valencia: more than a city of oranges

At the beginning of February, two of our good friends, Carlos and Jill, got married just outside of the city of Valencia. Since Markel and I couldn't make it to the ceremonia we went to celebrate this past weekend, the 6th to 8th. Not only did we festejar for their marriage, it was also Carlos 30th.

Arriving late Friday night, we met up with Carlos' friends and Jill for Carlos' surprise birthday dinner (that had already started when we got there). It was the first time I'd ever been to Valencia and first time I'd ever been to a restaurant similar to the one we went to. It was a restaurante erótico that had delicious food and fun music, but is mostly known for the show afterwards - a Drag Queen show! There were tables of groups of people all around celebrating birthdays, a group of girls having a night out, and a group of businessmen who came to be entertained. They called various people up to stage or talked briefly to different people... Luckily, the MC who asked me some questions didn't end up calling me up for anything more embarrassing - I would have been red-faced and wanting to crawl under a table! It was much nicer watching other people making fools of themselves, haha!! Overall, it was a hilarious experience that I'd be willing to repeat...

The next day we got up and feasted on a delicious homemade Mexican lunch. Later we toured a bit of Valencia. We saw the museum, IMAX, and aquarium that all have amazing buildings along the former river of Valencia. Gorgeous buildings that are well worth wandering around! We grabbed churros con chocolate at a local bar that filled our tummies and warmed us up a bit. The night before we'd seen the old town, so we saw a bit of it in daylight. We saw the train station and cathedral too. In the evening, we finished it off with a quick dinner at home and off to the bar that Carlos DJs at. DJ Txarly (pronounced Charlie) played all the tunes following a hip hop show put on by local singers. After the noche set in, we decided to cab it back home to snuggle in bed so we could take advantage of our Sunday...

Sunday was the beginning of Fallas, the festival for the patron saint of Valencia, San José (Joseph). Las Fallas is a huge festival in Spain most well known for the week of the 19th of March, where they built enormous floats that compete against each other for various titles. The "loser" floats end up being burned throughout the city the day of the saint, the 19th. Although we didn't see the burning of the floats (and probably won't get to this year), we saw the opening ceremony called Mascletá. It took place in the City Hall square where they lit off lots of fireworks. Although typically for the beautiful colors and shapes, these fireworks are special for the sounds. Since they are set off in the middle of the square, the louds booms vibrate off the walls and make deafening bombing sounds that awe the crowd.

After a lunch at an Italian favorite of Jill and Carlos, Markel and I hit the road back for home in Madrid. A fun weekend of new experiences spent with great friends!