Las Fallas

Okay, where to begin?

Las Fallas is "one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain." The main event of the fiesta is to set on fire the huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè, and plaster statues (known as ninots: “puppets” or “dolls”). The reason to part? Most people believe that the fires evolved from the pagan rituals that "celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season."

And we got to go! Let me just tell you, it was one of the craziest days of my life!

One of the ninots.

Many people dress up in traditional clothing for the parades and to celebrate the festival.

Some of the ninots can get pretty extravagant.

The main falla that we waited for about two hours to finally to be lit at 1 a.m.

The crowd.

At 2 p.m. fireworks go off to begin the party. An ambulance tried to get through the crowds which was pretty crazy.



Bull fight posters.

Outside the bullring.

I originally had planned on just skipping the bullfight, but somehow I ended up going. It was a good experience and I really felt like I was immersing into the culture, even if there were lots of tourist at the bullfight also.

Got to love those pink tights!

This guy put on quite a show and the people loved him. He won the bull's ears from his fights.

I learned a lot about bullfighting and why it is a tradition. There were some pretty intense moments where I could feel my own heart racing and I had to turn away.

This guy smoked three or four cigars during the bullfight and we reaked of smoke afterwards.

I loved to see the reactions of the spectators. It was so much fun to say "torro" along with everyone when the bullfighter had done something well or daring.

Sitting right behind us during the bullfight was Jose Thomas, the BEST matador in the world. Courtney, a girl in our group, got a handshake.

So much work and detail goes into the plaster statues that it is almost a shame to burn them up. The best are saved and put into a museum.

When it got dark the streets lit up. There were hundreds of booths lining the streets for the festivities, selling trinkets, food, and what-not.

The fireworks were spectacular! There was so much variety and some that I've never seen before. It was literally raining ash on us because we were so close to were they were going off. You couldn't hear yourself let alone the person next to you during the show.

I don't think I will ever be satisfied with the Stadium of fire or doing fireworks at home again.

The grand finale!

(We didn't get to our hotel until 3 a.m. and then we slept in until 10:30 a.m.)

*Thanks to Kim for a few of the photos!