CITY ON FIRE!

With some friends we met at the hostel.
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We heard about this “fallas” festival within the first couple weeks of classes, so we went a head a booked a hostel for Valencia, where this festival took place. Little did we know, that the entire student body at the fundacion would be trying to book hostels for this a couple weeks ago…as it turned out, everything was booked and we were the only lucky ones that got to go! And WOW, after this weekend…I understand why things were booked up. This festival was waaaaay out there.

We arrived on Thursday by plane, and walked down the street of our hostel at about 1:30 in the morning to find loads of people on the street, throwing firecrackers and making a ruckus. It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen; what was going on would never EVER be legal in the states. It felt like one big carnival because there were food stands, tons of people and fireworks left and right; there were huge fireworks set off at 7 in the morning! Also, there was street shopping with many stands selling jewelry. BUT, the main thing was the actual “fallas” which were huge sculptures in every plaza of the city. These puppet-like sculptures were made of frames, paper mache and styrofoam. I have no idea how the weight of these things could be supported, but THEY WERE INCREDIBLE; they were beautifully painted and some were as large as the buildings that surrounded them. They all had some sort of political slam too, though it was hard to understand what they were, considering everything written was in Valenciano, which I can’t really understand. Anyways, the next day we walked around exploring the different plazas, we shopped around, and met up with Andy’s family. They had been traveling Spain for the past couple of weeks, and planned to meet us in Valencia, which worked out nicely. With them, we went to a garden and later, we were treated to a great Italian meal. Later that night, just us kids explored more of the night life. You wouldn’t believe the number of children and older folk that were out past 1 a.m.! There were people playing guitars on the street, people lighting firecrackers, people drinking in the streets, performers on stilts, performers dancing on the street, and there was a discoteca right outside of our hostel. It was like one big, outdoor, free dance club – with a DJ, stage performers and all. Everything was crazy.

Here is where the men stick the bull with spike things and then have to run.
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The next day (Saturday), we went to the coast of the Mediterranean, and laid out on the beach. Later, we met up with Andy’s family again to go to the Aquarium TALK BOUT THIS. It was very cool because parts could be outdoors because of yearly good weather, therefore there were interesting birds and such. In this area of Valencia, the city is very modern and there were lots of museums, and imax theatre, etc. It was very different from anything I’ve ever seen in Spain yet. On Sunday, WE WENT TO A BULL FIGHT! This was one of the craziest things I’ve ever witnessed….and I’ll never go back. It was a cultural experience, so I’m glad that I went, but I never realized how brutal these things really are. We watched 6 bulls be killed, so by the end I was completely numbed to the murder of these animals and was able to focus a little more on the “art” aspect of it all. There are obviously some people that get very into this sort of thing and can tell exactly how the matador is moving his hand and the how the motion of his red cloth ticks off the bull. (No it is not the color red that irritates the bull, it is indeed the motion). We could tell how the crowd would go wild when the matador got the bull to buck up as it ran toward the cloth, which leads me to believe that it is hard to have the bull do this. And, the crowd would yell when the bull passed by the matador very closely. Basically, it seemed like the crowd liked it best when the bull was best “fooled.” Anyways, I thought that a bullfight consisted of a bull and a matador, and the bull would be killed suddenly without pain of any sort. I WAS VERY WRONG. (WARNING: Do not read this section if you are light of stomach) First, the bull is teased by 6 men that are waving pink and yellow flag-thingy’s. Then blind-folded horses come out with metal armored around them to protect them as the bull runs into there side, and the man riding the horse stabs a large spike inbetween the bull’s shoulderblades. The horse stands upright, but is shoved and usually the bull is strong enough to make it move backward. The horse doesn’t know what is going on because of the blindfold, so it just attempts to keep its balance. Next, men taunt the bull and stick 6 spiked hook things into the back of the bull. The men have to run quickly to get out of the way of the bull after ticking it off. Finally, the matador comes out, taunts the already very injured and bloody bull for a very long time, and eventually lines up a sword to stab it. As the bull runs toward the matador, he slides the sword between the shoulder blades. Then the other men with pink and yellow flags distract the bull (which is still living) and make it move it’s head back and forth, as it stares at each flag to each side of it’s body. As it moves its head back and forth, the sword inside is breaking up it’s back bones and muscles (I assume, and heard from the nice Spaniards in front of us who explained things to us shocked Americans). Eventually, the bull falls to its knees. Then a man takes another sword and sticks it in the head of the bull to kill it. After it is stabbed it collapses on its side.

ANother sculpture.
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Bull 1: the first fight was poorly done, as we could hear from the crowd. As we learned from the nice Spaniards in front of us, a matador has 3 chances to insert that sword, and if he doesn’t succeed, then they just kill the bull by stabbing it over and over in the head. That is what happened in the first one – I was in shock, and thought I would only stay for one more because I had paid a lot to get in and wanted to at least get a little more out of my money.

Bull 2: This one was well done. He got the sword in on the first try and it was so quick, I barely saw it happen. Afterward the crowd stood and waved anything they had that was white, to show that they approved. Because enough people were standing and waving, the matador received the ear of the bull. He pranced around the ring with that ear in the air. After this one, I was getting more curious, so I thought I’d stay for another.

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Bull 3: This was even more well done, and since someone had already gotten an ear, he received 2 ears.

Bull 4: The rotate the 3 matadors for the next 3 fights, so this was the same guy as bull fight 1. I wanted to stay for this one to see if he would do better the second time around. This time, it was much better done, but he got hit by the bull!!! The bull’s horns lifted the matador in the air. It was very scary, and afterward everything got way more intense. He was ok, and finished the fight, but he had a limp. The ladies in front of us said, it was the bull’s fault because some bulls are searching more for the human, than following the red flag thing. They sense that the human is moving it, because some are smarter than others. But still, they naturally attack the flag because the movements of it make them more angry than the human’s movements – they just get the human as well as the flag if they are smart enough. This rarely happens.

This was an advertisement at the airport in Madrid. I am posting this for my mom, because she LOVES panda bears. It says "Open your imagination."
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Bull 5: At this point, we figured we should stay for them all, especially after it had gotten intense with the last bull’s attack. For this one, the matador slid the sword in, but then took it immediately back out – so quick you could barely catch it. The ladies said that it was because he knew the way that it had been inserted would not be able to make the bull fall. So he had to do it over.

Bull 6: This bull was vicious. When the horse part happens, the bull bucked it’s horns low enough below the horses’ protective armor, and therefore was lifting the horse, and seemed to be puncturing it and harming it. The horse ran instead of standing still. It was intense. As it ran, the bull was still beneath it. I didn’t like that part. Later, the horse seemed to be just fine. At the end, the matador stuck the sword in, but it must have been too low or something, and it must have punctured its insides, because (this is very disgusting) the bull was stumbling around and not even paying attention to the men with the pink and yellow flags, while it was puking up TONS of blood. Blood was pouring out its mouth until it finally fell and they could kill it. The crowd did not approve. The people behind us were yelling “poorly done” in Spanish of course, and the ladies in front of us covered their eyes; they couldn’t watch. That must have been something that rarely happens too. It was very sad and obviously very painful. I felt aweful.

This is one of the sculptures. It was as tall as the appt buildings around it! If you can't tell, it is Micheal Jackson, and he has pinnochio on his lap (signifiying that he's a liar, i would presume - plus there are the small characters on top that have cameras, etc). There were smaller sculptures that surrounded this one, that you cannot see, and then you can see a skinny man on the right, and inbetween the 2 is a painting. The painting is of a women breaking out of a man-suit - it is very strange.
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At the end, the one with an ear, or in this case 2 ears, is the winner, and he walks around the ring lifted on the shoulders of the other men. Again that night, we just enjoyed the Las Fallas festivities, and danced right outside of our hostel.

On Monday, we went to the beach but it was a tad too windy to handle, so we went to the strip of restaurants along the beach that all serve paella. Paella was started in Valencia, so it’s a big thing there. That night, the burnings took place. Every year, on the last day of the festival, they burn the statue-sculpture things, so the whole city is on fire, they say. First, there are small ones that were created by kids that are burned at 10:30, and they start burning the larger ones at midnight. The main one, in the largest plaza is burned down at 1 am. They cover the sculpture in fireworks and firecrackers, which are attached to ropes that they string all around the sculpture. They run the end of the rope away from it, and attach it to a pole. From there, someone lights the end of the rope, and the line of firecrackers start to go off, until it hits the sculpture. When it hits it, eventually, the fireworks underneath are lit on fire, and they go off immediately above our heads. When we watched a small one burn, it was most intense, because the fireworks were HUGE and lit off right next to us, and were directly above us. It was outrageously loud, and since we were so close, when the sculpture started to light on fire, everyone was trying to back up because of extreme heat. It was intense. The paper mache light on fire from the fireworks, and then the wood frame keeps the fire going. It burns for a while and even the small one was a huge fire, like a bonfire. So, there was a massive cloud of black smoke above us too. We were able to see 4 burn, including the largest one. We were a ways away from the big one, because there are LOADS of people, but from a distance it was still a great view. This tradition started a long time ago because one year a sculpture was accidentally lit on fire. At the end of the night when we took a taxi to the airport, we were driving away from the central city, and we could see a MASSIVE cloud of black smoke lingering above the entire city.

Paella pans being sold, and plenty of them!
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So that was 2 weekends ago....one of the craziest, most intense weekends of my life....yikes!  Take care!