Arriving in Valencia, I hurried from the train station to my hostel, the Purple Nest. I dropped my bags off and hurried out to explore Valencia and the Falles festival.
For those who do not know Falles is a traditional celebration for Saint Joseph in Valencia. Falles refers to the celebration and the monuments that are built. Each monument is burnt on the last night of the celebration. Each day at 2 pm there are audio fireworks in and at night there are fireworks.
As I walked towards Plaza de la Reina, I saw lots of graffiti, if you have been reading my blog you may have noted that I do take an interest in street art. I really enjoyed finding the art in Valencia.
I really enjoyed this Egyptian themed one. I did not get good lighting right away on it as the sky was very grey but it was beautifully detailed. It was the first one I came across and I was very excited to see it.
I had been wanting to attend the Falles festival since I came to Valencia with my mother in 2009 a week or so after the festival and realised we had missed something really big and special. We had even known about the festival and not many people do. I made it my main bucket list goal of my going to Europe was to attend falles. As my family came to visit me in March of 2015, I made sure that in 2016 I would go to Valencia and see the festival with my own eyes.
(Warning lots of photos of falles because I took all the photos )
In the same plaza there was a really cute bear falles. The detail on it was amazing. Each side had different things to look at. I kept taking photos trying to capture all of the details.
Some of the falles have funny adult natured scenes to them as the one above. They can also make fun of politics, celebrities and just about everything.
Each larger falle, usually has a smaller one or a children's falle.
Continuing my wandering, I headed to the Plaza de la Virgen where they have a very large Mary. This Mary, is ready for the offering of the flowers. The falleras in the offering will carry flowers to her and she will be covered in a robe made completely of flowers.
I headed back to the Plaza de la Reina to see the Egyptian falle in better light. I just love the paint style all of the falles share. Like a 3D illustration.
I headed to the Plaza de la Ayuntamiento where they have the main falle. This big one is the last one they will burn in the festival.
Seems like David has been following me around since Florence.
As you can see there are a lot of photos which makes me unsure if I should post them all or just post some. :D This is not even all the photos from my first day. I just want to share the details of all of the creations.
No comments:
Post a Comment