONG day, but I think it was one of the best days I've had since being in Spain. There were so many moments that were utterly stunning, shocking, scary, beautiful, confusing, disorienting, etc, etc, etc that it ended up being purely enjoyable. The first falla we saw ignited was, in my opinion, the best, only because we didn't really know what to expect. What they do is tie cord (with fireworks/exploding things on it) around the entire sculpture and then douse it in gasoline. The cord is tied to a nearby building and then the cord is lit and you watch the fire approach the falla, and then you watch the falla burn. This is accompanied by the sounds of the loudest exploding fireworks ever, so it is visually and audibly overwhelming. We were much to close on the first one, and therefore it was also physically painful because we were getting pelleted with the exploding fireworks. Please enjoy the photos. there are going to be too many. (I included one of a broken falla so you can see what it is made of).