eurotrip! valencia style

Fallas is taking over!

Two streets in the city are famous for being decked out with intricate lights and displaying light shows which rhythmically turn on and off in accordance to music that plays down the entire street. These two streets are Calle Cuba Cuban Street, and Calle Sueca Swedish Street.

approaching Calle Sueca

This atmosphere makes me feel like a little kid in a candy shop (to the extreme)! Petardos, firecrackers are exploding on every street constantly throughout the day. Stands have sprung up on every corner selling churros, boñuelos, and other sorts of fried goods coated in chocolate . And yesterday as I was getting ready to head out for the night I noticed there was a marching band playing below my window on their way through the city.

One of the thousands of stands selling churros and buñuelos

churros coated in chocolate. ñam ñam

buñuelo (noun)- fried pumpkin or squash dough in a circular shape with a hole in the middle (think mini less-cooked donut). Upon ordering you can decide to have them coated in sugar and get a cup of liquid chocolate on the side to dip them in

Calle Sueca

Enormous fallas will be situated in the intersections of many streets throughout the city (300 in all). The large fallas have to be in place on the 15th, but some of them are so large and intricate that they are starting to reconstruct them now.

Calle Cuba [koo.ba]

the light show: the lights were turned on and off in sync with the music

Yes, that is a real crane

If you look very closely behind the right side of the ladder you can see one of the workers in a white vest and orange shirt. This and the ladder can give you some perspective as to just how big this falla is.

Once again- the little man on the left (I assure you he is normal-sized)
And the intricate lights behind is another street that leads to this intersection. Most of the streets in the city now have arching lights above them

Close up of one of the falla figures. The details are incredible

After walking through the light shows we decided to wander the surrounding streets and stumbled onto so many more exciting things. Everyone seemed to be outside, the tapas bars and restaurantes were all full. Large white tents belonging to certain fallas (the neighborhood group of people) were in the middle of many streets which housed exclusive parties with music, drinks and food.
We made it to one street that had an outdoor market, with stands set up on both sides of the street for two blocks. They were selling jewelry, puppets, candy, bread, and even carmel apples and cotton candy.

The biggest bread I've ever seen in my life

one of the tents was even selling spices

The sounds of salsa music filled our ears as we approached the end of the market and we all decided to head towards it. I was ecstatic upon finding an outdoor salsa club in the middle of the street! The music was blaring and people were dancing the night away

I do have to admit- one of the scary things is that many of the petardos are being set off by young children- meaning they tend to throw them wherever they please (which may very well be in your direction).

I think there is an enormous cultural difference between safety views on fireworks and firecrackers. Mainly being that children in the US are normally not allowed to light fireworks on their own or have complete freedom with them. I've seen so many parents here just handing their 5-10 year old kids handfuls of fireworks to light off in the city streets. It almost makes me laugh in comparison to the way most of my friends and I were raised. I remember countless Fourth of July's that my siblings, neighborhood friends and I sat at least 20 feet away from fireworks my dad would set off for us in the middle of our huge empty cul de sac. We were always taught how dangerous they were and to be very careful around them. The only semi-firework I was allowed to light for the longest time was a sparkler, which is nothing compared to the large fireworks many of these children are playing with.

However, I do have to point out that there are many ambulances stationed in popular areas. I've seen plenty of groups of teenagers gathered around some being lectured by firefighters about safety.

Nonetheless, I'm making up for lost time and have purchased some petardos. I was surprised at how many I was able to buy for only 3 euros (which helps to explain the constant noise throughout the city). But don't worry, I am being safe and throwing them as soon as they're lit =)