Spain Part 50 – Fallas; Los Premios
Mar. 16th, 2008 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amorousodiousAlicia and I slept in after our late-night Castillo (firework show) the night before and then relaxed in the first part of the day before heading to the mascletá where we met up with Ryan. It was so crowded when we got there that we couldn’t even make it close to the center of the Plaza Ayuntamiento, so we went down a side street and watched it from there.
The mascletás get longer and more intense each day of fallas, and then the one on the last day of fallas is supposed to be rather calm (comparatively) because that night they have Castillos to introduce each of the burnings.
We all parted ways and went home for la comida after la mascletá, and Alicia and I were lucky enough to live far enough away from the center of the city to take a short siesta before we headed out again. We met Amanda Prince (the Amanda we usually hang out with) and Amanda Moore by the centro so that we could explore the fallas on that side of the city.
While we were checking out some of the fallas we saw a guy wearing a shirt that said “Michigan Forestry Club” on it, so we asked him (in Spanish of course) if he was actually a part of the club. Well, of course he wasn’t, and he didn’t speak any English and had never been to Michigan, but he had the shirt because his roommate from college had studied for a year in Michigan, so he had heard a lot about it and was excited to actually meet some people from the state. We chatted with him for a few minutes and then continued. I think it’s so interesting how many people you can meet just walking around and the connections that you make.
We took more pictures of fallas, including one of my favorites in the whole city which was a big mask on a stick with scenes around it. I liked it a lot I think because it was so simple and unique.
As we were walking back, we saw an adorable little girl wearing a fallera dress, and I asked her mother who was with her if I could take a picture. She sounded VERY proud as she said “claro que sí” (of course) and stood her daughter up and smoothed out her dress. The little girl just seemed happy to be the center of attention.
Continuing on we saw a tent near one of the fallas where there was loud music, obviously from a live band inside, and we decided to check it out. I’m not sure that we were permitted to enter the tent, but we did anyway just to watch them for a while. We got a lot of weird looks, but no one really seemed to care that we were there. It was getting pretty late after that so we all headed home for la cena. Alicia and I decided that we would stay in that night and maybe watch a Castillo from our roof again so that we could get up early and walk around on calle quart before it got too busy.
The mascletás get longer and more intense each day of fallas, and then the one on the last day of fallas is supposed to be rather calm (comparatively) because that night they have Castillos to introduce each of the burnings.
We all parted ways and went home for la comida after la mascletá, and Alicia and I were lucky enough to live far enough away from the center of the city to take a short siesta before we headed out again. We met Amanda Prince (the Amanda we usually hang out with) and Amanda Moore by the centro so that we could explore the fallas on that side of the city.
While we were checking out some of the fallas we saw a guy wearing a shirt that said “Michigan Forestry Club” on it, so we asked him (in Spanish of course) if he was actually a part of the club. Well, of course he wasn’t, and he didn’t speak any English and had never been to Michigan, but he had the shirt because his roommate from college had studied for a year in Michigan, so he had heard a lot about it and was excited to actually meet some people from the state. We chatted with him for a few minutes and then continued. I think it’s so interesting how many people you can meet just walking around and the connections that you make.
We took more pictures of fallas, including one of my favorites in the whole city which was a big mask on a stick with scenes around it. I liked it a lot I think because it was so simple and unique.
As we were walking back, we saw an adorable little girl wearing a fallera dress, and I asked her mother who was with her if I could take a picture. She sounded VERY proud as she said “claro que sí” (of course) and stood her daughter up and smoothed out her dress. The little girl just seemed happy to be the center of attention.
Continuing on we saw a tent near one of the fallas where there was loud music, obviously from a live band inside, and we decided to check it out. I’m not sure that we were permitted to enter the tent, but we did anyway just to watch them for a while. We got a lot of weird looks, but no one really seemed to care that we were there. It was getting pretty late after that so we all headed home for la cena. Alicia and I decided that we would stay in that night and maybe watch a Castillo from our roof again so that we could get up early and walk around on calle quart before it got too busy.
