February is coming to a close, which means that party time is slowly gearing up. Fallas is right around the corner, and it’s impossible to miss the vibe starting to grip the city.

This Sunday, we enjoyed a very Valencian day. It started with a pilota match at the trinquet Pelayo (location). My hands hurt after a few minutes of watching that sport. We watched a couple matches, the whole time feeling self-conscious. All the spectators knew each other, and all the players knew everyone in the stands. It was like we’d crashed a family reunion. But the game is fast-moving and fun to watch, so we just tried to ignore our condition as outsiders.

Later in the afternoon, we saw a bit of the Cabalgata Infantil — a children’s parade that is not at all interesting unless you have children of your own. Which we don’t. It ended with something you probably shouldn’t bring small kids to: a massively loud color mascletà, at around 8pm.

Mascletàs (video and picture in the following post), parades, pilota… man, and it’s not even March yet. Maybe we should pace ourselves a bit.

Pelota pictures also featuring Fallera Mayor and Fallera Mayor Infantil 2010:

- Pilota in the Trinquete de Pelayo 2009

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After the city cathedral and royal chapel, the most important religious building in Granada is La Cartuja, on the grounds of the University.

The name derives from monks of the Carthusian order. Very serious, very austere and, apparently, very given to be murdered in the most barbaric ways imaginable. If you are into Monk Torture… well, you should probably get some serious counselling, but before you do: indulge in one last fling at La Cartuja. Stabbed, shot, disemboweled… the complex is decked out in paintings of holy brothers being slain.

Besides the awesome Monk Death paintings, the Cartuja is worth visiting for its chapel and sacristy, constructed in the 18th century.

The Carthusians are some kooky mother fuckers. Even today, they live a life of seclusion and quiet prayer, as cut off from the outside world as possible. Their order in Granada is no longer active, but there’s one near Valencia — the Porta Coeli Charterhouse. If you’re interested, a recent movie about Carthusians won a lot of awards: Into Great Silence, by Philip Gröning.

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One of the coolest most interesting neighborhoods in Granada is Sacromonte, famous for its inhabited caves. We found it fascinating. Sure, the caves have been decorated, painted and furnished, and facades have been attached, but there’s no getting around the fact that these people are living in large holes in the ground.

Granada is one of the most important cradles of flamenco, and Sacromonte is famous for its performances. We’d been warned, though, that watching flamenco in a Sacromonte cave is a rip-off tourist trap. And we’re not silly tourists, who give their money out for no good reason! Right, Jürgen? … Jürgen?

Wait, Jürgen, what are you doing talking to that maliciously grinning gypsy lady? No! Don’t go in her cave!! Don’t wave me over! Don’t… are you accepting a drink?! Have you lost your freaking mind?

As a photographer, the opportunity to take pictures inside a cave proved more compelling to Jürgen than the need to avoid rip-offs. We knew that our “cave tour” of 2 minutes would cost us dearly, and it did. €7 per person. But, Jürgen got his pictures, and even talked the exultant scam artist into posing for a portrait. Enjoy:

Our other encounter with flamenco came during our first night in the city. We found a blog that praised Peña Flamenca La Platería as one of the best, most authentic flamenco joints in the city. That blog will go unnamed, and we can strongly urge you to skip this place. What a joke! We were ushered into a huge room with 20 other foreigners, and given a glass of the most terrible, watered down sangria I’ve ever had. And the show was awful — they weren’t even trying. The hideous singer brayed like an ox, the guitarist was clearly drunk (he even stopped playing at one point), and the dancer was chubby, boring and unskilled. It was the worst flamenco I’ve ever seen, and we left during intermission.

The Canadian couple in front of us, though, had clearly never seen flamenco before. They clapped and hooted, and whispered excitedly to each other “Isn’t this amazing?” I wanted to clonk their heads together.

We prefer Café del Duende in Valencia for Flamenco.

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After an incredible 2 year stay in Spain, Visions of Spain, the collection of paintings by Valencia’s Joaquin Sorolla, is headed back to its home in New York City. By any measure, the tour was immensely successful — more than two million visited the exhibition on tour in Spain’s biggest cities, including Madrid, Sevilla, Barcelona and Valencia.

I went twice.

Sorolla painted these gigantic canvases in the 1910’s with the purpose of introducing his country to the United States. The commission came from the Hispanic Society of America, the seat of which is in New York.

If you’re in NYC, please don’t pass up the chance to visit the society’s headquarters, off Broadway & 155th, and see the paintings. The vibrant, idealized scenes may not be literal depictions of Spanish life, but they convey the right sense. It’s re-opening in May, 2010.

-Great Hotel for Fallas

Let’s see — I really don’t know much about this one, so any help I can get from the readers of Hola Valencia, I’ll appreciate!

San Antonio Abad, or Anthony the Great in English, was a 3rd Century Catholic monk from Egypt, who’s venerated for spreading the idea of monasticism. He’s especially famous as the first religious figure to retreat into nature as a way to “reconnect”, and is the patron saint of animals. His Saint’s Day is January 17th, and is celebrated here in Valencia, in the neighborhood which takes his name.

The festivities began this week, with equestrian exhibitions from the 13th to the 16th. On the evening of Saturday the 16th, at 21h, there’s a street bonfire. The next morning, there’s a crazy parade.

The parade might be a lot of fun. Ole St. Tony is the patron of Animals, and loads of people bring their pets to get blessed. The benediction and parade of animals begins at 11am in the barrio de San Antonio. I think we’ll be there with our rotten little devil, Chucky. I wouldn’t be surprised if she bites a priest.

Full List of Events (Spanish)

Parroquia de San Antonio Abad
Calle de Sagunto, 188
Location on our Google Map

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