The Festival of Fallas

The Festival of Fallas

What a weekend! Saturday started off with lesson planning, housework and washing.  As I was hanging out my on the rooftop of the block of flats I am staying in. Manu, my host, and the other half of ‘Manu and Rita’ the lovely couple we are staying with, tells me to look over the edge. My immediate thought was of some adrenaline junkie view. The view was in fact of people in red fleeces setting up tables and chairs, with water and a paella pan in preparation for a street party to celebrate Falles pronounced  ‘Fayas’. This is the Festival of Fire and everyone has Festival Fever. There is loud music emanating from a street further away.

The celebrations continue into the evening with a firework display and I had already arranged to meet some of the others and head into town. Once in town we simply followed the throng of people all heading towards two bridges where the fireworks were going to take place. What a show!  We were treated to a ten minute non-stop extravaganza. Fireworks exploding all over the place – stars and rockets lit up the sky, smoke billowing everywhere, all this was followed by a long rumbling noise which thundered through me, which ended the show with a big bang.

Afterwards we looked for somewhere to eat and stumbled across a restaurant not far from the main square and more importantly was not fully booked out. The mother and son who ran the restaurant were very accommodating and with my basic Spanish and help from other customers we worked out there was special menu in place due to the festivities.

This consisted of a large salad, goat’s cheese and samosas looking pastries times two, and a main meal of meat or fish, finished off with a selection of deserts all one plate. This was a non-tourist restaurant and the staff bent over backwards to accommodate us – it was a great evening. After a coffee we headed home.

Sunday morning, more lesson planning and my hostess Rita informs me that there are more fireworks this evening too! I meet up with Yve and we head off to the beach, which we find in a round about way due to my map reading skills. On the beach we find a restaurant with a view of the sea and order paella, once again we have some confusion over the menu, but we sort it out even if it was more expensive that we originally thought.

Being so impressed with last nights firework show, I am eager to see another display and head to another part of town to join the crowds. This starts with a light show being projected onto the towers of Valencia, followed by a speech by the Mayor in Valencian, women in their traditional costumes. The speeches are followed by the national anthem and a finale of a quick three minute firework display. In contrast to the previous night this was not the formal kind of show I was expecting. But I can’t complain as I have witnessed a great event in a wonderful city. 

Monday has come around and we are into our final week of teaching