Alan

Well now I am curious... whoa are you using for VoIP trunking?

This is the winning falla this year. It is hard to describe how huge they are!

A crane being used to put up a falla nearby.

This one will be 3 stories tall at least when finished!

The Fallas are starting to go up! These are the giant street statues that will be placed all over the city. Officially they should all be up on this Sunday (March 16) but many have already gotten started.

Poster for this year's event.

The bunelo and churro stands are out in force!

Falles 2025 has begun! Sadly the weather is cold and rainy so it has kept things a lot quieter than usual. I'm hoping that things will clear up by next week in time for the fallas to come out. Official time for the fallas are March 15th so that's the best time to look around and take pics.

Poster for the event

A depiction of Dan Blas at the local church. If you eat some of the blessed cookies it is supposed to prevent sore throats for the year!

Some of the crowds at the street stalls

One of my favorite stalls. Smells so good!

Recently the San Blas festival was in the Russia neighborhood. I love little community fairs like this and it is a good chance to try some tasty foodstuffs. valenciasecreta.com/en/market-sa...

Chinese new year parade in Valencia!

One of the shopping areas in the Medina.

This is one of the oldest universities in the world from around 800.

I liked seeing the fish monger right next to the phone store.

Wandering the streets of the Medina. So wild to think travelers have been shopping here for over 1000 years.

The Medina in Fez. It really does feel like another world there! It was founded in 789 and has over 9000 roads going through it. Very easy to get lost!

Some foods form Milan, Italy I should have said.

It’s Christmas time in Valencia!

Pistacho Panettone. It’s a traditional Italian cake for Christmas.

Osso buco and risotto milanesa style

Pizza with ham, olives, mushrooms, capers and anchovies

Pesto pasta with potatoes for some reason

Some foods

Hello from Milan! We came to see some sights and eat some pasta.

Pikel looks down on her domain.

We will be here next year yes. We will know more things to do this next time!

Local neighborhood group setting off firecrackers in the street. These are very loud and go off in order making a rhythmic beat of explosions. They are called mascleta.

Can't have a party without street paella! Just throw down some sand, start a fire and cook up a pan for the neighbors. :)

The neighborhood groups will compete with lights also.. more lights then in Christmas time even!

Along with the lights there are also street food stalls all over. Mostly churros and buñelos.

Also during Fallas... street parties! It is like a carnival atmosphere through most of the city.

The sky tonight

You can see the strands of fireworks run all over the falla.

Here it is ablaze!

Firemen are all over to keep it all safe. With so many to burn each year they have gotten very good at it.

The street in the morning.. almost like it was never there!

Here is the falla near our house. We waited outside to watch the burning happen. Everything is ephemeral!

Of course what really makes Fallas awesome in Valencia is the giant fallas statues that are put up all over town by the local neighborhood groups. Here are a few of my favorites from 2024. They are up for about a week then on March 19th they are all burned down in the same night.

Each year they bring out this giant scaffolding of Mary and place it in a plaza.

The different neighborhood groups will bring flowers to the plaza to be placed on the scaffolding.

This is what it looked like when it was finished a few days later.

Fallas! This is the largest festival in Valencia by far. It basically takes over the town in March and there are so many things going on at once. This is one I like, decorating this statue with flowers litebrite style.

a little over a year now. I love it here.

I live in Valencia, Spain actually... decided to try something different from Atlanta life.

The city of Arts and Sciences always impresses me.

Torres dels Serrans as viewed from across the bridge

Portofino, Italy! It really reminded me of the village from the movie Luca.

You know it is the sign of a good festival when you see a roast pig at a viking booth!

random graffiti in town

Random graffiti in town.

Sunrise this morning