Las Fallas

After returning from a weekend in Portugal, my friends and I were confronted with a reality that we were not prepared for in Valencia: Las Fallas. While I have mentioned this festival before, I’ll go into a bit more detail on exactly what it is. Las Fallas is celebrated only in the city of Valencia-most cities have their own annual, huge festivals. Every year, for a full week, the city practically shuts down, the “old quarters” or older part of the city are closed off from cars, and the “barrios” begin to show off. Each neighborhood (barrio) is represented by a club, of which you must pay for membership. The members of these clubs buy these ridiculously-expensive, and ridiculous-looking (in my opinoin) outfits, which they then parade around the city in with bands and banners and what you might expect from a traditional spanish parade. The women wear wide-brimmed long dresses and the men kinda dress like pirates. Fun Fact- Princess Lea from Star Wars got her hair-do from the style that the women wear theirs in during Las Fallas in Valencia.

Anyway, these ‘barrios” also throw together a LOT of money to build huge, building-tall flammable statues that are incredibly ornate and detailed which usually depict humorous political scenes or carry a message concerning society in some way. Throughout the week, at 2 p.m. every day, more than 10 thousand people crowd into the city’s main and central square to watch a 5 to 15 minute long fireworks display. What is different about these fireworks, other than the fact that they are held during the day, is that they are judged by how loud they are, not by their color or designs. The more you feel the impact of the fireworks exploding within your chest, the better they are supposed to be. It was the loudest thing I have ever heard. Another fun fact- I was pick-pocketed while I watched one of these performances. There are also regular fireworks held at 12 or 1 a.m. every night, which were more bigger, better and badder than any I have ever seen on the 4th of July.

Overall, about 1-2 million surplus  tourists come into the city during the week, and people are drinking and partying on the streets until 7 a.m. every night. Not to say that I would participate in such debauchery, of course. Finally, on the last night of the festival, every one of the massive, ornate statues that have been set up throughout the streets of the city are burned, except for the one that is deemed to be the winner by the city’s judges. Some “barrios” spend more than 1 million euros on these statues per year, just to see them burned at the end of the week. Insanity. Also, every morning at 8 a.m. there are bands of men and children who roam the streets throwing fireworks outside of houses and apartments to wake the city for the next day’s festivities.

By the end of the week, my body was perfectly destroyed from the incessant fun. It was the craziest time of my life.

Here are a few pictures that I managed to snap:

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Portugal-Lisbon

We took a train from Oporto to Lisbon and arrived mid-afternoon. After finding and checking into our hostel we began to explore the city. Within 10 minutes, we had been offered a wide-variety of drugs by at least 5 different guys, all of whom were dressed immaculately in suites. Didn’t fit my stereotype of the drug-dealer. Apparently these men are romanians who came to portugal because the laws on drug possession of any kind are very..relaxed. Apparently they also don’t actually have any real drugs on their persons, they are stowed away in an alley or something but they try to con tourists into buying fake drugs that appear real but are made from household products. Our hostel owner warned us about them ahead of time.

To me, Lisbon is a small city that you can fully explore in a day, despite the fact that it has the largest population of any city in Portugal. Throughout our stay, Clay and I mainly wandered around and spent the time relaxing by the beach. The girls spent a bit more time seeing as many of the tourist sites as possible, which seemed like too much effort and stress for us. One of the most notable sites in Lisbon is the castle that overshadows the city, which dates back to pre-roman and phoenician times. The place has an incredible history, beautiful museum, well-preserved battlements and an incredible view of the city and the sea (Lisbon is a coastal town). Other cool spots are the awesome Arc de triomphe, the monastery-converted-into-museum which is a 20-minute tram ride away, the cathedral which houses the tomb of Vasco de Gama and the beautiful small beach town which is 45 minutes outside of Lisbon.

My overall impression of Lisbon is that it’s a very nice place worth visiting and a great place to stay to relax.

Check the pics.

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Portugal- Oporto

Towards the middle of our program in Valencia, we were given a week off of school for the week-long, city-wide festival which is known as “Las Fallas.” As we didn’t have class on Fridays, my classmates Jessica, Chloe, Clay and I decided to start the first part of the break right by spending the weekend in Portugal-specifically Oporto and Lisbon. With that, we set off on Thursday night, took the train to the airport and found ourselves at the gate for RyanAir. This was my first experience with this company, so I wasn’t aware of the ridiculousness that comes for flying for cheap. Seats are first-come, first-serve so once the gate opens, people literally run on the tarmac to get the choice spots on the plane. Unable to score an emergency aisle row, I found myself sitting with my knees shoved underneath the tray table in front of me, which I wasn’t able to pull down due to the height of my limbs. What a blast.

Probably the best-named airline in the industry. Also probably the worst-serviced airline in the industry.

We arrived in the airport outside of Oporto, where we hopped onto a train to take us to the station in the heart of the city. It was midnight and we had to rely on Jessica’s limited handwritten directions from the station to the hostel, and my efforts to speak in spanish to portuguese people who didn’t, after all, know spanish. An hour later we made it to the hostel which I would describe as very “hip” and “youth-oriented” and passed out.

The next day the four of us arose, quickly dressed and headed out to explore the city. Eventually we found ourselves at the river’s edge which winds directly through the middle of the city. It is certainly a sight to see. There are multiple gigantic and beautifully-constructed bridges that span the expanse of the water. Really awesome. The girls decided to go shopping in the streets for a bit and Clay and I opted instead to sit at a restaurant on the river, grab a beer and a burger and people watch. Relaxing.

A few hours later the wolf pack became one again and we bought a ticket for a boat tour of the river and free entry and wine tasting at  one of the port wine breweries on the other side of the river. It’s no coincidence that Oporto is similar to the name of the type of wine-it was started there. We got a beatiful 45-minute tour of the river and the sights on the banks in which I may or may nor have fallen asleep and drooled on myself. But I did score some great photos.

We then went on to climb the steep bank of the other side of the city, an area which our hostel owner warned us “not to go to at night.” We got to the famous Croft port wine brewery, where we were given a tour of the facilities, and tried tasting four of their different products. Very tasty, I now know how to properly “taste” and characterize a wine, especially a port.

On the way back to our hostel we decided to stop at “El Torre de los Clerigos,” the tallest and one of the oldest structures in the city, which we climbed to the summit for an amazing panoramic view of everything. Pictures are posted, don’t fret.

That night we went out to find some trouble and made friends with some spaniards and brazilians who were drinking in the streets, along with hundreds of other students and young people in a two-block area near our hostel. Being a part of that was certainly a new and very fun experience.

The next day we spent mainly just wandering throughout the city, exploring and taking pictures of the many ancient and beautiful churches scattered throughout Oporto and the incredible blue-tiled mosaics that cover entire walls of some of the buildings. That night, we went back to our favorite area where we had spent the majority of the night before and met more university students. We got back to the hostel around 4 a.m. and packed up for our trip to Lisbon in the morning. More on that later.

Pictures:

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A Look into Valencia

I realized that I haven’t really said much about Valencia itself so far, so I figured I’d delve into that a lil bit..

The city is the third-largest in Spain and is located on the east coast situated in the middle part of the country. The city shares it’s name with the province it belongs to, and has been around since 138 B.C. when it was founded by the romans. Fun fact: the legitimate, pope-decalred-to-be-real Holy Grail is located in the main cathedral of Valencia. Here’s a picture of the grail:

There it is.

Aside from the fact that the city has some awesome buildings, incredible history and delicious food (esp seafood-’paella valenciano’ is a world-renowned dish) the people of the city are some of the most friendly I have ever encountered. What was great about living there? Exploring the many different side-streets and plazas, tasting the unique local dishes, making friends with my spanish classmates and of course, the nightlife. On a given thursday, friday or saturday, my pals and I would be out until 6, 7 or 8 in the morning. It was insane. Picture scenes from crazy nightclubs in the movie Eurotrip, and that’s pretty much what we experienced on a fairly regular basis..

Probably the most characteristic trait of the city is El Río (the river). This landmark is a fairly straight, 10-mile-long park that runs straight through the Old Quarter of Valencia. It’s name comes from the fact that it in fact used to be a river right smack in the middle of everything. However, due to flooding that caused many deaths over the years, the city’s engineers decided to re-route it during the 1990′s and converted the remaining mucky riverbed into a beautiful park that includes many soccer and rugby fields, basketball courts and even ping-pong stations. El Río is also known for housing the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences which has some crazy-looking buildings, one of which looks like Darth Vader’s helmet.

Valencia also hosts a week-long festival which does its best to destroy the livers and overall wellness of college-kids’ bodies called Las Fallas, and our group was lucky enough to get to experience the insanity that it was. Pictures and more about that in another post.

Like many other cities in Spain, Valencia has a badass bull-fighting ring that inspires much controversy. During Las Fallas, just about every person in my group went to a particular fight, in which 6 bulls we killed. Most people didn’t like it at all due to it’s violent nature. While I also felt bad for the animals, I found the history, tradition and spectacle to be pretty awesome. Now I know why the romans loved gladiator fights. My good friend from home, Roy, who was studying in Madrid came to visit me that weekend, so we watched the event together. Pics below.

Overall, Valencia is tha bomb, home to many dear memories that I’ll think back on with fondness till I finally croak some 100 years from now.

Pictures:

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Spanish Road Trip

Nearly a month into our program, I came to the realization that despite the fact that we were given Fridays free of classes, I still had not done any substantial weekend trips with my friends. Thus, I joined six of my fellow students (Lexi, David, Agata, Kathryn, Mat and Taylor) for an epic four-day road trip to southern Spain, specifically Altea, Alicante, Granada and Murcia. We explored some awesome places and saw some weird stuff..

Here is an account of what happened, and pictures to boot.

With David’s international driver’s license that he acquired whilst in the states, we rented a car from Europcar into which we barely managed to squeeze ourselves. Limbs were tangled on top of each other and shoulders became pillows. Check it:

Realll Cozy

Our first stop was to be in Altea, a nice quiet town on the east coast with some apparently quaint stuff to see..only thing was that we didn’t get there till after sunset, so the only spot we visited was the Micky D’s. The chicken caesar snack wrap was dope.

We went on to drive a few more hours to get into Alicante, where we quickly became lost in the tangled, twisting alleyways of the city. After an hour of hopeless wandering, we stopped by some police cars and Lexi played the damsel-in-distress role so well that the cops actually gave us an escort to our hostel. After hearing us greet the hostel manager in english, the police admonished us to practice our spanish.

The view was beyond impressive. To our left, the incredible mountain-fortress that overshadowed the city, to our right, the beautiful beach and ocean. And we found out the next night that we were right in the middle of the nightlife scene. There were hundreds of people in the streets drinking, shouting and doing lots of other sinful things. It was awesome.

See the slideshow for the castle during the night and during the day.

Naturally, our first idea was to climb and explore the place the next day, so that’s exactly what we did. After a solid hour hike up to the summit, we were pretty much simply dumbstruck by the view. With that in mind we set about doing a lot of nothing-actually sunbathing and resting on the roof of the fortress for 2 hours..

The next day we drove on to Granada, one of the most incredible places I have ever been to. Essentially a hippie’s paradise, it’s located in the deep south of spain, nestled amongst the Sierra Nevada mountains. To throw some perspective at you, it was the first city to be conquered my the invading Moors (muslims) from Morocco who eventually controlled the entire Iberian Peninsula.

There, we saw a flamenco show, pretty cool, really emotional and intense actually, roamed the narrow, medieval streets at will, partook in a hookah bar, botellone’d (public pre-gaming) in the streets and most importantly, toured La Alhambra.

La Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (I always drop that line to make myself seem more knowledgeable) that is an ancient Moorish castle/palace. It is the most intricately-constructed structure I have ever seen. Both a military bastion and a luxurious royal get-away, the walls of each room are intricately carved and detailed. Not to mention the fact that gardens are out-of-control.

After 2.5 full days in Granada, we headed back towards Valencia. On the way, we stopped in Murcia, where we were given a tour of the town and it’s historic sites by our friend Ordoño, who is from there and lived in the dorm with us back in V-town. It’s a pretty small, quiet town, but nice and worth visiting for sure.

Here’s a gallery of pics that include many of the things I mentioned. Scroll at will.

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Valencia Soccer Stadium (aka La Mestalla), Valencia Zoo, Albufera

So I touched upon the fact that I visited the Valencia soccer stadium last time, but I’d like to go into a little more detail, and add some pictures this time. Every week throughout the semester, all of the americans in our group were required to attend at least 3 “cultural activities”, which were designed and provided by our fearless TAs, Kevin (keb-keb), Franchesca (Franny) and Gonzalo (aka Da Gonz). Probably midway through the semester the majority of the UGA kids decided to go to La Mestalla, the soccer stadium. We were given a tour of the facilities, including the locker rooms, press room, trophy room, bench and of course the field itself.

Another excursion that we embarked upon was a trip to the Valencia Zoo, which is one of the better ones in Spain. Notable moments: monkeys engaging in intercourse while annoying the gorillas, the hyenna tripping out on us, warthogs fighting, lions fooling around and the stoned meercats. See below:

A third place we went to is a small town about 45 minutes outside of Valencia called Albufera. There is a beautiful lagoon/lake there that can be explored via renting a boat tour. Thus, my friends Kevin, Kelsey, Jessica and I spent the day there, hanging out on a boat, drinking some classy 40s (Yes, we were all of age), sitting at a small restaurant and gorging on authentic spanish paella and just relaxing the day away. I threw some pics in the gallery below, too.

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Canal

Hanging out on the dock of the boat with some San Miguel

Kevin looks sketchy

Artsy boat pic

The Lake

Steps up to the field

Ya Boi

Press Conference. We were selected 4th, 5th and 6th in the first round. Really excited about this season’s prospects.

Locker room chillin’

Stadium at dusk. Pretty cool.

That’s just not right…

Nice View.

“It’s not easy being really really ridiculously good-looking you know”

Meow.

Mortal Kombat

This guy was making some weird noises and running in circles

Chilling.

I’m hungryyy

Arrival to Valencia (ba-len-thi-ah), España

Alright, so the journey began January 17 or so, when the 43 Americans in the UGA En Valencia team finally arrived at our dorm in the heart of the old city of Valencia. Tired, travel-sweaty and dragging, all of us lugged our suitcases into the lobby of the dorm, only to be greeted by

Loved being able to reach over and high-five my roommate if I wanted to...

the applause, cheers and jeers of a host of the spanish student residents, who were apparently waiting for our arrival. It was pretty hilarious because most of the chicks in the group turned bright red and weren’t very happy that the spaniards’ first impression of them was of them in their jammies with unshowered-hair.

Here’s a pic of my small room.

The plus side was that we were given a TV and a nice view of the courtyard in the middle of the complex where everyone hung out. The downside was that I quickly learned spanish living objects weren’t made for ryanmonahan-size. I became used to my feet hanging over the bed, my butt pushing the shower handle off with every slight movement and ducking underneath most doorways.

What I was expecting upon my arrival was to practice my spanish right away and start getting to know the language better. What I wasn’t expecting was that I would be forced to do so because just about none of the spaniards could speak english..

It took a little time to get used to living in a dorm again after freshman year. I love bro-ing out with my homies all the time just as much as the next guy, but I gotta say that I quickly began to miss the privacy of my own room. Here’s a shot of me and some of my good buddies from the program in the Valencia soccer stadium:

I’ll get into the nightlife and the beginning of my travels in the next few posts..

Until next time.

DId I happen to wear a Valencia jersey to the stadium on purpose? Of course I did.