Before I tell you all about my amazing weekend I want to tell you the change of plans for my pictures once again. Go to snapfish.co.uk, sign in as prayingforsnow247@aol.com the password is letitsnow-no spaces. This way you dont have to follow those long links. Once you log in you should be able to see all my albums, however if some arnt there that you want to look at another time or havnt got a chance to look at go up to photos at the top and that will take you to all of my albums. Also in the slide show mode it you want to see the captions on some photos go the one of the bottons to the right and click it, it will tell you which one

This weekend I went to Valencia for the Las Fallas festival. Valencia is a coastal town in the east of Spain and is about straight across from Madrid. I left on Friday around noon for a four hour bus ride. Buss's were leaving every half hour from Madrid and everyone was mostly full.

I headed off with a new group, Felecia from Colorado, Martha from Chicago, and Abbie and Sarah from England. Once in Valencia we tried to find out where we were in relation to where we need to go. Maps in Valencia, both hand maps and ones on the side of the streets, are not as helpful as the ones I have encountered in Madrid and Koln. First they dont label all the streets, dont have a street index and dont tell you where you are in relation to everything else.

We just followed the crowed of people and started making are way into the center of the city. After we found the first falla we needed no more directions other that where do we want to go. We walked around looking at all the diffetent fallas and some drinks in a supermarket because they were way cheaper.

We headed after to the city wall(castle) looked around for a bit and watched a fresh batch of churros be made. They looked good and it was something that was going to be in my near future. We walked along the streets taking pictures of fallas and people dressed up in costumes. We all decided that we were terrible hungry for none of us had eaten much.

We walked around to find somewhere nice to eat. Eventually we a nice restaurant that served various paella's. We were quite bummed at the time to find they didnt have valencian paella. We settled for a meat one instead. When we were eating some of the meat we decided it wasnt chicken but rabbit. Not scarred we all kept eating. Side note-a few days later we found out we actually ate Valencia paella because it was made with chicken and rabit and I guess it's their vernsion.

After dinner it was dark or nearly dark and we wanted to find a falla that would be lit on fire soon. Luckily we found one quite near that was already on fire and almost completely burned. We wanted to see the real thing so we walked up the street behind us and I asked the man when it was going to be lit on fire. He said nine thirty but he lied it was more like ten thirty.

This was the first falla that I got to see light on fire and I wasnt sure what to expect. They wrapped it in wire that had maybe firecrackers or flares to catch things on fire. Then they repeatedly stabbed holes in it and poured kerosene all over it. The fireworks started which announced to everyone that this was about to start.

A guy goes and lights the fuse, the wire that was wrapped around the falla, I was thinking that it was going to be a fuse and take some time, wrong. He lights it and within 2 seconds the fire travels 15 feet and bursting the falla into flames. It wasnt a settle burst either it was a loud explosion, normally these dont bother me but this one was loud, as soon as it went off I was engulfed in to much heat and debris hit me in the face. So I scooted back a bit to finish my picture taking. When it was almost all burnt out and the shock was worn off another explosion happened. I forgot that they put gun powder in the falla and around it. This explosion was louder and i felt the shock wave, scared again.

We walked around for a bit after looking for other fallas and for fresh good churros. We kept running into booths that were ridiculously expensive and most of them didnt have chocolate to serve with you churros. Upset we walked around until we found a good deal. After we headed to a big falla to watch the massive fire. This fallas was quite big and very fun to watch burn.

This one unfortunately didnt explode and had a hard time catching on fire, however it was very fun to watch burn. I cant believe the amount of work that goes into those and they just burn them every year. But great for tourism

After it burned to the ground we set near another one. We waited for over an hour and nothing happened so we left. To our great surprise the city of Valencia was almost completely closed. Nothing was open, only a select few cafe's and they were packed. We evaluated the situation, nothing was going to open 'til ten or so, its two thirty and we dont leave until 630 that evening.

With a group decision we left for the bus station, got our tickets changed for a bus leaving at three. Luckily they were free. I returned home and made some food then went to bed for a couple of hours