My goodness.  Las Fallas are NON STOP.  Four nights, four visistors for those four nights, and an almost four year old too!  There were lots of fallas to see and experience.  Every day and every night there was something different.  On Saturday we walked through the Cabanyal neighborhood and that night we went out to see Las Fallas in the center of town. 

We ended up walking what my mother thought was at least ten miles.  She may be right.  Be fore-warned for the future if you visit.  Public transportation is not readily available and easy to figure out during the festival.  Time to bed that night - 2am. 

Sunday - cousins arrive.  Out again at night.  We saw the calle Sueca with their light display of 750,000 bulbs. 

 Fantastic fireworks.  Bedtime - 5am.  Awake - 8am.  Why?  The 8am-9am EXPLOSIONS.  Forget alarm clocks.

Monday.  The final day.  So much to see, so little time.  The crowds - intense.  We saw Nou Campanar which was fantastic. 

We walked on the beach which made us all happy. 

We were invited to friends to watch a crema (burning) near the central market from a balcony.  It didn't burn until 1:30am. 

Again - transportation challenges on the way home.  After a mile or saw a bus saved us and brought us near home.  Time to bed - 3:30 - and that includes the 3 year old.

Did I say we were tired? Great pictures, videos and stories to follow.

Oh no, here goes that crazy mother posting her three year old's pictures again....

Darn right.  That three year old's perspective on the view around him just make me smile.  Yes, it would make me proud if Ben decided to become a photo journalist....just as long as he doesn't go to some war torn area to do so.  Once is enough in this mama's life time.

Papa, Ben and the "Ca" went for a stroll yesterday afternoon and came back with these.  I fixed the color on a few of the pictures because it's not a great camera but none are cropped.   All are from the the Cabanyal neighborhood.

View of buildings in a reflection of bus windows. (He's three and doesn't ever listen to our advice so this was his idea!  Mitch was shocked to see it)

Self-portrait and picture of Papa.  Notice the flag of Valencia in the top right.

Cabanyal Street views.  Notice our dog's fur on the right side of these picture.  He must have had Carmen on his lap in the stroller when he took this. 

We got to the Mascleta just 15 minutes before it's start and it was PACKED.  This was the best view we could afford. 

Now I know what they mean by enjoying the Mascleta up close.  It's impressive from a distance but I may give it a go and wait for a few hours to get a good view if I have another opportunity.

Mascleta March 15th

I wrote a post about our first Mascleta on March 8th, but failed to post the links to youtube videos.   Here they are.  I was much closer on the 8th - for the mascleta without the air show - and in some ways it was a better experience to be so close.  You can see the contrast with the videos from yesterday's mascleta.  More impressive but much further away.

March 8th Mascleta

Final Portion of March 8th Mascleta

We are so grateful that our dog is virtually deaf.   Does that sound terrible?  We think she is so much happier, at least here in Valencia.  She has very little idea about what is happening.  Our dog hears at least one frequency - the high pitched one and perhaps whistles.  Maybe just enough for a happy life here.

Carmen was always terrified of fireworks.  TERRIFIED.  She would shake furiously during the fireworks and tremble for days after wards.  It was so sad.  Thunderstorms were the same.  We arrived in Valencia and noticed that she wasn't scared during the fireworks.  How grateful were we.  It was so sad to see her suffer and there is no way you can sound proof your apartment against the noises of explosions. 

I smile as I write this.  Since 8am this morning we have been hearing the Desperta - the Fallas alarm clock for Valencia.  But at this very moment, it's going crazy out there, marching bands and all.  It's what Ben needed to wake up.  As Robin Williams would say....GOOD MORNING VALENCIA!

What were those explosions that sounded like mascletas this morning - I asked a man and his daughter dressed in the "fallero" shirts.  Oh - the desperta (wake up) from now until Monday.  Between 8am-9am every Falla commission wakes up their neighborhoods with an explosion.  I suppose that's why they were all about five minutes apart.  I must have heard ten this morning.

No more sleeping past 8:00 am they mentioned.  Oh, no worries I replied.  I have a three year old.  I'm always up at 8am.  Well, be sure to sleep when your child sleeps they said - otherwise you won't get any sleep at all.

Now that is advice they give to mothers with newborns.  I guess it applies to everyone with kids for Las Fallas. 

Here is my little Fallero - oh so cute in the shirt.

Yesterday we went to the Exposicion del Ninot.  Ninot are the figures that make up the Fallas constructions.  Each commission that has a falla (380 I believe) submit one figure for their official Falla and one for the children's Falla.  The admission was 2 euros which gave you the right to vote. 

My vote for the children's falla

Mitch's vote for the children's falla.

Can't you see how our parenting has affected us.  Clearly, I have given in way too much with our son.  Mitch - he is still traumatized from taking away that pacifier from our son, who by the way, can't even imagine using one. 

Here is another cute children's figure in keeping with the ipodization of the world.

My favorite Ninot for the regular fallas was this one.

This laughs at the new official protected housing that is being promoted for students or others with limited resources.  They are being promoted like crazy but many think they are too small to live in as you can see.

http://www.viviendas-vpo.com/

Here are a few close ups.

Some of the other nifty photos.  This exp ends tomorrow because they finish the planta - or the construction of all of the fallas by tomorrow evening at midnight. 

Airplane ban on liquids falla

Vulgar figures too -

We can see a school outside our window.  The children there range from age 3 or 4 to about 11 or 12 I think.  This morning, I noticed them spreading sand in a circle on the ground.  Hmmm.  Just what they did during the paella contest.  They must be making a giant paella I thought.

But the next time I looked out the window, I saw this.

A Falla - with what looked like the set up for a mascleta - those are fireworks hanging from the strings.  Goodness - will they actually burn it.  Yes, they did.  The love for pyrotechnics and las fallas is the culture of Valencia. 

First the Mascleta -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq700seKi7c

And finally, la crema -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXc_QQrQNrw

Last weekend there were a lot of paella contests including one in our neighborhood.  We just saw the preparations as nap time interfered before the paellas were cooked. 

Mitch noticed this gentleman's olive oil.  Yes mentioned his wife.  We're from "the pueblo." We picked and pressed those olives ourselves.  Mitch also assumed all of the wood was pressure treated.  Captain Safety's comments can make it hard to feel romantic about that paella huh?  I do learn a lot with him though. 

Yesterday evening we had a babysitter and we decided to try another mini-mascleta.  Turns out, it was a traca kilometrica.  I didn't really understand it until one of the falleros showed me the ropes and explained it. 

A kilometer of rope suspended around the neighborhood and the falla - all with fireworks attached.  They light one end and voila - off it runs with the people trying to stay ahead of it. 

These folks are crazy!! Mitch decided to run.  I decided to document.  We had no idea what to expect. 

It was hysterical and one of the greatest fallas experiences for me to date.  It is quite exhilarated to duck as the pyrotechnics zoom over your head.  This would not have met Ben's fancy at all - although there were tons of kids.  I assume everyone gets used to the noise, the fire and the explosions.  It's quite a show here.

Here are the links to the two videos I took.  Enjoy.  I hope you can appreciate how close those embers came to my head. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXthzoZURPk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcdP1Wo9S6s

Last night we ventured out to explore some of the pre-Fallas activities in the neighborhoods surrounding Colon, Xativa and Angel Guimera.  (Note - I often refer to the neighborhoods by the name of the nearby metro stop.  These are not the official barrio names - I just can't figure them out!)

There are 300+ fallas commissions all of which have a falla.  The concentration of them in the old town is high.  It seems that every few blocks yields another Casa Faller. 

The local newspapers Las Provincias and El Levante are great for keeping up on the last minute schedules put forth by the commissions.

We began our evening walking down the streets near the metro Colon.  Soon we stumbled upon folkloric dancing near the Casa Faller El Forcat on the streets Joaquin Costa - Conde Altea.  It was wonderful.

Here are some links to some folkloric dancing videos from last night that I posted on YouTube.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppeXmF6pcyk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1dkkZMCkIQ

Later we went to a mini-mascleta near Angel Guimera metro - Erudito Orellana - Fernando el Catolico.  Here is the Fallera Mayor arriving at the festivities.

We laughed because they closed off the traffic for her arrival, but once she crossed the strfeet, they opened it up for the mascleta.  The police were there to keep the traffic moving during the explosions!