...Explosiva.

Las Fallas....how do I describe Las Fallas....so many people, so many weird sculptures, so many explosions, so many churros, so much noise, so much madness! All wrapped up in one awesome day in the city of Valencia. You should check it out sometime. :)

This is the first falla we came across. We would later return to see it go up in flames...



There were too many fallas to count, but here's another that we got to see from up in a cool castle thing. (By the way, we drove past at least five castles on the way to Valencia; awesome!)



...Ok, here's the cool castle thing.



This one was probably my favorite.



There were A LOT of people there. No joke. I don't think I've ever seen such a crowd. (What you see in the bottom left corner is a churro stand. There was about one every 15 feet.)



Perhaps this photo better portrays it. :) It was a cozy. We came to this plaza because we heard something was going to explode. Lots and lots of fireworks! And LOTS of smoke afterward.



Later we went to a parade. The first half was nice, with lots of people dressed up in medieval costume and carrying lanterns, and the sun setting...The second half got a bit frightening, as you might conjecture from the photo below. Lots and lots and lots and lots of bizarre demon dudes running around with fire....never seen anything like it. I asked the woman standing next to me why there were so many demons. She shrugged and said, "Meh, it's a tradition."
No further comments at the moment.



And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
This was a smaller one that they burned around 10pm. One of our friends got to keep a piece of it.



And here's the giant one we saw earlier. And no, those are not stars, they are big hunks of burning ash (which, fortunately, cooled off before falling on us). We got a good spot. It required getting there about an hour and a half early, and listening to the crowd chant, "Fuego! Fuego!" ("Fire! Fire!") while we waited, but it was worth it.



...And here are the firemen ("bombers") putting out the falla.
It was at about this time that someone let off a firecracker that went zipping around our feet, which got some people really mad, and we decided to get out of there.



We took the 2am bus (avoiding the hostel, thank you), and got back around 6am, to find my sister sleeping in my bed! Yes, I spent the rest of the weekend with my family, who happened to be in town. Good times.

Oh, and here's a glimpse of last week's delicious taco salad dinner up on our "terraza" (terrace/roof/upper exterior surface of our apartment).



Off to grammar class!
♥Tracy