For hostel/hotel bookings during Fallas, we’ve found the best rates at Hostelbookers and Booking.com

We feel for everyone who can’t make it to this year’s Fallas, but hopefully the content we’ve posted so far helps soothe the pain!

• Color Mascletà 2010
• La Despertà 2010
• The midday Mascsletà for the Despertà
• Castillo for the La Cridà 2010
• La Primera Mascletà 2010

And we’re feeling for everyone who lives in Valencia and can’t wait to get the hell out of here and away from the noise!

Fallas has just begun, so there are a lot of events coming up… Here are some of them:

• Everyday at 2pm, the Grand Mascletà in Plaza del Ayuntamiento
• March 6th: Mascletà Napolitana at Las Arenas beach (highly recommended) starts at 6pm
• March 6th: Turning on the famous street lights of Calle Sueca at 9pm (we’re not sure of that time — can anyone confirm?)
• March 6th: Cabalgata del Ninot starts at 10:30pm, ending with a color Mascletà in the Ayuntamiento
• March 7th: Cant de l’Estoreta is a neat little kids parade at 11am which ends with a Mini Mascletà

We’ll let you know about more events after the weekend, otherwise it’s just too much. For last-minute event updates, keep your eye on our twitter account: @valenciablog

And if you have any information or tips about this Fallas, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’re always looking for a good Fallas story. And if you’ve got a good spot to watch a Mascletà, fireworks or the Cremà, hook us up!

Anyone else in Fallas fever?

- Best Youth Hostel for Fallas / What is Fallas?

Fallas T-Shirt 2010 by valenciashirt
design your own shirt on zazzle.com

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

Psst. Hey, you. Yeah you, with the shifty eyes and trench coat. You wanna see some sexy ninots? Sure you do, partner. We got your sexy ninots right here.

One of our favorite traditions has become the pre-Fallas Ninot Exhibition at Nuevo Centro. With each additional year, we become more adept at spotting the various Valencian politicians, media figures and celebrities being mocked. This year, popular targets were Rita Bárbera, the Financial Crisis, Levante UD (celebrating 100 years), Zapatero and Obama. Shockingly we only found one Michael Jackson ninot, but it was quite well done.

There are hundreds of ninots on display in the exhibition — each of Valencia’s 600-something Fallas commissions chooses their favorite to be shown early to the public, and possibly win reprieve. Visitors get to vote on their favorite ninot, and the winner is spared a fiery death at the end of Fallas.

It’s an Asian kind of year, apparently, as we noticed a lot of figures inspired by Chinese tradition and Japanese anime. Overall, there seemed to be more perversion this year — ninots really ranged between sickeningly sentimental and sickeningly sexual. Guess which we liked better!

Location on our Valencia Map

Previous Ninot Exhibits: 2008 / 2009

What is Fallas?

Get your Fallas accommadtion sorted: Hotels – BnB’s – Hostels for Fallas

Despite our righteous indignation at having been turned down for press access to the America’s Cup, duty compelled us to head for the harbor today on the first day of racing and check out the scene.

And so we did, for about an hour. I can say in all honesty, and without the slightest amount of sarcasm that it was the most thrilling, gripping, intense and wonderfully ecstatic hour of my entire life.

Allow me to assist you in imagining the scene: under the austere auspices of the Veles e Vents building, a sparse crowd had gathered! With no way to see the actual race, people had congregated around a large screen! Heavily tanned gentlemen in polo sweaters were everywhere! Alinghi clowns danced among children and possibly delighted one of them! A palpable sense of boredom permeated the air!

Workers darted in and around the crowd, chanting “Or-ac-le!” “A-lingh-i!” That’s right: paid employees were trying to generate excitement by goading people into chanting the names of corporations. Like the spirit of the Olympics, only much more moving and authentic!

Hundreds of schoolchildren were bussed in before the race’s scheduled start time. A brilliant strategy! Children are loud, generate a buoyant atmosphere without prodding and, besides prisoners, are the only people who can be forced into attendance. And you can’t expect sailing fans to mingle with prisoners! The kids made up about a third of the crowd. I felt sorry for them when the race was postponed 6 hours and eventually rescheduled to Wednesday. But at least there were Alinghi clowns.

This America’s Cup is an unmitigated disaster for sailing fans, for the event itself, and especially for the city of Valencia. Friends tell us that the 32nd edition held in 2007, was fantastic; not just exciting on a sporting level, but successful in bringing fame, money and tourism to Valencia. This time around, the constant (and still on-going) litigation has snuffed out any legitimate interest.

So if you don’t get down to the port to check out the action for the 33rd America’s Cup, don’t feel like you’re missing out on too much. You’re not.

More pictures from the 33rd Americas Cup, taken this morning:

- Get ready for Fallas 2010

Valencia is truly the place to be this weekend, with one of the year’s most anticipated events kicking off. Of course, I’m talking about:

That’s right, from the 5th to the 7th, you’ll be able to check out products and costumes that are approximate replicates of products and costumes from Medieval times! You’ll find it next to the Mercado de Ruzafa.

(There’s some other event kicking off, too, featuring spoiled, petulant rich people and their toy boats. But they didn’t deem us worthy for press access, so screw ‘em. The Medieval market is where it’s at, anyway.)

-Neat Ruzafa Youth Hostel