Yesterday morning, I headed to the south of Spain to Valencia (the third largest city in Spain) for the annual celebration of Las Fallas.
Las Fallas is a very distinct celebration that only happens in Valencia the week before the first day of spring. Huge puppet sculptures are the main attractions of the celebration. Thousands of dollars are spent on some of them and I can't imagine how long it takes to make them! Even stranger is that on the last night of the festival, all of Las Fallas are burnt except for one that is sent to the Fallas museum for eternity.
Here are a few of Las Fallas I saw to give you a better idea of how amazing these sculptures are:
Besides these stunning sculptures, the festival includes paella contests (paella has its origins in Valencia), people in traditional dress, la mascletá (a sound show of firecrackers) and the nit del foc (a fireworks show).
An Arc in the city
The fireworks show
On my visit I also saw la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias which is a huge complex for the arts and sciences. The architecture itself was mind-blowing (see below).
I remember last year in Spanish class I had a project to contact a pre-assigned native Spaniard and do a skype chat with them in order practice speaking Spanish. I remember that my skype partner was telling me all about Las Fallas and I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. Who would ever guess that I would be in Spain celebrating Las Fallas exactly a year later! What an amazing time I had! I can't wait to see more of the rest of Spain. There is so much to see and do! It is wonderful!
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