Fallas

 Fallas is the week-long Valencian celebration of St Joseph. A vibrant, noisy festival, complete with early morning fire crackers, late night fireworks and incredible statues.

It celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It incorporates fathers day and is truly a sight to behold.

To add to the melee, there is also the madness of St Patricks day celebrations in the middle of the festival, so the town is very busy with both locals and tourists. We stay away generally, but this year I decided I wanted to learn more about it and see what it involves.

The week begins with early morning fireworks (think 6am). This sets the scene for the week. There's flower parades,  special services for St Joseph and to honour him as a carpenter, incredible huge wooden cartoon structures are built  - the Fallas (fools), and they are surrounded by puppets (ninots).

Here in Benidorm there are three areas they are displayed at for the week. Old Town, midway between the old and new town areas and the Rincon area (near the end of the new town area).

I picked the last possible day to visit the Fallas, in the hope it would be less busy. I walked miles, but it was totally worth it. Local women gathered, wearing their traditional costumes for the parade, but most people were just walking by, obviously having seen the statues already during the week they were on display.

As you can see the Fallas are enormous, full of colour, satire and exquisitely built - they must take 100’s of hours of skilled work. They are designed to reflect cultural and political themes of the current year.

The Old Town, the Fallas was situated next to a small street fair, replete with children's rides and hot Churros stands.  There was a teenager lounging in a chair, a unicorn, a woman with an empty shopping bag and a fight. I didn't quite get the meaning of any of it - probably just me!

Mid town ( not far from the harbour) the Fallas sat outside a hotel, just in the middle of the road, depicting the nautical and fishing history of Benidorm.

Beside it, the Children's Fallas was super cute. 

New Town took its theme from the well renowned ‘Strip’ here. Cabaret with fun and naughtiness in abundance. Did you spot the not so subtle dig at a very unpopular political figure here in Spain?

I loved seeing these, they had so much detail, it was hard to take it all in, and hard to believe, they are all now ashes.

On the final day, locals in traditional dress parade through the streets, and just before midnight it's time for La Crema when the Fallas are burnt as part of a huge street party.

We didn't make it to La Crema. Maybe next year?

Banned?

 Something must happen in the heat of Benidorm to bring out naughtiness. While on a day trip out with Justin and Jamie, Jamie and I found our new calling in life.

We inexplicably found ourselves in a clothes store called Bellaminis. That doesn’t sound unusual. I hear you cry, no it isn’t! But before we knew it we were spotting Spanish fashion items we just couldn’t resist.  

This is where the unusual (for us at least) came in… 

We started with a little leather number.

Then found a skirt to go with it

Jamie judged these a little dull for me, so we moved onto the sparkles! However the wise woman that she is, suggested the UK Parliament could do with a few more sparkly women, so I’m trying it out to gauge interest… 

Fearing for gravity defying exposure we spotted a stunning denim diamante number that might work for a party night. However it felt a bit too plain - clearly not enough glitz. 

Would this be better we wondered?

Although this combo did seem much more… me!

Jamie became a little concerned that I’d feel the chill of an evening, as there can be a breeze after sundown, and we wouldn’t want me to catch cold! She thought this stylish Gillet would be suitable and fit right in with my wardrobe.

We did however find a couple of items we just couldn’t identify. For instance, what on earth is this?

Underwear? Outerwear, torture device, compression garment? 

And I’m reminded of long johns grandpa’s used to wear, but this wasn't in the lingerie area… Do people wear this as a complete garment? Is perhaps ice skating  popular here?

Dodging behind clothing rails, giggling like teenagers we hid from the shop staff desperate not to be barred before our mission was complete. Before we knew it we were in the formal wear section and found ourselves singing Defying Gravity, albeit very quietly so we wouldn’t be overheard!

Are you team Glinda or Elphaba? I think you all know I'm Elphaba, right? Jamie having recently watched part one, has said she is definitely a pink sparkles, team Glinda woman.

Anyone who knows me well knows I can’t resist accessories. Namely matching shoes and bags. Here we found a problem. Clearly every one of the previous outfits fitted me perfectly (well, one arm in a leg hole at least), but shoes, nope. I love my pink boots, but a girl can never have enough pink boots and these were perfect; if I didn’t have ‘sturdy nurse’ legs and big feet. Oh how I love these!

There was a rather limited selection of bags available - which was disappointing. However this caught my eye immediately, after all who doesn’t want a handbag in the form of a woodland owl?  

Beaten only by a pumpkin! - I know a few people who would love this, I was tempted!

As we circled the store, we found Ian and Justin pretending they had never met us before, and bore no responsibility for the feral wives we are (if you have seen my Facebook post recently you will understand!)

However, it wouldn’t be right to find a new outfit without finding something for one’s husband.

Ian was not impressed with my choices. Can’t think why!

As we went to leave the store we clearly took a wrong turn, found ourselves heading through the changing room into The Rusty nail, and then when trying to exit, I found myself on the catwalk! 

Were we banned? Not this time, but there is another chapter to this tale that could end in disaster…..

Tune in again soon to find out!

Camping Villamar

 We’re on a different campsite this year, and at first, we really weren’t sure. It’s further out of town, and most people here own a caravan and awning with a permanent pitch. Some live here all year, some have their home in the UK (it’s almost exclusively British people here) and come out for holidays, but we are the only people we have seen in a motorhome, here temporarily.

It means when we first got here we were a bit taken aback with the look of most pitches, they have a frame around the caravan and awning that is covered in sun screen black netting (understandable, but not pretty), they take up the whole pitch, so it feels more enclosed than the usual site we stay on that is mainly motorhomes and touring caravans.

However, it has the most fabulous club house, shop, spotless amenity block with amazing showers and everyone is incredibly friendly. It also has a laundry room where there has always been free washing machines (unheard of on a campsite - it’s usually a free for all!).

There is nothing better than getting the laundry done, a hot shower and hair wash, then sitting in the sun while the washing and hair dries.

Although for us, it has been hot and sunny, it’s clearly not warm enough as the outside pool is closed, so if you fancy a swim, it’s the indoor, heated pool. Such a hardship! 

We’ve been here just over a week now, and it has really grown on us. It’s lovely and quiet, everything is incredibly clean, it feels very safe, as you can’t just walk into the site, there’s a gate with security.

There’s a real sense of community here, it’s clear we are visitors, but unlike many UK sites with caravan owners where our welcome hasn’t always been warm, here, everyone is genuinely pleased to see you, checks you are having a wonderful time, chats, shares ideas and generally welcomes you to ‘their’ holiday park. 

We’ve got used to the location now, we used to go out to eat most nights as we needed decent food as the campsite we were on offered a rather limited menu. Here, it’s wonderful - ok… perhaps not as many vegetables as we’d like, but plenty of salad, and hot freshly cooked food at very reasonable prices. 

There’s a fair few choices too. With a bottle of wine at 5.20 Euro, you can’t go too far wrong. 

We've yet to explore much further as we are enjoying chilling here, but we have ventured out on our new eclectic bike and I survived the journey (I am not a confident rider!).

I’ve been learning embroidery, having been inspired by the Heritage sewing project I took part in at home, and have found it really meditative. I'm not great yet, but I'm really enjoying it. I’m certainly better at it than I was at crochet!

Ian has been learning how to design for and use a new machine he has coming once we get home and his next Hurdy Gurdy design is coming together. So all in all we are keeping busy in our home away from home.

Of course one of the reasons we come here is to see Justin and Jamie. They are such lovely people who have no idea how incredibly talented they are. We went to see them perform, and they have really changed up their show and it’s fabulous (unlike some of the shows we’ve seen!!!). I think I’ll tell you about those in another blog - there is much to say!