Las Fallas (Part 2)

So I must admit, that by the time the burn rolled around on Sunday night we were feeling pretty cooked. Regardless, we were able to watch a couple of the bigger ones burn and the crowd energy was great. OUR biggest night out ended up being Friday. We had the typical, late Spanish dinner around 10-11:00 PM, washing it down with tasty vino tinto before hitting the streets. We really liked the energy in barrio El Carmen (where our apartment was) so we wandered around, trying to go down different streets than we had before to see some new Fallas. By 12:30 AM, we´d picked our spot in the middle of one of the bridges that cross over the sunken riverbed park, Parque Rio Turia, to watch the fireworks. Rio Turia is an AWESOME 9KM long park that winds through the center of the city and affords great views of Calatrava´s SPECTACULAR new Palace of the Arts (which is not yet open, but we did our best to get photos over the fencing) and the City in general. At 1:00AM the first BIG explosion rang out over the roar of the crowd and constant barage of smaller fireworks that EVERYONE is setting off. The next 20 minutes, watching the explosions fire off like doomsday and people walking under us was totally magical.

After, we headed way out to the MASSIVE Nu Campamar Falla (that's it behind me) that had won this year´s competition. If I tell you that MOST of the Falla groups only spent 6,500E (1 Euro = 1.22 Dollars), and that my pick for favorite (Na Jordana, photo below) cost 180,000E, but that Nu Campamar spent a whopping 600,000E, you might get the idea of how over-the-top it was. It was SO big as to be obnoxious, but the workmanship was so good that how could it NOT be picked the winner?! All that was topped by the fact that it was WAY away from all the others, so it took away from the feeling of it being part of the rest of the community. Maybe in the future they'll consider putting spending limits to level the playing field.

By this time it was almost 4:00 AM and we started our long walk back, but not before trying in vain to get a beer to quench our thirst. Still eager to see more, we opted for a night time stroll through a great, new modern park, Parque Cabecera. It was as spectacular at night as it had been in the day. Continuing towards El Carmen, we popped our heads into a couple discos that were open, still searching for cervecas, but opted out when they only had Budweiser (go figure?!) to choose from. Finally we saw someone walk out of a bar that appeared to be closed, but we decided to peek in anyway and were delighted to find it full of 20/30-somethings. We pulled up at the bar and ordered a couple Mahou beers and were given a bowl of unshelled peanuts too - What a treat! It was abou 6:00 AM by the time we left, satisfied, if not a little buzzed too :)

We had brought my I-pod, so we put on a groovy playlist for the remainder of the walk home. We strutted past the Sumo + Geisha Falla, and a few others we hadn't yet seen, including a very fun brazilian dancer who was SO much larger than life! Finally, we were back in the hood and passing the Mercado Central where we'd been buying all our fruit, veggies, almonds, cheeses + olives. We noticed the side doors open and some activity inside, so we went in to check it out. Here, the vendors were all JUST starting to set up for the day - The pescador was scooping out ice and artfully arranging fish and octopus, the fruiteria woman was carefully piling strawberries and oranges, etc. Amidst the bustle, a guy was walking around with a tray of hot espressos and other drinks for sale to the vendors. What a feast for the eyes! Most everyone was super-friendly, even posing for photos, and we bought some of our favorite mandarinas + olives while walking around. We finally fell into bed around 8:00 AM, totally exhausted! What a NIGHT!