VALENCIA
So I've been MIA for awhile, sorry! I was relatively busy with midterms and whatnot, but here I am now! Here's the scoop on the last week and a half...
JAMIE
Last Thursday my friend Jamie from high school came to Madrid! She's studying in Paris for the semester, and she and her friends did a Spain tour. We went shopping in Sol, then out to dinner and then to Commo...suffice it to say that it was a very good night but I need to be a bit more responsible in the future! The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key, Pam's sister was in town so we stayed in and watched movies.
Retiro
Last Sunday we were blessed with nice weather, so I finally made it out to El Parque de Buen Retiro, a park once reserved only for royalty. It was full of people, and interestingly enough,. it also houses the only statue of Lucifer in...the world maybe? I didn't take a picture of it because it was too dark, but he's depicted as pretty human and being pulled down to the depths of hell.
And a small digression - anyone have any idea what this road sign might signify??
VALENCIA
So if you have been watching BBC at all, you would have heard all about the famous Fallas, a big celebration in Valencia, about 4 hours from Madrid. It's a holiday that commemorates St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. So, the city commissions the construction of these large, elaborate wooden floats that are placed all around the city. In addition, there's a huge parade, all the streets are decorated, concerts, and just obscenely huge crowds. Then Sunday night, the floats get burned...can we say massive fire hazard?
Anyway, 10 of us from IES took a 9am bus Saturday morning to Valencia, with the intent to stay up all night and come back to Madrid by noon on Sunday. Well, we did precisely that - only it wasn't exactly what we had hoped for. We really wanted to eat paella, one of Valencia's renowned dishes, but the kitchens were closed by the time we got there, so we had to settle for Burger King. We walked around the city, saw a lot of the statues, went to mass (yes, I went to mass, everyone I was with was Catholic), and then hung out in the city center til it got dark. We had hoped to catch even one bonfire on Saturday night, and there was a free concert I was dying to see...but our friend Maria had too much to drink and landed in the hospital. She was fine, she vomited in a restaurant before she got in the ambulance and pretty much just slept it off the whole night. But after that none of us felt it was appropriate to go out and party. It took us 45 minutes to get through the crowds to a street open for cars to catch a cab to the hospital. We were there literally from 11pm til 6am. Everyone was really pooped and falling asleep in the waiting room, but Pam and I were wired and managed to entertain ourselves on two cups of coffee each. At 6:30 or so, we wandered to the bus stop, which apparently was on the other side of town, so our leisurely stroll took an hour...so that was quite interesting. I came home and slept for 6 hours straight. Overall I wasn't that impressed w/ Valencia...disappointed we didn't get to see any impressive pyrotechnics, but it was an adventure in so many other ways.
The IES crew
Traditional kids' attire in the grand parade...awww!
City center at night
One of many impressive wooden statues
Random street artist
The aftermath of too much celebration, 7am
By the way, I got an A on my grammar and Lorca exams!
JAMIE
Last Thursday my friend Jamie from high school came to Madrid! She's studying in Paris for the semester, and she and her friends did a Spain tour. We went shopping in Sol, then out to dinner and then to Commo...suffice it to say that it was a very good night but I need to be a bit more responsible in the future! The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key, Pam's sister was in town so we stayed in and watched movies.
Retiro
Last Sunday we were blessed with nice weather, so I finally made it out to El Parque de Buen Retiro, a park once reserved only for royalty. It was full of people, and interestingly enough,. it also houses the only statue of Lucifer in...the world maybe? I didn't take a picture of it because it was too dark, but he's depicted as pretty human and being pulled down to the depths of hell.
And a small digression - anyone have any idea what this road sign might signify??
VALENCIA
So if you have been watching BBC at all, you would have heard all about the famous Fallas, a big celebration in Valencia, about 4 hours from Madrid. It's a holiday that commemorates St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. So, the city commissions the construction of these large, elaborate wooden floats that are placed all around the city. In addition, there's a huge parade, all the streets are decorated, concerts, and just obscenely huge crowds. Then Sunday night, the floats get burned...can we say massive fire hazard?
Anyway, 10 of us from IES took a 9am bus Saturday morning to Valencia, with the intent to stay up all night and come back to Madrid by noon on Sunday. Well, we did precisely that - only it wasn't exactly what we had hoped for. We really wanted to eat paella, one of Valencia's renowned dishes, but the kitchens were closed by the time we got there, so we had to settle for Burger King. We walked around the city, saw a lot of the statues, went to mass (yes, I went to mass, everyone I was with was Catholic), and then hung out in the city center til it got dark. We had hoped to catch even one bonfire on Saturday night, and there was a free concert I was dying to see...but our friend Maria had too much to drink and landed in the hospital. She was fine, she vomited in a restaurant before she got in the ambulance and pretty much just slept it off the whole night. But after that none of us felt it was appropriate to go out and party. It took us 45 minutes to get through the crowds to a street open for cars to catch a cab to the hospital. We were there literally from 11pm til 6am. Everyone was really pooped and falling asleep in the waiting room, but Pam and I were wired and managed to entertain ourselves on two cups of coffee each. At 6:30 or so, we wandered to the bus stop, which apparently was on the other side of town, so our leisurely stroll took an hour...so that was quite interesting. I came home and slept for 6 hours straight. Overall I wasn't that impressed w/ Valencia...disappointed we didn't get to see any impressive pyrotechnics, but it was an adventure in so many other ways.
The IES crew
Traditional kids' attire in the grand parade...awww!
City center at night
One of many impressive wooden statues
Random street artist
The aftermath of too much celebration, 7amBy the way, I got an A on my grammar and Lorca exams!
posted by J at 7:16 AM
2 Comments:
My cousin was at the Fallas too! Shame indeed that you didn't get to properly witness the festivities. Never been to Valencia myself... But man, Spain is rife with festivals all year round commemorating one patron saint or other... Gotta give it up to the legacy of Catholicism, eh!
Just wanted to add: awww, the Retiro. It is one of my favorite places for wandering about and people-watching. Cass and I actually rowed a boat on a particularly sunny December day this past Xmas, something I hadn't done since I was 5.
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