Las Fallas

Just a quick post to tell you about my little trip I went on yesterday to Valencia - Las Fallas.

It was pretty crazy. Las Fallas are basically these huge model things and each one is meant to depict a different daily Spanish life and for the 5 day festival they are erected all over the city for you to wander around and look at them as well as taking in the Valencian culture eating paella and soaking up the sun. There are a few drawbacks in this as I personally couldn't see what any of them depicted, don't like rice and it was freezing but ..never mind.. life must go on and they were nice to look at, very detailed and they must take months and months to make, although some were very strange and of children.. You'll see why this is worrying..


On the last day and night, which is when we went, they have a big display of fireworks.. at 2pm.. yes thats in the afternoon. Consequently you can't see them, just hear the bangs and smell the smoke, very strange, but this is Spain.. anything goes..

The highlight of the whole week, and Jay i know you are gonna love this-- is the burning of the fallas, all of them, bearing in mind these things are absolutely massive, easily as big as the apartment blocks next to them, it's quite an achievement that they don't burn the city down. They set them alight by wrapping loads of bangers around them and then setting loads of fireworks off at the bases of each statue thing. The statues are made of cardboard so they burn easily, the fires are so huge and pretty spectacular, plus the fact its done at night so it has more of an effect than the fireworks in the daylight. The Spanish people love it - they whoop and cheer everytime they set fire to them and they fall down. I thought it had a kind of pagan feeling about it.. I'm sure there were no regulations either. I'd seen Spanish people wandering around with scarves on their heads all day, it did make me wonder, it wasn't until we had bits of burning cardboard land on our heads that I realised why..

Another aspect of the festival (another one for you J), is locals letting off fireworks in the street all day every day. There is a definite element of danger in this I feel, especially as a favourite game of the locals is to throw firecrackers at foreigners. The firecrackers are movement sensitive so if you try and run away it follows you and burns your leg. We had someone throw a banger at us from a fourth floor window... I was quite scared for my life.
The whole affair is very noisy, it sounds like there are bombs going off all around, not good for pregnant women or those of a sensitive disposition I'm sure, although I did see quite a few dogs and cats and they didn't seem to mind too much, I guess they must be used to it.

The day was quite knackering all in all as we had to leave Madrid at 8am and then arrived back at the same time this morning. It didn't help that we had a load of crazy Italians on our coach who sang very loud Italian songs all the way there. They got pissed before we even left Madrid. Unfortunately I didn't manage to sample of the legendary agua de valencia.. a delicious cocktail made of champagne, orange juice and a variety of spirits as i had some dodgy paella that made me feel a bit queasy. I knew rice was evil..

All in all though it was a pretty fun day, not sure if i would go back again though, the fact I left valencia alive the one time is a miracle I think, and I'm not sure I got the whole point of daytime fireworks and burning foreigners though I spose with Americans it's a fair game ..

Another madrid update. Am just cooling down in the internet cafe as I've spent all day in the sun- it's a hard life being an erasmus student

Weather here is gorgeous, 30ºc today. Have been just wandering around this really funky little area of madrid called Chueca thats a bit like Soho and just sitting looking cool in the trendy little bars. Have sort of given up on having no money and got myself a credit card instead, this is very handy as i have just discovered FCUK Madrid! yay.

Went to a small historical town on the outskirts of Madrid at the weekend called Toledo. All I really have to say about this cultural excursion is that this town has a lot of churches and hills. It was quite pretty though.

I am off on another sightseeing tour this Saturday of another ´interesting´ town according to the guide book. We'll soon see if I agree with that. If it's boring at least i can soak up some more rays instead (he he)

It's great being able to spend all your time outdoors getting a tan.. (or in my case going a funny pinky colour).. I am quite loving it.

Next week am really looking forward to a trip we're going on with 200 other erasmus students to Valencia.. they have a big festival/fair/carnaval thing known as Las Fallas in March. We leave at 8am and get back at 8am the next day. Not quite sure how i am going to make this early start but I have a few days to worry about that yet. It should be mad.. beach, paella, parties... what could be better.

I have also recently taken up jogging... I know that you're going to find this impossible to believe but I'm afraid to say its true! (this has to do with my new plan to spend as much time out of the house as possible) the park is quite typically spanish in that it is very strange. It has a circuit that you're meant to follow stopping off at things along the way to do various exercises ..situps etc. This is all very well and good and I like the idea of a free gym but, and i don't know if this is just me, I am failing to see the objective of some of the things.. such as..
At point number 1 you have to see how high you can jump?.. err..
Then point number 2 you have to leapfrog over some poles...
Then point number 3 .. a solitary hurdle thats too high to jump over anyway (I tried, unfortunately it's a very solid hurdle, you can imagine the consequences) and so it goes on.
I think I am probably working some very obscure muscles, if any, but then that's Spain.

Well that's about all news for now...

Poverty, Penguins and Pancakes

Hey Hey

Well good news is that it seems to finally have got warmer in Madrid. Today it's t-shirt weather and I for one am very pleased about it. Things have been continuing pretty much as normal after a pretty mad week when Peter Piper and his friend came to visit.. 5 long nights of partying and then shopping everyday.. crazy but a good laugh although I spent the following week in bed recovering!

I am now experiencing what it is like to live like a peasant, on the contrary to what you may be thinking this is not some profound social experiment but more due to the fact that i have run out of funds and have had to limit myself to a food budget of 3 euros a week for the next 2 months. Unfortunately I spent this entire budget on pancake mix and fillings yesterday (which were absolutely delicious, I had 8!!) but never mind.. at least I'll be thin now!

My new found extreme poverty has not stopped me going out tho, to save money we are only really frequenting places where we are on the guestlist and only drinking water (or in the case of the D&G party that we went to on Saturday.. the place has a free bar!!) Giving up alcohol has not been as hard as I imagined, the real test is now giving up chocolate for lent.. the fact that I am expecting a chocolate parcel from England doesn´t really help matters!

Have been to some really funky clubs lately. One had these naked people painted as sunflowers wandering around. It was very surreal but really cool. I don´t think the student clubs at Uni are going to be the same! Got chatted up by yet another lesbian on saturday, I´m thinking that I must have that lesbian look about me!?

Also have had my exam results through - 2 fails and one high pass. Not really bothered, just glad that they don't count towards my degree. Yesterday and Monday were the first days that i have been to lectures and not fallen asleep! I think the sun must have something to do with it.
Went to a biological park the other day. It was really good apart from the fact that all the other clientele were under the age of 5. They have a variety of different domes with different types of wildlife in each one, in one you can see nocturnal animals awake and playing as in the dome during the day it´s nighttime and vice versa. Another dome is climatised like a tropical jungle with storms every half hour and little jungle animals and birds running about. My favourite was the artic dome tho. We spent about an hour just watching penguins swimming around, I wish I was a penguin.

This week it has been carnaval, people dresing up and big processions and stuff, some of it very strange, only the Spanish would think it up. Today is the burying of the sardine - not sure quite what this entails but might go and check it out later.

Don´t have any other news for now.. won´t be coming home for easter as i can´t afford to renew my passport until next term!! (is it illegal to be in a foreign country with an expired passport?) anyway you all should come and visit me!

Happy first day of lent