2.5 Year Anniversary, Las Fallas, Valencia

A week after we visited Sweden we celebrated our 2.5 year anniversary by taking a 3 hour train trip down south to Valencia. While originally flirting with the idea to head to Valencia we also discovered that during that weekend was one of the biggest festivals of the year in Spain, ´Las Fallas´.


´Las Fallas´ is a week long festival for the city prior to Easter. A week of partying, tourists, music, performances, and firecrackers... more firecrackers... and more firecrackers. We soaked up the atmosphere and being our 2.5 year anniversary we stayed in a 4 star hotel. A double bed considisted of 2 separate single beds together which a giant gap in between. Anyway to save money for the Hotel Managers I guess.

During Easter Valencia is much more appealing that the still cold Barcelona at the time. Just 3 hours south the weather is slightly warmer making everything seem more appealing. With all the festivities constantly ongoing even through early morning we felt safe walking around the streets as many people were walking around. Obviously you still avoid suspicious areas but otherwise one could feel safe walking around the major streets.


The festivities of ´Las Fallas´ returns Adults to childhood as cartoon-like sculptures decorate well over 50 major intersections and street corners throughout the city. It would almost be impossible to see every single one of these fantasy like scultpures within a weekend and riding a bike around Valencia during the festivities is almost impossible with the amount of people in the congegated on the streets. These sculptures rise to just over 15ft high and are guarded all day everyday for the entire week. The detail and effort put into some of these sculptures is incredible to see. Two days prior to Good Friday all the sculptures but one which is voted to be the best, are ignited at midnight along with a defeaning fireworks and firecracker display. The last remaining sculpture is preserved in a museum along with the other previous year winners.

Throughout the weekend we could hear firecrackers that sound like gunshots and even at 1:30 in the morning there´s a major firework display at the city centre. It´s as if the city doesn´t sleep for the entire week. It also seems as if a majority of Spain come to Valencia for the week as roads are closed, trains and buses are filled to their maximum and driving through the city centre is somewhat impossible. Public transport is at its worst during this week. Buses are cancelled or don´t stop at their destinations as they´ve been redirected, trains are like sardines all squeezed into a can. All in all it´s all part of the experience.

During that weekend it was the first time Katrina and I had scene the beach sine we had been in Spain. The sand here differs to the white silk fine sand beaches of Australia.

The sand here could be regarded as fine dirt. Thare no waves as opposed to the swells of Burleigh beach. Walking along the beach town some of the buildings could have been regarded as demolished reckages. Which is strange for beach property. Property near the beach is maintained highly throughout Australia but here it seems as if the city is the primary place to be and keep prestine.

It´s unusual to celebrate a half year anniversary but this was an occasion I´d never forget nor would it be a place and time that we´d never experience again. Can´t imagine flying from Australia to Valencia just for the week but if you´re in Europe during this time its definately an experience to see once.