Calling all pyromaniacs in the world! Yes, you read that right: There’s a full week in Spain dedicated to FIRE! Before you watch the video of my short 12-hour day in Valencia to see the festivities, let me give you just a little background of the craziness that is “Las Fallas de Valencia.”
The beachfront city of Valencia (also known for La Tomatina) is a pretty quirky place. Las Fallas is essentially a week-long party that starts every day at 8 a.m. with a wake up parade and firecrackers through the streets, and ends with fireworks. The idea behind this is to celebrate the beginning of warmer spring days.
Each neighborhood in Valencia crafts ginormous statues that will eventually be burned to the ground on the last day of the festival. I arrived in Valencia on the last day of Las Fallas, just in time to see the statues burned and the final firework show.
Fun fact: Each cartoon-like statue takes months to make and is payed for by donations from each neighborhood. Then they watch it burn to the ground and start again for next year!
After seeing my friends snapchat videos from the festival, I decided to hop on a bus from Madrid to see what all the hype was about. Check it out:
Ria Taylor is a junior studying integrated marketing communications. She is studying Spring semester in Madrid, Spain.
The global experience, as told by SDSU students 
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