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Valencia Travel Blogs

Background: Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries ultimately yielded command of the seas to England. Subsequent failure to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions caused the country to fall behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic and political power. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II, but suffered through a devastating civil war (1936-39). In the second half of the 20th century, Spain has played a catch-up role in the western international community; it joined the EU in 1986. Continuing challenges include Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) terrorism and further reductions in unemployment.

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By Ben Baroncini
March 22nd 2006

FALLAS Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

can´t we all just get along?

fallas is a festival from the 15th to the 19th of march. the festival is apparently semi-religious, dedicated to joseph, the father of Jesus, both carpenters. this tradition dates back to a time when carpenters around valencia would periodically collect all the of the scrap materials from their work, pile it up, and burn it. now they build huge effigies out of wood, styrofoam, and paper machet. the most expensive falla was in excess of 600,000 euros. the themes represented are local and international politicians and celebrities, incredibly un-politically correct and frankly racist theme [View Full Entry]

By Eli Barnes
March 20th 2006

Las Fallas Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

The Falla Near the Market

Hello Reader. The city was buzzing. Every six blocks (at most) the city was erecting huge Fallas (the name of the festival and the name of the objects). They were all cartoon-like in appearance and you could tell that a team of people put a lot of time into making them... knowing that their purpose was ultimately to be burned to the ground. The street lights were also put up and city hall in the main plaza was glowing like it was Christmas. But the most prevalent and persistent reminder that Las Fallas had almost arrived was the constant popping of [View Full Entry]

By Vonnie
March 20th 2006

Fallas Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Carla knew Patch was at the Fallas and had been texting him all night. Somehow we ended up in the same place at the same time. We said it would be stupid to be so close and not say hey to him, so Carla and I went to holla at Patch real quick. Real quick turned into the whole night. We ended up ditching Monica, Claribel and Kate. We had been hanging out with Monica all week and it was time to meet some new people. Yeah, her friends were meeting us, but I already didn’t like them! Hahaha. They got [View Full Entry]

By Vonnie
March 19th 2006

Valencia Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Somehow I woke up at 7:30 to shower and meet at 8:45. I thought I was gonna be mad late, so I ran. Imagine me running down the street with a huge bag. I was breathing mad hard when I got there and only Kate and Claribel were there. It’s a good thing that they had come earlier and found out where the bus station was because Carla didn’t show up until ten til. The worst thing is that Monica had Carla’s ticket and she was mad late. We couldn’t even reach her cuz she was in the metro. Kate, Claribel [View Full Entry]

By La_Viajera
March 19th 2006

A Pyromaniac's Paradise Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Las Fallas!

This morning, Kris, Lily, Julia (Kris’s friend) and I woke up early at our hotel in Barcelona. While Tatum and Jamie were staying in Barcelona, we had purchased bus tickets in order to go to a city called Valencia about 4 hours away for their famous Las Fallas festival. We had decided the weekend before that we would go for the “La Crema” ceremony part of the festival, which takes place the last night and involves burning down these papier-mâché floats that people spend all year making. I had not had any desire to go to Las Fallas but everyone else [View Full Entry]

By localinda
March 17th 2006

Las Fallas Festival 2006 Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

last falla

Gary came and we left for Las Fallas on the eastern coast in Spain in Valencia. Walked around all over the city for various fallas. Also went to the Oceanographic center (aka the aquarium) which also resembled the Sydney OperaHouse. Anyhow, the whole festival included morethan 300 paper mache dolls/figures that stoodhundreds of feet high and constructed with other material. It took about a year to build them andthey are displayed all over the city only to be BURNT down on the last night called LA CREMA (theburning). We watched the grand-daddy of them all in the Plaza de Ajuntamiento and [View Full Entry]

By Eli Barnes
March 7th 2006

Becks, a Job, Scots, and a City Preparing Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Plaza de La Virgin

Hello Reader. So much has happened in the past couple of weeks. A few days after my episode in Picapiedra I started feeling back to my old self again. Ain't much in this world that can keep me down for long. And one of the highlights was that Becks was coming to visit the following weekend! This was one of the only times that I didn't want to have a job so I could take her around everywhere... then, as luck would have it, I got a job. Around the same time, Harri and Ali were getting settled into their new [View Full Entry]

By drea4espana
March 6th 2006

Carnaval, Midterms, Segobriga, Ucles, y Valencia Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Well…it has been a busy two weeks if you couldn’t tell by the title. Last Friday the celebrations of carnival started and lasted straight through Ash Wednesday. Since I didn’t have class on Friday, my host mom took me to school to see Raquel and join in their fiesta. Everyone was dressed up as Mozart or music notes, or people from Mozart’s day and age. Just imagine about 30 kindergarteners wearing cardboard boxes decorated with colorful music notes and white wigs and you get the picture. Raquel’s group (the 3rd graders) were in full Mozart garb and the older kids [View Full Entry]

By Eli Barnes
February 21st 2006

Brotherly Love, Part Two Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Hello Reader. On Monday night, Mike, Sue, Ali, Suzanne (Sue's friend from back home), and myself went for a drink at Picapiedra. Being a Monday, the two-leveled bar was not very full. The five of us sat down and were talking when a guy sitting with a friend at a table behind us turned to us and joined our conversation. I couldn't tell where he was from, he seemed to speak a little of a number of languages, but stuck with Spanish mostly. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. He was talking mostly to Mike and I. He asked where [View Full Entry]

By Eli Barnes
February 19th 2006

Brotherly Love, Part One Europe » Spain » Valencian Community » Valencia

Hello Reader. Last weekend I had an interesting encounter with a stranger that I feel is worth reporting. TravelBlog is a public webpage, which means anyone is free to read anyone's blog and look at pictures. I have gotten nothing but positive comments from everyone about my writing and my pictures... until now. Well, I'll just let you read and form your own opinion. Please keep in mind that I have never met this John person before. I checked my e-mail last week and found a private message had been sent to me through TravelBlog about one of my entries - [View Full Entry]

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