Tuesday
On Tuesday Bo and I departed Barcelona for Valencia in order to see Las Fallas, the festival that is held annually in Valencia. We got there around 11 pm and the party was in full swing. My description of Las Fallas is: firecrackers, fireworks, fire, loud noises that sound like bombs, smell of sulfur, food. So within the first hour or so that we got there I heard tons of these bomb sounding explosives going off and it was terrifying. Valencia is not for people who are easily startled. At 1am there was a firework show. I guess there is like a week long competition of who has the best fireworks and then Tuesday night (rather Wednesday morning) at 1am is when they debut their main show (that might be entirely incorrect so don't quote me on that). It was probably the coolest firework show I have ever seen. And that's all I have to say about that. Forrest Gump, anyone? Anyone?
Wednesday
My roommate Natalie met Bo and I in Valencia and we started walking around to look at the fallas. A falla is one of these massive structures that the people of Valencia build with the sole purpose of burning them down during the festival. The fallas are incredible. So detailed and colorful and awesome then they go and burn them...I don't get it but I guess that's culture for ya. So here is what a falla looks like:
So yeah. They burn that shit to the ground. Makes sense, right? There were a bunch of these of all different designs all around the city and at night they burnt them. Here's a video I took of one of the children's fallas (just a smaller structure) burning down (also we were definitely in the front row because we thought it was a good idea until it felt like my face was actually melting off) there are a ton of (amazing) fireworks in the beginning but it will start burning towards the end:
This is one of the adult ones burning. I don't like this video as much because I kept switching how I held the camera but I think it's definitely worth it to watch. Also, don't mind me in the beginning criticizing Bo's pronunciation of the word "amazing". Here it is:
In addition to seeing all of the fallas, we spent some time walking around Valencia which was a beautiful city. We found a ferris wheel which is obviously a great option to see a lot of the city in a small amount of time. Natalie is some sort of freak and has never been on a ferris wheel so it was a great experience. I just really like this picture:
It was definitely super cool to see this festival because I will never ever see this type of thing in the US. Definitely a fire hazard. Also, I'm pretty positive I have experienced a small sample of what life was life back during WWII. Literally there were firecrackers that sounded like bombs going off every 10 minutes or so and every single time I was startled. Also it hurt my ears. I guess with the exception of a ton of people dying and the world being at war I got a small taste of what an air-raid was like, right?
So we didn't sleep Wednesday night so this is an awkward transition...
Thursday
After we watched the adult falla burn down (it started at 2am...the Spaniards don't sleep), we went back to the hostel, packed our things, and left for the airport to catch our flight to Sevilla. We got to the airport around 4am and I was dead. My face lotion was also confiscated at security so this calls for a minor venting: how come airports in Europe all have different requirements?? I actually think they do but they all check for different things like my face lotion has made it through every other airport but WHATEVER it's done I'm over it (obviously I'm not). So we got on our flight and it was not the best flight but we made it to Sevilla alive. We arrived at 7:45 and literally wanted to nothing except sleep which was awkward since we couldn't check into the hostel until 12pm. So we went to the hostel and slept in the lobby until Angie and her friend Alex (who were meeting us in Sevilla) woke us up when they got there. After that, I went to lunch with Angie and Alex (Alex is Angie's friend from home who is visiting for spring break) and we walked around Sevilla for a bit. The hostel offered a free walking tour which was nice so we went on that later and got to see some sights of Sevilla. Sevilla is absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had more time there! After the walking tour, our friend Cody met us in Sevilla. There are just too many pictures to choose to post in the blog so make sure to check out Facebook later and see all of them. Here's a sample:
Plaza de España
Catedral de Sevilla
We did not go out that night in Sevilla due to preparations for Morocco! Instead, we ate dinner at the hostel which was awesome. Hostels are actually pretty cool, if you're at a nice one. We met a bunch of people who were also going to Morocco the next day so that was nice to make more friends before the trip. We also met a German guy who helped me improve my German. I'm basically fluent. I can add to my list: can count continuously to 40 (formally reading: can count 1-10, 12, 20-29). The hostel we chose was definitely the best hostel I have been to and also easily the cheapest. I was content.
We spent some time walking around Sevilla on Friday but since Friday was mostly dedicated to Morocco, that will wait until the next blog post. Stay tuned!!
Angela
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