Las Fallas - Wednesday

Poeta Artola 25


More fallas and decoration around Valencia






Cabalgata Folklórica




Castillo de Fuegos Artificiales



Partying on the streets


Jussi and Sophie

Las Fallas - Tuesday

This was the mascletà today.


The main thing about fallas is that every block makes its own sculpture (called a "falla") constructed of paper, fiber and wood. They are usually sarcastic or intelligent in some way. The fallas are being built troughout the year by specialized artists. The most expensive fallas can cost anywhere between 30.000 and 300.000 euros. Still, on the night after next saturday they will all be burned right where they are standing now (called "la quemada" in castellano or "la cremà" in valenciano). All the fallas were put in place yesterday.




Here is the biggest of these sculptures on Plaza Ayuntamiento.

Las Fallas - Part I

Las Fallas : a traditional party in Valencia celebrated between 15.3. - 19.3.
mascletà : a Valencian fireworks display focusing on making loud noise

Today I went to see one of the mascletàs in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. There has been a show every day for the last two weeks. Every barrio (part of town) has their own group competing who makes the best mascletà. So every day at 2pm the main square is filled with thousands of valencians and tourists who have reserved the best hotel rooms (with good balconies) many months beforehand. A tall cage has been built in the center of the plaza, and in this closed area the noise-specialists arrange their firecrackers and bombs.

Every mascletà follows about the same pattern, first there are the opening shots that tell the audience what is about to begin. Then follows series of different bombs that get louder each time. The final part of the show is always something that looks like a firework factory in flames. The whizzles and booms hit your ears really hard, and first-timers feel like putting hands on their ears. After the noise only thick smoke is left behind.






Right next to the mascletà cage there are already some fallas. Some of them aren't yet fully put together but it looks like they can be really big.

Campeonato Escalada

I got on a beginners' climbing course a few weeks ago (after all, I had brought my gear all the way from Finland). The climbing courses of UPV are held by Pedro Pons, who is a world-famous climber, a boulder world champion. The indoor climbing wall they have here in UPV is just fantastic. They say it's one of the few of it's kind in Europe, of course made by a Spanish company.

The word about a competition just came up on the last climbing class. I was practically forced to sign my name and get on. Well, no regrets there... it was awesome to see the best competeers on the final route. The winner was no suprise. Juan Pons, the little brother of the campeón, did the final route even quicker than Pedro himself.

And by the way... I finished 18th :)

Starting up.. It was freezing cold inside


This is the Rocódromo


At first all the contestants had to do three routes


I'm getting ready for Via 2


The final route being prepared while the girls still climb


Here is the campeón Pedro Pons showing us how to do it


These are the finalists who finished second and third

Visiting Alcoy with Javier

It was time to see the traditional ensayo (rehearsal) they have each month in Alcoy, a small city close to Valencia. Javier asked me and Jussi (another finnish Erasmus) to come and see the what the party was all about. It turned out to be very fun. Especially the way that the fathers and sons drank and ate together and had a good time. People at the fiesta were really interested to know about Finland, so we had a lot to talk about.

Alcoy lies in a valley surrounded by steep rocky mountains. There are four long bridges that take you over the valley and to downtown. It's something that really catches your eye. I heard the rate of cars per population in Alcoy is the second highest in Europe after Milan. Just look at the cars running by - they all have just one passenger!

I learned that Alcoy was one of the first two cities in Spain to have a textile factory, in addition to Barcelona. The small town became wealthy and the alcoyans still have a strong relationship with barcelonetas. After all, the streets of Alcoy do resemble Barcelona with the narrow, rundown streets full of small balconies. On the other hand, there are the posh, miles long shopping avenues full of small shops. It seems you can find most of the things you need right here in Alcoy.

Javier, big thanks for all your effort! Let's see if we can get those hotel rooms booked for April's Gran Fiesta ;)

Here are some of the fotos I and Jussi took in Alcoy

Paris on Ryanair

We hunted ryanair tickets of precios muy bajos. Although most of the costs eventually would come from the bus trips to Girona and Beauvais (the small airports "close" to the target cities). Three days of very little sleep and an awful lot of walking (take for example the four-storey Louvre). I think we managed to stay out of the most expensive restaurants, and our hotel was superb for the price we paid. Thank You Paris, See You Again!

The sparkling apartment of Napoleon
Musée du Louvre, 1er


Taking this was prohibited!


I'm standing tall on the first floor of the tower
Tour Eiffel, 7ème


Sights from the Eiffel tower
Parc du Champs de Mars, 7ème


You could take a foto of whole Paris here
Montmartre (in front of Sacré-Coeur), 18ème


Touristshop-hopping near Notre Dame
Boulevard du Palais, 1er


This building gives you the creeps, especially since it's almost always cloudy in Paris
Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris, 1er


Inside the cathedral, where many people actually cried in the darkness
Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris, 1er


All the metro stations were built like this


The 12 avenues all start from this plaza, couple of hours later we saw Leonardo DiCaprio live promoting "The Aviator" on Champs Elysees
Arc de Triomphe, Charles de Gaulle-Etoile, 8ème


After half an hour it would start shimmering to mark the changing of the hour
Tour Eiffel, 7ème

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

Some fotos from our day in L'Oceanogràfic and L'Hemisfèric in the science city. The seals and whales were crazy cute. Actually I was suprised how much I enjoyed the place after hearing almost everything about it beforehand. The multicolored fish were a marvel if you could manage to shut your ears from the shouting spanish children.

Poeta Artola

My girlfriend Susanna came here to visit me for more than two weeks (smiley here). I got to see Valencia with new eyes going through the shoeshops with Susanna. Later on we moved my stuff from Ausias March to my new flat on New Year's Eve. I'm still making myself at home here, but it seems like a cozy place. My room isn't big but I got it really cheap (at least compared to finnish flat prices!).