The Adventures of Merrick: Altea and Las Fallas

March 15th, 2013

Never want to be that level of drunk. Ever. Again.

Honestly, I haven't gone out too much while in Spain. My grandma-esque style of living leaves me pooped by 11:30pm. The chilly nighttime weather not only makes it hard to leave the house, but forces one to take a jacket with you that we all know you are going to hate having in the discotecas.

So Friday night. I attended a the Alicante Symphonic concert with my madre and her friends. As the holiday Semana Santa is coming up, they played some pieces relating to that as well as some other really great compositions. Afterwards I made my friend Lyndsey's flat for a little pre-gaming before El Barrio. Now, we were all under the impression that it would be a relatively early night...

Wrong.

What began as just a shot or two to start the night out turned into a hot-potato game of vodka straight from the bottle and Fanta in the park. Of course the only natural event to follow that is more shots at La Sede. And of course, those shots need to be 4x's the strength. By 2am, I was feeling pretty good, ready to keep going and practically begging Lyndsey that I was fine and didn't need to go home.

I honestly don't remember exactly how I got home. The my friend helping me get home ended up being too drunk to get home from my apartment, so he had to sleep in the spare bedroom at my place. That's all fine and dandy, except for trying to explain that to your host mom while completely hammered. It made for one awkward conversation the next day. Sorry madre...

March 17th, 2013

One of my favorite things about being in Spain is that not only are the big name destinations like Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, etc awesome to have within just a few hours, but the lesser known places in between can be just as impresionante!

Three of us ventured to Altea for the day with absolutely no plan past arriving there at about 10am. Altea is a small traditional Spanish town, with narrow winding roads and quaint little restaurants and cafes at every turn. There is a hill-top church (that we took the wrong way to) that is very pretty and offers a wonderful overlook of Costa Blanca and the neighboring town of Albir.

We basically hiked to the top of the hill-top, pointed out to a mountain range along the coast, and said "Let's go there." And so we did, and that area turned out to be the Serra Gelada National Park. Ben and Will enjoyed their bromance as they spoke in heavy southern drawls all day, I got many lovely pictures of the couple as well. Unnecessary trail blazing, butt-sliding, exploring caves both large and small, napping, and even a little bouldering over what may be a great location for some deep water soloing are just part of the great day that we enjoyed in Altea. Not to mention, it was absolutely cloudless skies and gorgeous.

March 19th, 2013

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post regarding Carnaval: when the Spanish celebrate, they go hard. I believe I also noted about the Spanish lack of fire safety regulations. This has definitely been confirmed by the Valencian holiday, Las Fallas.

What is Las Fallas? Well, it is a HUGE festival in Valencia in which the different neighborhoods construct these structures, called fallas, and set them on fire. I'm not too aware of the history behind it, but hey, shit's on fire yo. The types of fallas ranged from large, small, creative, vulgar, colorful, creepy, you name it. Beginning at 10pm, they begin setting the fallas ablaze in a swirling fiery mass of destruction, all leading up to the biggest falla stationed in front of the Valenia Ayuntamiento.

During my 16 hours in Valencia, I experienced my first (and last) bullfight. I honestly did not know that they KILLED the bulls. I thought they just kinda swished around the colorful cape thing and get them all confused. But no, this was graphic. They just keep stabbing at it until it legitimately falls over dead. The crowd roars with cheers when the bull is stabbed, but gasps with concern when the bull gets the horse and rider. And afterwards they just drag off the dead bull, and bring in a new one. They do this with about six bulls, but we left after the first. Some of these Spanish traditions I just don't understand :P

Because of the Fallas, most of the other attractions of Valencia were eclipsed by the immediate festivities. We bought bunuelos con chocolate, which are essentially pumpkin doughnut churro deliciousness, bartered for some fancy scarves, watched a parade with ridiculous amounts of sparklers and fire hazards, and just got lost in the city. I even did a good deed, in which I colored in a swastika tagged on a wall so it was no longer visible ^_^ Additionally, got to meet up with the one and only Corey Breier once again, as he was on a school trip for the festivities as well. Except he got sangria with his group -.-'

The only downer on the day was that my camera died before any of the actually lighting of the fallas, so credit to Hannah and Katie for those pictures :)

The burning of the fallas, big and small, is crazy. First, they set off boxes of fireworks next to the fallas to signify that it will be burning soon. Then, they douse the structure in gasoline, stab sticks of dynamite around it, and set off a cord that spits sparks everywhere until it reaches the falla and just destroys it. Hannah, Katie, and I made the mistake of being too close, and practically had to duck for cover from the spaying flames and falling incinerated debris. The burning of the largest falla outside the ayuntamiento was beyond anything I've ever seen. the pre-burning fireworks were ten times the intensity of any 4th of July firework display I've witnessed, and seeing a structure over five-stories tall just come crumbling down in flames is beyond words.

We didn't get home from Valencia until about 5am Wednesday morning. Now there's nothing wrong with that, except for my 9am class that takes an hour commute. That was difficult. Difficult enough that I pushed through that class, and then ditched the second class to sleep on the beach for four hours. Spanish life, it's beginning to take hold of me :)

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