As I mentioned in my last post, I took a lot of photos and would love to share the beauty of the Falles festival with any that happen across my blog. This post is a continuation of my first one. I felt I had so many photos that it would be better if I split my first day of Falles into two parts. This second part is what I got up to in the afternoon and night of March 15.
As with the other post I will place it below a break.
As I wandered around, seeking out the falles in no particular order. If I spotted one down a street, I would make my way towards it. If I saw any more as I walked down that street I would do my best to remember their position so that I would be able to walk back to them so I could see them close up. This was happening so much now that I had to keep looking up and down streets as I crossed them to see if there was something set up down them.
So with my earlier snack of banuelos, I knew I was an amateur at this beautiful pumpkin donut/fritter, a deep fried delicious treat. As I walked around inspecting the large winter themed falle above, I came across a shop front that had a line outside of it. Looking at the line and then the building I saw that they sold banuelos and horchata. Deciding if it was good enough for a line, it must be good stuff. Joining the line with what seemed to be a good number of Spaniards. I got into conversation with a family behind me that knew English who told me that the shop we were lining up for was one of the best places to get banuelos. I even met a guy in their family from Richmond, BC who was very nice. They offered for me to join them but we decided I would probably get sat quicker if I went in alone.
Ordering from a very helpful woman, I received my cup of hot chocolate and my beautiful banuelos. These were so light in colour compared to my first ones I had. Now I knew what the good stuff looked like. Dipping the banuelos in the chocolate, I was in heaven.
I washed it all down with a nice big glass of horchata which was really enjoying.
The amazing chocolate that I just had to polish off after I was finished all my banuelos. It was really nice to people watch in the shop as there were lots of families enjoying a big dish of of banuelos and dipping them into their hot chocolates.
The line up that drew me to the little shop where I had the most amazing banuelos. Heading off with my belly full, I wandered back to some of the falles I had seen earlier and took more photos. There was just so much to see. The weather had not improved and remained quite grey.
I liked the one above with the detail of the Queen of England and Prince Charles. I thought that was rather funny.
As it was just the beginning of the festival, I kept coming cross falles that were being set up and being worked on. It was amazing the amount of work that went into each of these creations.
The sun was starting to set but I kept on wandering. I had planned on going on a falles 'tour' later at night so I knew I was going to be up late.
I had a long list now of the falles I liked. I don't think I had seen a falle yet that I did not like. This one made me think of a princess with a sprite on her head.
This was amazing needle work that was decorating the outside of this shop. I thought it was a beautiful. I've never seen that before.
I really liked the flower detailing on the sprite?'s body.
I really loved the detailing on the one above of the turtle with a tree growing out of its back holding two elephants with a cheeky fallera and fallero in the basket? above them.
The main falle, you can faintly see where his heart glows red in his chest.
Walking back to the one above, the crew was still busy adding details to their beautiful work. The man above was painting away at the big jewel.
I loved the fish swimming through her dress. The creatives behind these falles are amazing.
I liked this hunting themed falle with the animals and the chamo dressed hunter.
Coming across this large falle, I admired the detail in every little piece. The fox and the rabibit above the man's head, the large woman with her beautiful crown, the blond girl reaching out towards the man.
This Japanese ninja, geisha, dragon themed falle was the closest falle to the hostel I was staying in.
Notice the Valencian bat on his helmet.
I made it back to the hostel to join in on the falles "tour" which turned out to be a pub crawl. I've never been too keen on pup crawls but decided rather than be put off I would join in and see what happened. I had really thought it was going to be a tour around looking at the falles, silly me. Admittedly the sign did not mention that it was a pub crawl.
Joining the group, I was handed a one litre bottle of sangria and we all headed from the hostel across a bridge to find a good spot to watch the fireworks.
The fireworks were amazing. I really enjoyed them and knew that this was a perfect start to my time in Valencia.
After the fireworks we headed towards some areas that had clubs for us to enjoy. We still had our sangria and were doing our best to go through it.
As we passed falles, I could not resist taking photos of them. Testing out the capabilities of my new camera.
Forcing my lovely "tour" friends to pose for photos featuring one of the sangria bottles.
We have about five sangria bottles to go through so dropping down in a random we decided to play a drinking game. I can only remember the name of the game as Shoulders though I think there was another name they were calling it. It was a fun game and it helped polish off some of the sangria. We invited some random people into our game.
Having to get to a club for a certain time, we left the sangria with our new friends and hurried through the streets. I was of course distracted by the graffiti but hurried after them after each stop to take pictures.
We had a fun time in this club. With the purchase of a drink you received a pool noodle which we used to hit each other as we danced.
I loved these tiny bulls surrounding the bullfighter. They were available in gift shops around Valencia so I liked their addition to this falle.
As the club closed anyone that had drinks had their drink poured into a plastic cup and sent out onto the street. It was 3-4 am in the morning and we were all a bit tipsy/drunk at this point.
I absolutely adored this children's falle. It had a coloured in look too it like it had all been coloured in my pencil crayon or just crayons. This green guy was my favourite.
As me and the girls headed back to the hostel we spotted one of the guys who had joined us to play the Shoulders drinking game.
Making it back to the hostel around 4 am, I was the last one in the room. Crawling into my bed, I passed out no other cares in the world.
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