The whole 'regular blog writing' thing was honestly a bit different and easier than I imagined, but well, the last few weeks have been incredibly busy. I know I say that in almost every one of my blog posts, but March really outdid the previous two months. Well, let's get started.
For almost 3 weeks in March, the Spring Festival in Valencia took place, in short: Las Fallas. Starting on March 1st with a few rockets and firecrackers, we quickly realized after 1 week that we had never experienced anything like this before. You can imagine the whole thing as a huge fair, where the entire city is on the streets day and night (yes, the streets in the center were mostly closed the whole time) and simply celebrated. Celebrated at 'Discomóvils', which are nothing more than outdoor areas with a DJ booth in front of a dancing, beer-drinking crowd. But not only the joy and hustle and bustle are the focus of this festival, but also the special artistic and symbolic figures (called Fallas), which adorned the entire city from high heights for 1 week. On the last day of Las Fallas (March 19), each figure was burned. Fun fact: The total number of figures was about 280, and behind it is about 1 year of hard work.
AND I went to my first bullfight. But it was also my last, definitely not for the faint-hearted... Bullfights are not a norm in Valencia anymore, but they were part of the Fallas every day. Oh, at the beginning I mentioned rockets and fireworks. But you shouldn't imagine it like New Year's Eve in our country... This whole thing took on a bit of a different dimension here. From March 1st to March 19th, every day at 2 pm, all of Valencia gathered at Plaza de Ayuntamiento to watch the Mascletas. I would describe the Mascletas as a mega-loud, pyrotechnic spectacle that covered the entire people-packed plaza with a huge cloud of smoke. It's hard to explain the whole thing, you just have to experience it and feel the Mascletas ;-) In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, we escaped to a neighboring city of Valencia on a weekend between Las Fallas to give our ears a bit of peace (at least for a day). The trip took us to Peñiscola, a really nice seaside town. AND a second weekend getaway had to be done, so we went up to the mountain - El Garbí. We were rewarded with beautiful views of Valencia's landscape after a really challenging ascent. It resembled more of a challenging climbing tour (which none of us really expected) and gave us a good muscle ache for the following week, but it was absolutely worth it! See photos... And right in time for the start of the hardcore Fallas from March 15th to 19th, Kathi came to visit me in Valencia. Short days & long nights mixed with extended brunches, lots of avocado toast, and sangria describe the 4 days quite well. I was incredibly happy about your visit! To add another highlight to my semester abroad, I decided to participate in the IAAFS Half Marathon Championships in Valencia. On March 24th at 5:30 pm, with immense excitement, racing heartbeats, but also incredible anticipation, I stood in front of the finish line between the huge buildings of the Ciudad de las Artes among thousands of people and could hardly wait to complete my second half marathon. Showers of rain and sometimes strong gusts of wind made the whole thing a lot harder, but at the same time more eventful ;-) It was a great and definitely unforgettable experience. And afterwards, it was pasta party time with my biggest fans! As if March wasn't eventful enough, Maxi, Julia, and Rosa added even more excitement and came to Valencia! Here are some photos of the cool things we did.... The visits were short, but the joy was even greater! I'm looking forward to seeing you 3 again in June :-) Right now, I'm enjoying my Easter vacation in beautiful Lisbon, which I will tell you about in the next entry... I think that's enough for now :-P Have a great vacation, kissesyours Sophietschi
