La Tomatina

La Tomatina 29 Aug 07

Okay just to state now there are no words that we can even use to nearly describe how much of an amazing and scary experience this was... but we will give it a go.

After arriving to Valencia and successfully figuring out the Spanish Metro system that took us to the "general area" of our hotel we found ourselves stranded at a phone booth, with the realisation that not everyone in Spain speaks English as we were told by so many that went before us. Somehow we needed to get ourselves a taxi. After numerous attempts which included Renee being told by the hotel admin what she needed to say in Spanish to the taxi company...clearly one of the biggest failed attempts, we managed to find a picture of a taxi that we pointed out to a young local boy and held the phone out to him at the same time... ahh success after an hour in the hot sun (39ish) our taxi arrived in minutes taking us to the hotel for a much needed sleep.

The next day our hotel began to fill up with young adventures tomato throwers. We meet up with a few of them and arranged a plan on how we would accompany each other to La Tomatina 07. We spent the day before the fight exploring Valencia, not much to report there, nice beach, plenty of Pharmacias and shops that seemed to never open due to siesta time.

The big day. We caught the earliest bus we could from the hotel into the metro station then the metro to the train station hoping to get there in time for the 8:38am train to Bunol but due to large crowds of mainly Australians and Kiwis we ended up on the 9:08 train for a cozy 40 minute ride.

The atmosphere of Bunol was amazing as soon as we Sept of the train. The locals had all their little stores set up with t-shirts, food, goggles, water proof cameras,water but mainly alcohol. People from all over the world dressed up crazy, Japanese in Kimono's, Kiwis with homemade watermelon helmets and Spanish music blaring from somewhere in the crowed. It was peaceful in a way you could tell everyone was just there for a good time. After grabbing a bite to eat and buying our camera we followed the masses down the hill to the middle of the village.. well actually we never made it anywhere near the center looking back at the news we must have been at least 2 or 3 blocks from it. After standing in the hot, drunken crowed for an hour trying to sneak ourselves closer and closer to the action while at the same time trying to get the attention of the locals who were delousing the crowed with water from there balconies, we herd the first cannon fire signaling that the ham had been reached at the top of the pole. A big raw of excitement went up from the crowed with everyone singing oh lay, oh lay ohlayohlay o-h lay o-h lay (the theme that continued throughout the rest of the day.) 20 minutes later... still no tomato's and the crowed was becoming a bit intense. Somewhere in the distance water cannons were being fired but we were all still stuck in a hot muggy crowed with wet t-shirts, plastic cups, the odd glass bottle and one tomato that someone mush have brought from home being thrown round, people climbing up buildings all over the place. I think it was at this point one of my jandles broke and feel off about 15 minutes later I saw it getting hearled ahead of me I think it even hit Matt quite ironic really whats the odds?

The crowed was so compact like wall to wall of the street. I can't even begin to describe the feeling, it got to the point that if the crowed surged I would just pick my feet up and be dragged with it to stop risking my toe nail's being riped to bits. Then the tomato trucks started to come meaning that everyone in the crowed had to somehow move out of the way so they could pass leaving like a 50cm max gap on each side... Freak us out if I thought the crowed was compact before... GOOD GOD! Lucky for us there was a side street that we managed to slip into but it wasn't any less crowded it just meant a giant truck wasn't going to run us over. Unfortunately the truck had already dropped all the tomato's in the center of town... not to worry 7 more truck loads to come. I couldn't bear the thought of going through that 8 more times, it was scary, all for themselves really. We gave it a go one more time for the second time but still no tomato's. I was so disappointed but I had to get out so Matt and I kept on heading down the side street till be had an area of 30cm to breath. It was hear that we banged in to a girl from camp she had been right in the middle when the first truck load got dropped she was saying how horrible it was, all her clothes had been ripped at by a whole lot of guys that had just surrounded her and started attacking. She randomly got saved by some Canadian she thought she was going to be left in the crowed naked.

What a downer for us, so was this La Tomatina? We had lost everyone we had come with and still hadn't got near any tomato's.... But alas just as we started walking down another side street all the tomato's and water had begun to gush down from the main street and we found ourselves walking into a glorious tomato fight. Yeah baby it was on, just as we had thought it would be, plenty of room to move around, splash around and plenty of tomato's to go around I was shin deep in them. So much fun and so worth it! We played and splashed and I watched Matt gag every time he got the tiniest bit of tomato in his mouth... hysterical to see I'm telling you! Then the last canon went off signaling the end of the fight. Good times.

Tried to find some water and hoses to wash of in you can see a photo of the sleazy local trying to catch a view of Tallulah's bobby as he rinses her off. But pretty much we caught the train back to Valencia for a feed at Mc D's jumping from shadow to shadow trying to stop our feet from burning cause Matt and I had both lost our jandels completely now... and ended up eventually back at the hotel smelling like sun dried tomato's.

We don't know if we would recommend La Tomotina. We are so glade we have done it now and think it was worth it, met lots of amazing people and would have to say that it seems like a whole lot of ozzies and kiwis just come half way around the world to have it out in one massive tomato fight. If you do go just a couple of basic pointers... 1. wear closed in shoes, 2. just hang out in the side streets till the tomato's start flowing baby.