Live from Lyngby

An unfortunate reminder of Fallas. What's more surprising is that this didn't happen while I was in Spain.

Watch.

Check out this video. It is becoming quite popular on YouTube at the moment. Really is quite clever and awfully funny. Note the Jesus candle at the end. That is mine. Enjoy, and if you like it check out some of there other stuff on YouTube.

Valencia/Remains of Las Fallas -> Barcelona -> Copenhagen -> Lyngby

Thursday March 20th

Waking up early is never fun.  Especially on about two hours of sleep.  Luckily, I was able to wake up at 5:50 and quickly said my goodbyes to Evan and walked for about 35 minutes or so to the train station of Valencia in order to catch my 6:40 train for Barcelona where I would hopefully meet up with my sister.

There is something eerie about walking around a city by yourself in the early morning hours.  Especially when the streets are littered with debris and piles of ashes remain from the night before.

I made it to the train in good time and got on my way to Barcelona.  I slept for about the first two hours of the trip until the train began to have trouble and causing me to end up arriving around eleven o'clock, rather than ten.  Thankfully Bethany was paying attention to the arrivals and was waiting for me when I did finally show up.  It was very good to see somebody from home after such a long time.  We took some time to get our bearings straight but we were soon our way to drop off our stuff at the hostel and allow me to get a shower.  The hostel was a lot further than I had thought and we arrived about an hour later.

Bethany had decided she wanted to see Parc Guell today so we went and got some food for a picnic and started walking towards the Parc.  Parc Guell is a park designed by Gaudi and I must say it was pretty incredible.  There were a lot of people hanging around but it didn't feel overcrowded just as though everyone had the same idea to take in the gorgeous weather.  It provided for some incredible sights.









After taking in the park, we walked up a large hill to get a good view of the city.  It really is quite a sight.



I had never before had the impression that Barcelona has so many hills around it.  The city is very well confined in a range of hills that lie on the outside of the city and really provide some amazing views of the city.

After this we were off to take in arguably the best view of the city.  Tibidabo is the highest point in the city.  Once you reach the top of the mountain there is a church and some really amazing views.  Bethany's friend had told her it was her favorite thing in the city, so I figured we had to check it out.



At this point it was about six o'clock so we decided to head back to the hostel for a small rest.  When we got back there was a nice family having some snacks in our common room.  It turns out they were from Texas and visiting their daughter on spring break.  Her daughter and her friend were studying in Alicante for the semester.  As fate would have it the mother and father would be sleeping below Bethany and I this evening.

After resting up we headed downtown to grab some dinner and watch some of the Barcelona v. Valencia soccer match.  At halftime Valencia was up 2-0 so we headed back to our hostel.  We got back with a few minutes left in the match with Valencia ahead by what would end up being the final score of 3-2.  I think I'm really starting to like watching soccer, although I am quite sure I really just like watching any sort of competition.  We were both exhausted from our travels and ended up crashing fairly early in order to be ready to go around the next day.

Friday March 21st

...and the blog must go on.  Even I'm getting bored with this right now so I'm sure you are.  I'm going to say just a few words about today and the rest will be my day in pictures.  Bethany got a little sick but ended up feeling ok.  I ran into Lyman and his visitors at Sagrada Familia and would go out with them and also Laura Foit and Lindsay Garst later that evening.  Also, no pictures from Museu Picasso because they weren't allowed but honestly one of my favorites.

Here it goes...

Sagrada Familia...











Parc de la Ciutadella...









La Rambla and the Waterfront...









Reminders of the University of Maryland...





...and finding the greatest 21st birthday present for Mike Carey.  I feel almost 100 percent confident that I could mention exactly what it is right now and he would still not know until his birthday in August.  Still I won't take that chance.  Really it was quite a nice day.

Saturday March 22nd

Today was our last day in Barcelona.  We really tried to take advantage of it.  We started off by finding a local flea market and seeing exactly what this entailed.  They really are a spectacle.  Bethany was a little intimidated and I suppose I was as well because we spent no more than twenty minutes there before continuing to walk into the city.  We took a side track through the Parc de la Cuatidella to check out a fountain we had missed the other day...



...and an elephant as well.



After the park we continued through to see the gift shop of the chocolate museum.  It was here where I scared Laura Foit by sneaking up behind her and also where we saw a chocolate display of the FC Barcelona crest.

We didn't stay there long before we went off to climb a large hill to see the old fortress that was once used to protect the city.  It really was quite impressive and provided some great views of the city.







On our way down the mountain we stopped by the 1992 Olympic Stadium and also saw where the torch.





Around the corner was a fairly famous telecommunications tower...



...and for anyone keeping score, this is the third major city out of the four I've traveled to so far with buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava.

From Malmo, Sweden ~ The Turning Torso:



From Valencia, Spain ~ Ciudad de las Artes i las Ciencias:

     

From Barcelona, Spain ~ Montjuic Communications Tower:



And for anyone who really cares, this is the second spring break in a row where I have visited a city with his work.

From Toronto, Canada ~ Brookfield Place:



ANYWAY...

After taking the stadium in we walked further down the mountain (I say mountain because honestly, at this point that's what it felt like) to the Palau Nacional.  This not only provided a great view...



...but also was an impressive looking building.



It also provided us with a nice break and some great entertainment.  There was a street performer playing his guitar and he really blew me away.  Here is a video of him playing the end of With a Little Help from My Friends by the Beatles.



After this we headed back to our hostel to rest up and have some dinner and get things packed since we were leaving at seven o'clock so Bethany could catch her ten thirty flight.  Eating dinner in the hostel I met a very nice woman from Newcastle who had been recently in Africa.  As I have said many times before, it is so nice to meet people even for just the briefest amounts of time.

A few hours later Bethany and I would head out to meet up with Lyman, Lauren, and Brian to go to a bar called "Shots."  Well, it was whatever "shots" is in Spanish.  It was a shot bar.  With over 300 different types of shots, I had never seen anything like it.  I personally don't enjoy shots so much, however I do enjoy roasting marshmallows over a burning bar top and having sparklers burn out in my drink, so it really wasn't that bad.  Around one thirty we headed out to get a little rest and the other group had to pick up their bags from the hostel since they had early, early morning flights and would not be spending the night at the hostel.

Sunday March 23rd

Easter Sunday and I didn't go to church.  Considering my record so far this semester it is not so surprising but I do really feel as though I can't wait to start getting back into a regular groove with Sunday mass.  It's consistent things like that that let you know there will always be some sort of stability in the world.  My day would consist of getting Bethany to her flight, sleeping a few hours, eating lunch and catching my own flight to Amsterdam.  There I would kill a few more hours before catching my flight to Copenhagen.  Once in Copenhagen I would take the metro back to Lyngby and miss the last bus by four minutes.  I would walk the 25 minute walk home and crash shortly after walking through the door.

An absolutely remarkable spring break by all accounts.

Valencia/Las Fallas

Sunday March 16th

Today the madness began.  Literally madness.  There really is no other way to explain it.  Evan and I slept in until about 11 o'clock at which time we were given breakfast by his host mum and then tried to get ourselves together quickly 
so that we could make it to the town center for the Mascleta. 

Evan, Jade (one of his housemates), and I wandered down to the middle of town to see my first Mascleta.  Basically, the Mascleta is a fireworks display in the daytime to make as much noise as possible.  There is one everyday of March from the beginning until the end of Fallas.  The streets were swarmed and everyone was eager with anticipation.  While waiting we met a very nice Mexican guy who told us all he knew about the festival and Evan took the opportunity to show off some of his Spanish skills (basically showing off his dirty vocabulary) and the guy was quite impressed.  When the Mascleta began around 2 o'clock the streets were packed and the roar was absolutely deafening.  Following the four days hear I am a) surprised I can still here and b) definitely feeling as though there is a sound missing from my world at all times.

Here is a shot of the crowd...



Afterwards we made our way back to Evan's and proceeded to make some Agua de Valencia, a traditional drink of the city made from vodka, cava, and orange juice.  It really is quite good.  We made about five liters and bottled some of it up and took a trip to the beach.  

To get to the beach we went down Evan's street to the Rio.  The Rio is a nice, long park through the center of Valencia.  It used to be the location of a river; however, the river has since been diverted to keep it from flooding and causing problems like it had in the past.  This really is convenient because the park is quite nice.

The Rio...


 
Down the Rio we walked past the fireworks display they had set up for later that evening.  Let me tell you, they certainly don't mess around when it comes to fireworks in Valencia...



By the time we finally made it to the beach the sun was setting and it had begun to get cold.  The beach was beautiful but even that couldn't keep us there very long.



The three of us soon packed up our things and headed back for Evan's place.  On the way we ran into a family playing with fireworks.  It had been our goal all day to acquire some for ourselves so Evan asked them where they had gotten them and they told us.  A short detour later and we had our own fireworks and found ourselves playing with them with some locals.  There about four families that appeared to all be friends who were more than happy to show us how to use the fireworks and let us light off some of their bigger ones.  I have never seen someone more afraid of children than Evan that night.  Still, it may have been properly placed fear as one of the fireworks did end up spinning out and landing some guys back.  He was fine but not so pleased.  Also, Evan decided to hold on tightly to a bottle rocket and managed to burn his arm.  In Valencia, I believe it is completely normal that once a child can walk they are taught to use fireworks.  Before heading back we witnessed some of the locals in their traditional outfits taking pictures near a Falla so I decided to join in as well.



Once we got back we had some dinner before going out to see the main firework display at 1 am.  The fireworks were good but only got better as the week progressed.  It was after this that Evan and I decided to go for a walk through the town and check out some of the parties going on in the street.  Everywhere there were tents and DJs and dancing and fireworks.  Really this festival is quite unique in all of the world and it was absolutely incredible to get to experience it like this.

Monday March 17th

Again we decided to sleep in.  Having four days in a city without much to see tourist wise lends it self nicely to relaxation and for me this meant sleeping in.  I believe at breakfast today we met two of Evan's new housemates.  Either way there were now  two fifteen year-old girls from Germany living with Evan.  Upon meeting them Evan jokingly told his host mum that until they leave in two weeks he would be "sixteen."  She laughed but told him that the girls in her house should be treated like sisters.

After breakfast we went to meet up with Kate and some of her friends by the train station to take in the Mascleta.  I got my train ticket to Barcelona.  Luckily the fact that the automatic ticket kiosk said they had no more coach tickets for the 6:40 train meant absolutely nothing and it still sold me a ticket for about half the price I would have had to pay for the "preferante" ticket.

We met up with Kate and her friends and they led us a roundabout way to the Mascleta and my only comment to Evan was that the guy must know where we were going since is was from Valencia and also that perhaps he had an apartment over looking the square.  It turns out he did have an apartment overlooking the Mascleta.  Well, his parents did.  They also have a home in Ibiza and Majorca and owned an import business based out of Valencia.  Basically, this family was quite well-off.  Diego, the guy, was extremely nice and it was so cool to look out upon the crowd and see such a mass of people.





Wow, seriously incredible.  I have never witnessed something quite like that before.  I have uploaded a video of it if and I would recommend at least watching a small portion of it if you have the time.  

After the smoke had cleared, quite literally, we headed down to the street and ate some sandwiches at a cafe near to Diego's flat.  Following lunch Evan, Kate and I proceeded to the Plaza de la Reina where there was to be a parade of flowers.

Each neighborhood brings flowers to the Plaza de la Virgen to be placed on a giant scaffold shaped like a queen.  I'm pretty sure that it is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary.  Either way, it was really cool to witness.  We had been seeing everyone in traditional clothes all week but this time they were in one place and parading so we stayed for about an hour or so.  We met some really friendly guys who were throwing out shouts of "Wampa, wampa;" which I have been informed is considered somewhat of a complement, I suppose its meaning falls somewhere along the line of "Hey, hottie."  Not exactly appropriate for the traditional setting but boy was every girl, and guy, in the parade laughing at them.  It was probably either that or the Gorilla mask.  One of the two.

One of our new friends...



...and the more traditional part of the parade.



After the parade we walked Kate back to her place and checked out a few of the Fallas.  A falla is a large statue made of styrofoam or similar material that at the end of the festival will be torched.  It's is almost unfortunate because these things really are pieces of art and the one deemed the best this year cost 900,000 euro (over 1.35 million US).



My days are really beginning to run together in my mind but I believe when we got back we had the pleasure of meeting Jade's friend from school in Australia, Annabelle.  Before heading out Evan and I shared a few drinks of our remaining Aqua de Valencia with the girls.  Then Evan and I went down to the Rio to see the fireworks.  We got unbelievably close and honestly it was one of the best displays I have ever seen.  Afterwards we went to meet up with Kate and some of her friends at an Irish pub.  We didn't stay long because even though it was St. Patrick's day, it was also Fallas.  Evan and I opted for an open air disco and eventually met up with Kate again and hung out in a nearby plaza where there were drunk adolescents lighting off fireworks dangerously close to individuals.  When I say "fireworks," in this case I'm referring to one's that spin around and as one very intelligent girl pointed out to Evan, "In Valencia, they sell boxes of fireworks for less than a few euros that have the ability to track humans and follow them."  I honestly don't know that this girl was the most reliable source, by a long shot.  I think the fireworks just go where they want but when there are about 1000 or more people in a very small place, this is often at somebody by default.  A short time later we parted ways and headed off to bed.  

This was not before I got to see the finale of a band's performance on the street while Evan got some McDonald's.  I currently am exercising an American fast food boycott.  It's ok because the band's Queen melody was fantastic.  By Queen I'm referring to the great 70's and 80's English rock band headed by front man Freddie Mercury.  They played a series of three greats that pleased everybody, We Will Rock You followed by I Want to Break Free before concluding with We are the Champions.  The crowd was generally not pleased to see all of this come to an end.  At this point it was about half past four in the morning so Evan and I called it a night and headed back to Adela's place.

Tuesday March 18th

Today was quite interesting.  After having seen the Mascleta the past two days, Evan and I opted to just explore some of the buildings near his place.  He is located near the Arts and Sciences buildings.  These are some very modern buildings that lend themselves extremely nicely to taking pictures.  I honestly think it was quite difficult to take a bad picture here.  I'm going to post a few and let them do the talking.











After a couple hours of wandering we had to go meet up with Kate for the bullfight we were attending.  We walked down the Rio, took some more pictures, and made it to the Plaza del Toros shortly after four.  We went in and sat down and took in the atmosphere waiting for the fight to start at five o'clock.  A bullfight is quite intense.  In a normal afternoon there are about six fights each lasting around twenty minutes and in the end there are six dead bulls.  I found the fight to be quite entertaining even though the bull is at a severe disadvantage from the beginning.  They are run around and then stabbed in the back six times before the matador even approaches them.  At this point he tires the bull out some more before attempting to impale him in the neck.  Some fights were awful to watch.  The matador would take about five or six attempts before he fell the bull.  The last fight was very good though.  The matador came out and tossed his hat aside.  Then his shoes.  Standing barefoot he was able to control the bull with some grace and in a single stroke brought the bull to its knees.  Everyone in the crowd went crazy and for his performance he received the bull's two ears.  They have some sort of a recognition system where a fighter receives nothing, one ear, two ears, or two ears and a tail depending upon how well he performed.

Here are a few shots of the pageantry and the performances:





With his winnings...



Oh yeah, the first bull managed to get over the wall...



After the fight we were able to go down on the "field" which was really cool.  Then we walked Kate back to her place.  Along the way we saw the second place falla (which only cost around 350,000 Euro).  It was really cool looking:



We stopped by a grocery store and bought some ingredients to make Sangria on our way home.  Back at Evan's everybody had eaten out and his host mum was also gone so we made the two pizzas that were supposed to be for six and ate them ourselves.  After making the Sangria a few of Jade's friends showed up before her and Evan went to get Kate so I sat at the kitchen table with two guys from Manchester and a guy from New Zealand, drinking Sangria, and praying that Evan's host mum didn't come back because I honestly don't know what she would have said.  Everything was OK though and in no time we headed out to watch the fireworks with our six and a half liter bottle of Sangria, now not nearly full.  The fireworks were amazing and here are a few pictures just to give you an idea.







After the fireworks I called Amanda Aaron who I had been in touch with and ran to meet up with her.  I was so excited to get to see some people from Maryland and meeting up with her and everybody else really was a treat.  Once I found Amanda we headed back to get everyone else and the seven of us headed off towards the center of the city to the area where the young adults hang out.  Along the way we somehow managed to lose Evan and Kate but Amanda and I were eventually able to find everyone else.  Everyone else being Mike Stahley, Matt Lyman, Brian Jester, Lauren Smith, and some of Amanda's new friends from Granada.  We hung out for a couple of hours not doing much of anything until they were exhausted and I headed back to Evan's hoping he would be around to let me in.  One call to him and I realized that this was not the case but he made his way back we went off to bed sometime around five.

Wednesday March 19th

Anybody who is still reading this is either a) very determined or b) very loyal and needs to either a) find a hobby or b) do their job.

Needless to say this was the culmination of Las Fallas.  Nineteen days in the making (and 364 days in the planning) and I was going to be there to experience it all.  Another day, another Mascleta.  This was the biggest and the best due to the fact that it would be the last for some eleven months.  After this Evan and I went off to find the winning Falla.  We saw the big queen "Falla" that now had flowers all over the scaffold.



Rather then finding the winning Falla, we ended up lost but as a consolation we found a mini Mascleta to watch.  I don't know if mini is the correct term because these things are never small and we were so close but it was deafening.  



After this we went to the beach to meet up with Andy, a friend of Jade's we had been hanging out with.  When we got there Evan and I took a nap for about an hour then wandered down to find some paella.  I had yet to have any of the traditionally Spanish dish which is renowned in Valencia.  I must say, it is very, very good.  Then we got some helado (ice cream).  Two funny stories about the meals.

First, one of the waiters gave someones leftovers to a hungry dog wandering along the patio so as we watched from the window a dog was having a good meal with a great view of the ocean.  The other story involves a man who came into the ice cream shop looking to sell some sunglasses.  When Evan asked if he spoke French, thinking this would drive him away, he didn't miss a beat and began to talk French, leaving Evan speechless.

Following the ice creams we met up with Andy, Jade and Annabelle for a drink at a beach side bar to top off the trip.  We went back after this to prepare for the Crema, when they burn all of the Fallas.  Around eleven thirty or so we went down Evan's street to watch his Falla get torched.  We met up with Andy, Jade, Annabelle, the four German girls (two of who were living with Evan), Duncan and Chris (the Manchester guys), Tove (a girl from Sweden), and the son of Andy's host mum who was quite interesting.  The Crema was insane.  Basically, they light off a ton of fireworks which then ignite the Falla.  The fire department is then forced to contain the blaze.  I have never felt such heat as I did from the burning.  It is crazy.

Before...



After...



My camera died so I unfortunately couldn't take more pictures.

Anyway, we walked down to try and get to the center of town but found ourselves blocked by another Falla.  Really, this was like nothing I had ever seen before.  We ended our Las Fallas experience talking and chatting for a few hours in a nearby bar.  It is always quite interesting to meet people and talk and never expect to see them again.  One nice conversation I was able to have was with Duncan about Glastonbury Festival.  He went last year, and god willing Conrad and I will be there this year.  He said it truly is a one of kind experience for the music fan.  Chris went on to mention he may be working security there this summer so perhaps I'll be able to catch up with him again after all.

Las Fallas was amazing.  Really just about the only thing I can say about that.