So I have made it to Valencia for the Las Fallas festival. Joyce and I are set up in an amazing apartment near the heart of the city. We can walk to everything. Joyce found this place and if I ever go back to Valencia I will be trying to book in again. Three floors with two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a full kitchen (including a dishwasher and laundry), and all the mod cons we might need. Joyce is going back to Canada to buy better speakers as her IPOD sounded so good. The apartment is a persons home and while they are not in town they rent it out. This places was obviously owned by a musician as the decorations including music stands and musical instruments all over the apartment.

It seems so strange to be meeting up with Joyce in Spain of all places. Two random Canadian's that might never have met except that we both thought we would love to experience Spain. What a great time we had. The Las Fallas event was so much more than I expected and the deep fried churros and hot chocolate were to die for. I added a few pounds to certain parts of my anatomy as a result. Damn I had been doing so well up until now. The fact that we stopped by the same stand every night on our way home didn't help. In fact the guys that were running the stand knew what our order was with out us asking. Thank goodness we only stayed 5 nights.

So what is Las Fallas..........again I am going to let someone else explain it.........http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/lasfallas.asp....."Does the smell of gunpowder excite you? Does the sight of flames make you smile? Do you secretly harbor pyrotechnic urges that are only socially acceptable on Canada Day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Las Fallas of Valencia is your kind of event--a loud, smoky, high-spirited fiesta where the whole town is literally set ablaze!

Las Fallas is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. Then again, Spain is a country known for its unique and odd fiestas. What started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire. Valencia, a quiet city with a population of just over 1 million, swells to an estimated three million flame-loving revelers during Las Fallas celebrations.

LasFallas literally means "the fires" in Valencian. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots ("puppets" or "dolls"), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely lifelike and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots, often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes on the day of la plantà (the rising).

The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning). Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly 12am (midnight). Over the years, the local bomberos (firemen) have devised unique ways to protect the town's buildings from being accidentally set on fire by the ninots: such as neatly covering storefronts with fireproof tarps. Each year, one of the ninots is spared from destruction by popular vote. This ninot is called the ninot indultat (the pardoned puppet) and is exhibited in the local Museum of the Ninot along with the other favorites from years past.

Traveler and pyromaniac Janet Morton says, "The scene at Las Fallas is extremely cathartic and difficult to describe, but resembles a cross between a bawdy Disneyland, the Canada Day and the end of the world!"

The origin of Las Fallas is a bit murky, but most credit the fires as an evolution of pagan rituals that celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season. In the sixteenth century, Valencia used streetlights only during the longer nights of winter. The street lamps were hung on wooden structures, called parots, and as the days became longer the now-unneeded parots were ceremoniously burned on St. Joseph's Day. Even today the fiesta has retained its satirical and working-class roots, and the well-to-do and faint-of-heart of Valencia often ditch out of town during Las Fallas.

Besides the burning of the ninots, there is a myriad of other activities during the fiesta. During the day, you can enjoy an extensive roster of bullfights, parades, paella contests and beauty pageants around the city. Spontaneous fireworks displays explode everywhere during the days leading up to La Crema, but the highlight is the daily mascletá which occurs in the Plaza Ayuntamiento at exactly 2pm. When the string-lined firecrackers are ignited, the thunderous, rythmitic sounds they make can be considered music as the sound intensifies in volume. Those firecrackers timed to fall to the ground literally shake the floor for next ten minutes, as the mascletá is more for auditive enjoyment than visual."

The idea of spending a year building the structures and then burning them to the ground is still something I don't comprehend but what an amazing experience. I was not able to stay for the final burning of the ninots and I can only image what it must be like. I did get to experience the mascleta and my ears are still ringing. I have the whole thing on video but it really doesn't do it justice. The smell of gunpowder doesn't come through at all. They burn between 100 and 120 KGS of gunpowder and produce noise reading of nearly 120 decibels. The ground shakes and you can't see for the smoke.

This was definitely one of my highlights from Spain. I'm now off to Benicassim to say hello and good bye to the many friends I have made there. I originally planned to spend two weeks back in my apartment BUT I have had a change of heart and plans yet again. Yes that's right I am heading south instead. I'm catching a flight back to Perth and so I say farewell to Spain. Thank you to all my Spanish friends for making my time in Spain so enjoyable and for taking care of me. I will see you all one day in the future. Maybe not in Spain. But as it is such a small world you never know where our paths might cross.

My next update with be from the land down under. Until then take care of yourselves and my love to you all.

Tove