We Three See......Fires, Festivals and FINALLY....Cait!

Leaving Barcelona was  great only because  Mom and I were both so excited to get on the road to Valencia to meet Cait.  We were packed and in our little car.... we had directions to the hostel where we would find Cait and we were  on the road.

The roads, incidentally....amazingly good.  Big, wide modern highways...well marked and easy to maneuver.  We were SO happy.  We now know how they can afford such wonderful roads, however, as the tolls for the 400 kilometers we travelled were $40! 

The drive from Barcelona to Valencia is gorgeous!  The road constantly surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, orange groves or the Mediterranean.  There were centuries  old wineries in the middle of the vineyards and all of the little villages had gorgeous Cathedrals with spires and towers that rose way above the small houses in the villages.  The drive flew by.....with Mom and I both excited by the sites and chattering away solving the problems of the world.

 

We arrived in Valencia and found it to be bigger than either of us expected....and it was obvious that there was something exciting going on as there were people all over.   We became so engrossed in following the directions to Cait's hostel through the small crowded streets that when we had to wait to turn right neither of us really noticed what we were waiting on.  After we made our right hand turn and started moving slowing down the little street, we both started laughing, as we were right behind a band marching along....and in the middle of a parade!!!!  So what do two Texas women do when they find themselves suddenly in the middle of a parade in Valencia Spain????  Well....of course....smile and wave....and smile and wave...and smile and wave!!!!!




The band in front of us through the windshield!

Though it delayed us getting to Cait quite as quickly as we wanted, we loved being right in the middle of things...even if we weren't invited!  Then....it was all capped off with us finding the hostel....and seeing Cait for the first time in over 2 months.  She looked and sounded great and was excited to show us all the happenings in Valencia.  However,  we decided to go check into our hotel first, as it was 30 kilometers or so away.


On the way to Segunda (the small town where we had to get a room, because Valencia was booked up) Cait told us story after story about her trip.  So much so that we weren't really paying attention to where we were going and found ourselves a bit...hmmm....bewildered about where we were. This little village was having a Fallas Festival of their own and so there was tons of activity, fireworks, etc going on. After driving around for a while, trying to follow a GPS that was confusing, at best....I suggested that we ask a Policia to help us.  Cait sort of dismissed the idea, as she didn't think they would be much help....BUT....because I was the boss that particular day, I waved over some policia anyway.  I knew they would be busy because of the festival, but though they might take the time to help us if we seemed desperate enough.  Not only did they try to direct us, but when I didn't seem to really grasp what they were telling me....they told us to follow them and led us from their town, almost 14 kilometers to the next town to show us our hotel! 

We got to our hotel and knew we had made a good choice to stay out of town.  It was a wonderful resort on the Mediterean and though it was "off season" was just perfect.

After checking in, we considered taking a small siesta....but NOOOOOOOOOOO.....I thought we should go on to the festival.  Big mistake!!!!  We got back to Valencia about 3 or so and couldn't find a parking space on the road....so in the fashion of a true Spaniard, I backed up onto a sidewalk, we locked up the car and took off to the festival.  Cait had explained briefly that the each neighborhood in Valencia builds a falla that is judged and then at the end of the festival (which was this very night) they were lit on fire and burned!  A falla is a monument built of wood, styrofoam and paper mache that represents some theme.....sometimes something funny, sometimes a protest of sorts....and these monuments are big....some as big as a 4 story building!!!!!  Someone who found out we were from the states told us about a falla from a few years back that was a big giant, pantless Bill Clinton, being.....entertained by a kneeling Monica Lewinsky!  Nice to see US influence in foreign festivals.

The Spanish are obviously very artistic...and also seem to have a real interest in ....parts!  Body parts!  Some of the fallas were nude people, all of the women in the fallas were topless....and funny enough, most of the women were redheads.  Which was a little disturbing since I knew they would all eventually be burned!  We walked for hours....7 hours to be exact....looking at all of the fallas, the huge crowds, the statue of the Virgin Mary that was covered in literally millions of flowers.  There were people of all ages packed in the streets......children lighting fireworks everywhere.  It was common to be walking along and have bottle rockets and roman candles going off all around you.  It was amazing to us that no one seems to get injured and that children run through the streets setting off fireworks without anyone caring. 

It was really interesting...and actually great fun.  Everyone gets a fallas scarf....which is actually a bandana.  We thought they were just for decoration...and later found that they are to put over your face when the fires start so that you can breath and not get sick from the smoke!!!!  Bands played impromptu concerts all over...we heard everything from ABBA to "Oh My Darlin' Clementine" to countless Spanish tunes we didn't recognize.  We ate delicious Churros, served with hot chocolate so thick it is more like hot fudge than hot chocolate!  We ate incredible street food called durum kebab...which was shaved meat, tomates, lettuce and a spicy sauce wrapped in a flat bread. 

Finally we decided on which fallas we would watch burn....and we found ourselves a seat.  They light a miniature fallas (called the children's fallas) at each site first....so at about 10 they lit ours.  It was set up in a little square wedged in the middle of 5 buildings ...and surrounded by 1000s of people...they poured gas over it....strung fireworks all around it....and lit it!!!!!  The band played and the fireworks went off and the fallas burned!  It was pretty exciting...and was happening at each fallas site (probably more than 50) all over the city.  We thought our big fallas was going to be lit at midnight...so we sat to wait.  When it hadn't been lit by 1, we finally found someone to ask, and the one we had chosen had won a big award so wasn't going to be lit until 3!!!!  We gave up and started back to the car....watching the fires and the fireworks all over the city.  Never would something like this go on in the states....it was a once in a life time experience....and we were so lucky to have gotten to see it.

After a very short night, we drove to Algeciras.....A beautiful 7 hour drive along the Mediterranean.  We did have a short stop in Alhambra to visit a 800 year old castle that Cait had been telling us about.  It was just amazing.....built by the Moors and lived in by Sultans until Ferdinand and Isabell chased them out of Spain in the mid 1400s. 

Tomorrow we set sail..(well, okay, we set "jet engine", since we are going by jet boat not by sail boat) for Morocco and Tangiers!!!!!    Talk to you after the Casbah!!!!!