Hola Valencia

The Fallas monuments aren’t just created to amaze spectators — there is also a fiercely-waged annual competition to determine which committee pulled off the best monument of the year.

For 4 years straight Nou Campanar had won, and again this year they walked off with the top prize. Honestly, it was a deserved win. Their monument was easily the most impressive. It’s a little unfair — the enjoy a location outside the city center, which affords them more space to work with. But it’s hard to complain. “Quant de Comte” was the theme — though I don’t understand Catalan at all, it translates into something like “A whole lot to tell”. Fitting, to say the least.

Here are the finishing order for all 14 fallas monuments in competition:

1st Place: Nou Campanar
2nd Place: Convento Jerusalén
3rd Place: Exposición
4th: Sueca-Literato Azorín
5th: Plaza del Pilar
6th: Almirante Cadarso-Conde Altea
7th: Na Jordana
8th: Pizarro-Cirilo Amorós
9th: Reino de Valencia-Duque de Calabria
10th: Cuba-Literato Azorín
11th: Plaza de la Merced
12th: Archiduque Carlos-Chiva
13th: L’Antiga de Campanar
— No Prize: Malvarossa-Ponz-Cavite (which is mean: couldn’t they have just made a 14th place?)

Overall, I agree with the decisions, particularly the top 3. Disagreements would include the 4th prize for Sueca-Literato, which left both Juergen and I deeply unimpressed, and the 13th finish for L’Antiga de Campanar, which we thought was one of the most original. I would’ve put the hilarious Almirante cowgirl at #4. And we also loved 8th place Pizarro.

Tonight is La Cremà — also known as the burning of Valencia. We’ve decided to watch the monument of Convent Jerusalem go up in flames. Its motto is “Make Fire, Men!”, which is entirely appropriate.

This city is out of its goddamn mind. I love it.