València, España con la familia Chaudron!

I can't believe the weekend has come and gone.  Too fast.  I could easily go back to Friday afternoon and do it all over again.  That is how absolutely amazing my weekend was.  I will warn you now, this post will be long (who am I kidding, they're ALL long), but that's because I not only want to recap my weekend for you, but I also want to explain the meaning behind Las Fallas and the different events.

Starting Friday afternoon.   Our sandwiches were made, our bags were packed, and me, Valerie, Lucien, and Alice were off to the airport at 6pm.  After a long metro ride, an even longer bus ride, and an even longer plane ride, we finally arrived in Valencia at 12:30am to be greeted by Nico, who arrived the day before for work.  After begging the taxi driver to break the law and allow all 5 of us into his 4-seater car, we were on our way to Luis' apartment, our home for the weekend.  Luis is one of Nico's best friends from when he lived in Valencia 20 years ago.  He lives in a quaint 7th floor apartment right in the middle of Valencia, and perfectly situated to overlook one of the largest fallas in the city.  (Las Fallas-(N): The Failures. Sculptures originally made from the scraps of wood in this town of predominantly carpenters, which have now grown to be often 4 or 5 stories tall, made with a combination of wood and metal for structure, and a sculpted styrofoam exterior).   After quickly dropping off our bags and waking up our sleepy children, we set off on foot to the other side of the city to watch what was supposed to be a spectacular fireworks show marking the beginning of the fallas celebration.  Let's just say that "spectacular" was an understatement.  This was a show like I never have and never will see again.  Twenty minutes of breathtaking pyrotechnics that left us all in awe for the rest of the night.  When the show was over, we meandered our way through the streets, taking our time to admire all the amazing fallas and gawk at all the crazy party goers taking to the streets.  We had previously promised the kids some cotton candy, so when we came upon a booth that was open, they were each treated to a giant ball of it...at 2:30am.  We finally arrived home and were ready for bed at 3am.  I was sharing a room with the kids, and sharing a bed with Alice, so it was my job to get them quiet and sleeping...a task in which the difficulty was highly underestimated with such an intense sugar rush jolting their tiny bodies.  However, an off-the-cuff bedtime story from me, accompanied by a few threats from daddy to place them in separate rooms, finally was enough to quiet them down and send them fast asleep, at 3:30am.  Unfortunately for me, sleep was quite unattainable that night, as I soon came to realize that Alice is a vicious cuddler.  Head on my chest, arm draped across my face, and leg wrapped between my legs, ya, sleep was just a distant thought for me.

Saturday, we (they) woke up freshly rejuvenated and ready for a long and busy day!  The kids woke up at 9am and decided they needed me to occupy them, allowing mom and dad to sleep until 10:30am.  We enjoyed a breakfast of freshly squeezed Valencian orange juice, baguette with bread and chorizo, and a Spanish favorite: churros con chocolate.  We left the house around 11:15 to explore the city.  Taking in fallas of all shapes and sizes, beautiful, scary, interesting, ugly, no matter what they were, they were all breathtaking.  Nico gave us the grand tour of the city with an accompanied history lesson about many of the buildings...he is a true Valencian genius.  At 1pm we made our way to city hall, where Nico and I left Val and the kids to venture close to the action.  We squeezed our way through mobs of people to get as close as we could to the mascleta.  (La Mascleta-(N): Insanity.  While there is no actual translation to English, it is a pyrotechnic "show" of a series of firecrackers, set off in a rhythmic way with a gradual crescendo.  An experience so loud and intense that it is felt through the ground and body, more than in the ears, and is enough to make your brain rattle for hours).  We managed to weasel our way in just about as close as you could get, and proceeded to wait in the midst of the sizzling heat, burning sun, and sweaty Spaniards for 30 more minutes until the show began.  When we just about couldn't take it anymore, someone came around selling ice cold beer.  Nico bought one and demanded we share it and I have never enjoyed a beer so much in my life.  Finally the show began, and I was blown away.  Everyone is silent, watching, mouth open (it supposedly helps your ears not to burst), bopping their heads to the rhythm of the noise.  An experience so intense that you begin to stop hearing the rhythm, and you begin to feel it.  The ground rattles, the centuries old buildings rattle, and your body shakes and develops chills like I never thought possible.  What an insanely cool experience to be a part of.  I was amazed.  After 5 minutes of heart stopping "booms", we went back a few blocks to meet Val and the kids, who stayed safely away to protect their under-developed ears.  We spent a bit lighting off some small fireworks of our own in the middle of the busy downtown sidewalks before beginning the second half of our walking tour.  We took in a few more fallas, including the first place winner..amazing!!..before heading home for lunch.  Lunch was the usual baguette, chorizo, tomato, manchego, olive oil, delicious, etc.  We had little time to eat before we were off for yet another amazing adventure, this time just Nico and I again.  Val stayed home with the kids for some nap/relax time, while Nico and I set off to attend my first ever bullfight.  Oh my goodness was I excited, and nervous of course, knowing I was essentially about to witness a massacre.  On the way there, Nico briefed me on the stages of a bullfight, the difference between the torero's (bull fighters), and how the bullfights came to be.  Having all this knowledge, I was fully prepared for what was to come, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more.  Yes, it was sad at first, but watching the techniques of the different torero's and seeing how different each fight was really made it interesting.  Plus the fact that there is a 550kg bull charging these little guys with no protection but a measly cape made you realize that lives were on the line here, which made it to much more interesting.  I can honestly say I enjoyed that bullfight more than any sporting event I have ever witnessed, as morbid and disturbed as that may be...

Coincidentally, I had a friend who was also visiting Valencia while we were there.  His name is Barry, and I met him at the hostel we stayed at in Rome, hung out a bit there, and then hung out again when we both happened to be in Florence at the same time as well!  He is American, from D.C., and is about 6 months in to a backpacking trip around the world.  Val and Nico knew I was trying to meet up with him this weekend, but they also knew how tight our schedule was, so they graciously offered to have him join us for dinner at the house Saturday night, followed by "falla watching" from our terrace.  So, after the bullfight, Nico and I met up with Barry outside the arena to head back to the apartment.  Now time for small world...because Nico got to Spain the day before us, he decided to take in a bullfight on Friday night before we arrived.  Turns out, Nico and Barry were at the same bullfight, sitting directly behind each other.  If that's not coincidence enough, at one point Barry was confused with what was going on, so he actually turned around and asked "por que?" to Nico, thinking he was Spanish!  Nico, thinking Barry was actually Russian, decided to also respond to his question in Spanish (of which, Barry understood ZERO of).  How crazy is that?!  So as soon as I spotted Barry in the crowd, Nico was like oh my gosh, I know him!  Anyways, after making a pit-stop for Barry to buy the kids some more bombetas (fireworks) to buy the friendship with, we made it home.  The fireworks did the trick, plus the fact that he was a young male to play with, and the kids were swooning over Barry.  We spent a while, just the 4 of us, out on the terrace, showing Barry the view, explaining the fallas, and observing the insane amount of fireworks constantly going off around us.

The fallas range in size from quite small to massive, and the time that they are burned depends on their size, with the smaller ones burning starting at 9pm, ending with the biggest ones burning at 1am.  We had 2 fallas by our apartment, one small and one large.  The way they light the fallas is by covering them in fireworks, and then setting off the fireworks, which ignites the entire statue on fire.  When it was nearly time for the small "children's falla" to burn, we all quickly ran outside to watch the fireworks below.  Unfortunately, Barry was not warned that the sliding glass door cannot be opened from the outside, and being the normal-thinking person he is, he shut the door behind him...he wasn't born in a barn!  Yes, that meant that all 5 of us were locked on the terrace, on the 7th floor, with no one to call and no where to escape.  Panic struck, but not until Nico realized there was a live flame going in the kitchen under the pot holding our dinner.  We tried to pick the lock with a bobby pin from my hair, no success.  We tried sliding a credit card through the door, no success.  Nico had just about given up hope, and expelled every English cuss word in his personal dictionary from his mouth, and was nearly settled on breaking the window to get in.  Being the strategic person I am (muah ha ha) I noticed a malfunction in the door where it was cracked a bit at the top, so I slid the credit card in at the top and made my way all the way down.  Nico was insisting and insisting that it wasn't going to work, when all of a sudden, POP, the door opens.  I bowed, they hugged, Val cried, but we were in, and so so relieved!  It really was quite scary...  We got the door open in perfect timing, however, because as soon as we did, the baby fireworks below suddenly became massive fireworks in the sky.  Now mind you, we are on the 7th floor, which is quite high over here, so these fireworks were actually bursting in the air at our direct eye level.  We all bolted inside and shut the door and laughed at how close we just came to death, kind of.  We sat at the window, observing this amazing firework show immediately outside, with sparks pinging off the window in front of us!  Nico had a couple close calls trying to retrieve his wine from the table outside, which resulted in him ducking for cover and crawling back inside...let's just say there was not a dry eye in the room after that one, we were laughing so so hard!!  Once the fireworks ended, we watched the baby falla burn, ate our delicious dinner of sepia (squid) and gambas (shrimp), and prepared for the grand falla to burn at 1am.  Poor children just couldn't stay awake that long, and they were in bed by 11pm, but that just meant more time for the 4 of us adults to talk, drink wine, and enjoy each others company.  It was finally nearing 1am, we were all a bit tipsy from the wine, and we were sitting on the terrace chit chatting, when all of a sudden we again had to run and duck for cover, as the fireworks for the grand falla began to go off.  Now we thought the fireworks were great before, but this is one of the biggest fallas in Valencia, of COURSE the fireworks would be more spectacular.  This time, there was no way we would have any hair left if we had remained on that balcony, it was covered with sparks, ash, and live embers!  The fire began soon after and immediately the entire falla was engulfed in flames.  What a spectacular site to see.  The heat and intensity of the flames was almost too much to handle, and we were so so close to it that it felt as though we had to duck away from the flames at times.  The fire lasted a good 20 minutes, and we just sat there in a daze and in awe the entire time.  Around 1:30am with the fire nearly out, the crowds nearly gone, and the kids sound asleep, Nico suggests we go down for some churros con chocolate.  Nothing can make an amazing night even more spectacular than capping it off with deep fried chocolatey goodness. yummmm.


Sunday morning we lounged and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before packing our things and cleaning the house to set out and begin our day.  Nico had rented a car for us for the day, so by noon we were out and on our way.  Our first detour was a drive around the city to show us some new museums with amazing modern architecture.  Our second detour was a trip to the beach!!  Yep, warm, sunny, full of European topless tanners, we spent a good hour walking the shores, collecting seashells, and soaking in the rays.  Our final detour was to a small town called El Palmar, also known as the birthplace of paella.  We went there to meet 3 of Nico's close friends from when he lived in Valencia, as well as their families.  A total of 16 of us took up a giant banquet table lining the canal.  We ate patatas bravas (spicy potatoes), calamari, clams, mussels, fried octopus, croquetas, etc all for an appetizer before they brought out 2 giant pans of paella.  Best. Paella. Ever.  I quite possibly could have eaten a whole pan.  The conversation was flowing in Spanish, French, English, and sometimes a combo of the 3.  It was overwhelming for me to be hearing a French convo in my right ear and a Spanish convo in my left, and trying to follow along with each.  My mind was working in overdrive to understand it all, but I did quite a good job in holding my own, especially in the Spanish, obviously.  While it was much harder for me to respond in Spanish than it was 2 years ago, I managed a bit and was able to at least remain in the conversation through my comprehension.  Success!!  After a long 4 hour lunch, we loaded up the car to head straight for the airport.  A 2 hour plane ride and 1 hour taxi ride later, we finally arrived home at 11:30pm.  It was a long weekend, but I couldn't have asked for a better one.  I had the time of my life, experience many once in a lifetime opportunities, and became even closer with these children and this family.  As thankful as I am for this amazing weekend, things like this need to stop or I will never ever want to leave this family!!

Now I have SO many pictures and videos, I can't choose just a few to share. So, I will leave you with these teasers while I am in the process of putting together a little video/slideshow for your enjoyment, so stay tunes!! :)

The view of the grand falla from our balcony...before.

The view of the grand falla from our balcony...after.