-PATION!

So this morning I woke up and went to breakfast. There weren't buñuelos, but it was nice to get out of bed and out of my room and see people. Healthy and all. So I did chat with some people and have a nice time.

After breakfast, I decided to go to the beach. Because it was Spring Break, and I had nothing else to do, and it was a beautiful day, and I wanted to, I walked to the beach. It was a nice walk, probably just over three miles, and it took me an hour and a half or something, but it was beautiful. I walked through the río further than I ever had, and wound up seeing new parts of the city.

So finally I wound up at the port, which I hadn't seen before, and was also really cool, and then past the marina and to the beach. It was just a perfect day, warm sand, a light breeze, blue skies. The sea was cold as anything, but I knew that already and didn't even bring my bathing suit. I just sat around on the rocks and on the beach and by the marina and read and texted people or watched the others on the beach. It was very relaxing. I packed some apples and a couple of sandwiches, and stayed for a few hours, wandering around between reading. At one point I made the mistake of wandering back the the marina right around lunch time, and there were all these little restaurants out on the docks, and the food smelled SO GOOD, but it was SO EXPENSIVE and I resisted and ate my sandwiches instead. Around 3:30 I took a nice short nap on the beach, and then walked down further, away from the marina, to find the bus stop I needed to get back.

So I'm walking down this beach, which is decently crowded, since it is a nice day and a weekend during a holiday, and I see this couple playing soccer up ahead, and I start trying to figure out how to maneuver out of the way of their game, and then I realize: wait. I know those people. They are in the UGA group. It turns out that a decent portion of the rest of the group was also at the beach about a quarter mile from where I had been all afternoon. Go figure. So we chatted for a bit, they expressed their shock that I had walked all the way to the beach, and then I left them to play soccer, and went to find that bus. Also, I got ice cream. Because I had exercised such self-restraint earlier. And I wanted ice cream.

Now, knowing the premise of Fallas, you might suspect that putting giant statues up in the middle of the streets is not, in fact, conducive to the continued normal functioning of aboveground public transport. You would be entirely correct. So it took me a while to find the bus station I needed, and then it took the bus a while to show up, and then it dropped me somewhere different than normal, but it got me back, and that is important.

So when I walked back into the main plaza of Valencia, it was even more insane than before. It was absolutely packed with people and vendors and fallas and tents and everything. The city has been getting crazier and crazier the closer we get, but it is so obvious that this is he main event. If the mascletà sounds like a drumroll, then I think that's what it is: a two week long drumroll announcing something that started today.

And going back to my dorm was nuts. For example, there was an absolutely random parade that involved a band and a bunch of people dressed up in vaguely Arabic costumes lead by a fallera with a sword. And the street was absolutely FULL of people crowding in around them, and then there were CARS trying to get through what was actually a wall of people, and it was just insane. All the noise and the people and it was a sensory overload.

 But I got back to my room alright and took a shower, because sleeping on the beach gets you kind of sandy (also, apparently sunburned. Whoops.) and then just took an hour and a half before dinner and watched Lilo and Stitch, which was MUCH sadder than I remembered.

After dinner I went back out for a little, just to see what the city was like now that its transformation is complete. The small town feel I got so comfortable with is gone, and the city is suddenly big and dramatic and loud and it's incredible, and beautiful, and I do love this city too.

Then I returned to the dorm to meet up with the group to go see the fireworks. I actually saw them setting up the fireworks on my walk this morning, because they set them off in the río, and I walked right past them. So the fireworks were supposed to be at midnight, but come 12:05 they hadn't gone off, and while Spain is just sort of permanently late, Fallas tends to run pretty promptly. Then a police car came through the mass of people, then they started ushering people off the bridge that overlooked the display, and then we waited, and more police cars came. I still don't know what happened, but we waited for an hour for the fireworks, and a lot of people got discouraged, and some went home. Then, at 1am, the street lights went off and they began.

 It was... amazing. It makes Disney World look like amateur hour. There were so many different kinds and colors and patterns, and some of it was insane. There were fireworks that would climb, then stop, then climb higher, and ones that formed patterns as they shot up, and some that made it look like it was raining stars. The sky was just perfect and beautiful and cloudless and it was cool but not cold. Even after that hour of waiting, those 15 minutes of fireworks were worth it, utterly and completely. It was almost like the mascletà, but overwhelming light and color, not sound. It was beautiful and breathtaking and at times blinding, and it made you feel like a kid again, standing in a sea of people, all looking up towards these incredible fireworks. And that's the thing about Fallas, is that the drumroll is long, and it is in itself amazing, but the main event is well worth the anticipation.