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Useful
advice for the visitor
The
Town :
•
Valencia is a town with a very large history,
many civilizations lived in this area of the spanish Levante,
and let behind them plenty of buildings and monuments. As a first
result, the town center,which like most of the biggest europeans
cities, is built on a street plan rather chaotic. That's why,
the first thing to do for the visitor, during the Fallas'week
is to get a complete and detailed plan.
•
The all center, which is appearing on our
center plan get quite totally
closed to the traffic because of the assembly of Fallas and Mascletas
; this way you will understand how difficult can result to move
in Valencia during the Fallas'time.
•
The traffic jams in this period are very
famous and they can block all avenues for hours, over all during
the night. Better is using public transport
as : taxi, subway, bus, suburban train, and walking if you're
coming from a very closed suburb.
•
If
anyway, you would decide to come by car, try to let it in a place
you know, or in a parking, and join the center using one of the
public transport. Do not let any valuable thing into your car,
at least it mustn't be seeable ; all this people coming for festivities
uses to appeal numerous "pickpockets".
•
Hold
your bag always very close to you, you could have bad surprise
discovering the amazing ability of these burglarers, who are used
to benefit the crowd.
•
The
weather in Valencia during those Fallas'days can also constitute
a surprise for the visitor. Spring use to be rather good in this
mediterranean area, temperatures quite hot, just like a first
taste of summer, whereas some few rains can appear ; so better
is to be prevent.
•
If
you think about staying in a hotel, hostal or pension, try to
book as quite as possible, as most of them use to be full during
festivities. The quite same phenomenom use to happen in the restaurants
; no way to forget that the town doubles its population at this
moment of the year.
The
Fallas :
•
During
festivities, the commissions use to invade the streets where they
will settle their Fallas. That's why the only way to see them,
is walking around. The most famous ones or most spectacular use
to attract a lot of people, so you will have to get patient if
you want to enjoy any details of those monuments.
•
Some
Fallas can been visited by inside, sometimes paying a little amount
; but it stays beeing unusual.
The
Transports :
•
To move in Valencia is getting easier and
easier because of the public transports. You can now move into
the center, since the very recent opening of a new subwayline,
and the all net is reinforced during festivities.
•
Lines offer bigger routs and larger schedules,
overall during the night. . The best way to have good information
is getting any of the brochures, leaflets edited for Fallas, or
getting the information phone number you could find in our page
of transports.
The
Mascletas :
•
For
people living in Valencia, the Mascletas are very common things
; the all area keeps this very old tradition of fireworks which
use to appear in any festivity or celebration. Amyway, the visitor
can result very surprised or even afraid by such a din. Before
going you must know that some thousands kilos of powder are fired,
so if you are not accustomed to, it's better staying a little
a part in order to really enjoy the all intensity of the Mascleta.
•
Because
of the big quantity of people there, you 'd better arrive before
and then wait a moment. The Mascleta use to begin at two o'clock,
on time, every day between the first and the nineteenth of March
;be careful, it last only few minutes.
The
official events :
•
You
have to go and discover the all spectacular and traditionnal aspect
of them, even if some of them can last some hours. Many people
use to go to these events ; so do not forget our advice.
The
concerts:
•
Organized
by different associations or usually by the local radios, they
are famous for both their artistic quality and their diversity.
•
They used to take place in the alameda, next to the old bed of
the river, but they now tend to take place in different spaces
or rooms of the city, so now you can choose both the concert but
also the place you do prefer.
•
A lot of places use to stay opened all night long and the town
keeps alife and crowded. Obviously, access to those places with
your car, results nearly impossible ; that's why you'd better
try to let it in a nearby place and go on walking.
•
Don't worry if you like eating
during the night, a lot of sellers of sandwiches will settle their
halt in those same streets.
The
firework displays :
•
Those amazing
firework displays use to be shot from the Alameda, so we do advice
you to go in the old bed of the river or on one of the bridges
around, in order to have a great view and to avoid the crowd.
•
To success it,
don't forget to foresee at least one hour to access this very
alife area. You could try to park your car next to the "Town of
Arts and Sciences".
•
Don't forget
to be careful with your bag .
The
burning :
•
Don't try to
come closer the bonfire ; it gets burning very fast.
•
You mustn't
forget the town is quite big so we advice you to always foresee
enough time.
•
Be careful to
the firecrackers which can result very noiseful or even dangerous
in some cases .
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