Spain Part 39 – Mascletá y La Playa
Mar. 1st, 2008 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amorousodiousI feel as though I got a pretty good dose of Spanish culture on Saturday. Alicia and I got up around 9,00 and left the house after desayuno and arreglarnos (breakfast and getting ourselves ready) and headed out to explore a little bit. We were really trying to find an exposition on immigration that we heard was in town at one of the museos de la Universitat de Valencia (University Museums) but we were unsuccessful. We did however find a cool exhibit on a Spanish doctor who made some great discoveries during franquismo (the regimen of Franco), a nice Cathedral, and the outside of the Ceramics museum to keep ourselves occupied until midday.
We met up with Amanda in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento where was a Mascletá (think a fourth of July celebration with twice the noise and fireworks in the middle of the day with ten times as many people shoved into half the space) in order to celebrate the official start of Fallas, the biggest Valencian holiday of the year. The Vice President of Spain was there at the time, she’s a very nice lady, and a native Valencian so everyone was running around and she was being photographed and shaking hands every few seconds (she walked right by me, the second time I’ve been that close to her, the first being an earlier weekend when she was having lunch in the Plaza de la Reina with her family).
Space, like I said, was limited, so we were scrunched, but that’s not much of an issue when all you’re going to do is watch fireworks, so we huddled and cheered with the other Spaniards (they really do yell olé) as the fireworks went off across the street from us. I took a video that I hope turned out well, and a ton of pictures. Once we were all good and temporarily deaf, Alicia, Amanda and I met up with Ryan (another student from the centro) and took some photos of the falleras (girls dressed up in traditional Spanish clothing) before heading home for la comida (lunch). Alicia and I had Arroz Cubano, which is the rice dish with fried eggs and tomato sauce, and for a treat we also had some fried plátanos to go with it! That’s a very Latin American/Carribean dish, hence the Cuban name. It was absolutely delicious and continues to be one of my favorite dishes here.
After la comida Alicia and I met back up with Amanda and walked through the río for a few miles (beautiful weather, in the high 60s with LOTS of sunshine) and then took an autobús down to the playa (beach). I went swimming in the ocean, which wasn’t any colder than when I did the same thing this time last year in Florida with G&G, but of course everyone thought I was crazy. The Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous, and it was nice to swim in a beautiful place like that, where you can see the city behind you and the mountains to your left, and it was just incredible.
I was getting a little chillier as the sun went down so I switched out of my wet swimsuit and we all met up with Ryan and took some more pictures around the beach until the sun went down and it was time to head back for la cena. Alicia and I took the bus, but Ryan and Amanda took the metro since it would get them closer to home. Back at home Alicia and I debated and debated whether or not we wanted to go out that night but when push came to shove it was decided that we shouldn’t waste any more of our youth sitting at home on Saturday nights.
So, after a cena of Paella with crab (not my favorite since the whole crab was sitting in my dish and I half expected it to crawl away) we got ready to go out. I borrowed a belt from Lucía, who is very fashion conscious and gave me a black Burberry since it would go well with my new European style jeans. It was really cute all as an outfit.
We met up with Amanda and wandered around the Barrio del Carmen debating whether to get some chocolate and churros (there are stands all over the place because of Fallas) but we decided to start in a café since we had just eaten dinner. We went to café Infanta which attracts a crowd of all different ages, and people watched for a while. Some Spanish guys showed us some magic tricks, and invited us to go out to a place that was over by school, but we didn’t feel like going that far out of our way so we headed instead to a 3 story discoteca and danced until around 5,30 the next morning. A good night all in all, though we were a little bit tired walking home.
We met up with Amanda in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento where was a Mascletá (think a fourth of July celebration with twice the noise and fireworks in the middle of the day with ten times as many people shoved into half the space) in order to celebrate the official start of Fallas, the biggest Valencian holiday of the year. The Vice President of Spain was there at the time, she’s a very nice lady, and a native Valencian so everyone was running around and she was being photographed and shaking hands every few seconds (she walked right by me, the second time I’ve been that close to her, the first being an earlier weekend when she was having lunch in the Plaza de la Reina with her family).
Space, like I said, was limited, so we were scrunched, but that’s not much of an issue when all you’re going to do is watch fireworks, so we huddled and cheered with the other Spaniards (they really do yell olé) as the fireworks went off across the street from us. I took a video that I hope turned out well, and a ton of pictures. Once we were all good and temporarily deaf, Alicia, Amanda and I met up with Ryan (another student from the centro) and took some photos of the falleras (girls dressed up in traditional Spanish clothing) before heading home for la comida (lunch). Alicia and I had Arroz Cubano, which is the rice dish with fried eggs and tomato sauce, and for a treat we also had some fried plátanos to go with it! That’s a very Latin American/Carribean dish, hence the Cuban name. It was absolutely delicious and continues to be one of my favorite dishes here.
After la comida Alicia and I met back up with Amanda and walked through the río for a few miles (beautiful weather, in the high 60s with LOTS of sunshine) and then took an autobús down to the playa (beach). I went swimming in the ocean, which wasn’t any colder than when I did the same thing this time last year in Florida with G&G, but of course everyone thought I was crazy. The Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous, and it was nice to swim in a beautiful place like that, where you can see the city behind you and the mountains to your left, and it was just incredible.
I was getting a little chillier as the sun went down so I switched out of my wet swimsuit and we all met up with Ryan and took some more pictures around the beach until the sun went down and it was time to head back for la cena. Alicia and I took the bus, but Ryan and Amanda took the metro since it would get them closer to home. Back at home Alicia and I debated and debated whether or not we wanted to go out that night but when push came to shove it was decided that we shouldn’t waste any more of our youth sitting at home on Saturday nights.
So, after a cena of Paella with crab (not my favorite since the whole crab was sitting in my dish and I half expected it to crawl away) we got ready to go out. I borrowed a belt from Lucía, who is very fashion conscious and gave me a black Burberry since it would go well with my new European style jeans. It was really cute all as an outfit.
We met up with Amanda and wandered around the Barrio del Carmen debating whether to get some chocolate and churros (there are stands all over the place because of Fallas) but we decided to start in a café since we had just eaten dinner. We went to café Infanta which attracts a crowd of all different ages, and people watched for a while. Some Spanish guys showed us some magic tricks, and invited us to go out to a place that was over by school, but we didn’t feel like going that far out of our way so we headed instead to a 3 story discoteca and danced until around 5,30 the next morning. A good night all in all, though we were a little bit tired walking home.
