The main reason we were in Spain for bank holiday weekend was to partake in La Tomatina – the fabled tomato throwing festival held in Valencia. Flying between Ibiza and Spain our group was split into two with James C, Caroline and I having to take one of the smaller Iberia planes with the funny propellers and Pauline and Erin taking the later bigger plane. Poor Pauline had come down with a stomach bug so wasn’t feeling 100% so I can’t imagine how she handled the flight to Valencia.

Lots and lots more photos here.

When?	Late Aug 2008
Weather	Temps ranging from 23 degrees min in the evening to 35 degress max during the day. Nearly all clear cloudless blue skies. Just like Ibiza – couldn’t have asked for more.

Day 1 in Valencia

The plane we were in could fit 40 passengers into it max. Luckily the plane wasn’t very full and we were able to stretch out on the seats at the back. To our amusement we also had two very talkative (and might I say very attractive) air stewardesses giving us advice on where to go in Valencia including the best night clubs and where to stand at La Tomatina! Ha ha. I laughed when one of them said that I especially would be targeted at La Tomatina because I was Chinese!

Arriving in Valencia it was just nearing lunch time so Caroline, Erin and I headed off into the centre of town to explore and get some lunch. After a long weekend of elaborate buffet eating I wanted nothing more to eat than a Cheeseburger from McDonalds. Funny how cravings are! I was surprised to find out that Valencia is actually Spain’s third biggest city so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see how built up it is. Having said that it retains the charm of european architecture. The city centre was very pretty especially the bull ring and the train station area.

It felt like we walked around for ages and by the time we got back to our hotel I was ready to collapse. Unfortunately we had to then go on a massive hunt for bandanas as, after a quick meet and greet with our tour leaders, we were told this would be the best way to keep the tomatoes out of our hair and we girls really didn’t fancy spending hours cleaning the messy things from our hair the next day. The search was, unfortunately, fruitless and we soon had to head back to the hotel again for a quick shower before our de-brief and then the Wine and Water Festival in Requena which was about an hour’s bus drive away from Valencia.

Many people have said that this Wine and Water Festival is the highlight of their visit to Valencia, even better than La Tomatina! Well, it was certainly something to experience that’s for sure. This festival is one of the oldest in Spain celebrating the harvesting of grapes for the season. The event that we went to on our first night in Valencia, Noche de la Zurra, basically involves going around the streets of Requena following the parade of musicians shouting out “aqua” at the houses along the way and then waiting for water to be thrown down at you via buckets, hoses or whatever method possible. Additionally, there are large trucks filled with wine where you take an empty drinking vessel to for a free fill up!

There are also things that go on during the night before the parade starts including fireworks and, if you’re lucky, bull fighting in the bull ring. For the first hour or so we entertained ourselves at the fun fair that was at one end of town. We rode this wicked Pirate Ship that seemed at some points to go past the horizontal but also you could stand in big cages. Great fun. We also took the bumper cars for a spin. Those Spanish kids sure are aggressive – we all took some massive hits and my back really was aching afterwards. Caroline won us a mascot on the darts which was very cool. (Unfortunately Erin left the mascot in Valencia …. How sad)

Then things got a bit quiet until just before midnight when we decided to check out what was happening at the top end of town. Here we found the bull ring and somehow managed to sneak in! Couldn’t believe it – there was a giant line of people trying to get in and we got in through the side entrance!! The coolest thing about it was that the whole arena was filled with Spanish people and school bands and colours everywhere. Made for a great atmosphere. Then the bulls came on. We saw about 5 bull “fights” and to be honest – I didn’t like it. I felt so sorry for these bulls which were made to chase the men and the men were all rather chicken and would leap over the wall to safety. This was fine but it was when they then turned around and teased the bull into running into the wall – now that was just cruel. There was one incident for the night where one guy actually got hit. No gore but his arm sure looked well broken!

Soon after we left the bull ring the parade started. It reminded me a bit of Carnival – big band music, lots of horns, lots of dancing. Great atmosphere. Then the wine started and the water. Can’t believe the townsfolk year after year partake in this. You couldn’t tell who enjoyed chucking water down on us more – the adults or the kids! The whole thing was a lot of fun for a little bit but then walking through the town got really tiring!

Oh boy. We must have walked for about two hours non-stop. Not a fast walk and sure it was broken up by lots of wine and water but we were so very happy to see the bus at 3.30am! We finally got home at just after 4.30 before having to get again two hours later for the big event – La Tomatina!

Day 2 The Tomato Festival

6.30am came too soon on Day 2. Feeling like we’d just gone to bed the wake up call on the morning of La Tomatina was a bit of a rude shock. It took me about 10 minutes to get Caroline to wake up too – ha ha! Getting on to the bus to travel to Bunol (a 40km drive from Valencia) you could tell who had been to the Wine and Water Festival the night before cause we were the ones still basically asleep on our feet with no energy to talk! The closer we got to Bunol, however, the higher the anticipation in the bus got.

There were so many tour buses already parked by the time we got to Bunol that we couldn’t really get very close to the centre of town (Plaza del Pueblo) where the action was going to happen. Having said that we got to Bunol in plenty of time to make our way to the town centre. It was probably better to park a bit further away … as it was we got stuck in a massive traffic jam getting out of there at the end of the festival anyway.

It was a very long walk to where the tomato throwing was going to happen and the only indication that we’d reached the square was the sudden standstill that we came to. Erin wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to get crushed like she and Pauline did at Pamplona when they went to the bull fighting so we made sure to stand in the square, which is the widest part of the street and also where our air stewardesses advised us to stand, and near a wall. Somehow we ended up standing next to a bunch of young boys who basically proceeded, for the next couple of hours before the tomatoes came out, to run a gauntlet. Anyone entering would get their t-shirts ripped off – whether male or female. Even any walking by got dragged into the gauntlet. Thankfully they didn’t turn on us. Many good-naturedly let their shirts get ripped off which was fine and took seconds but if any started fighting back – that was a whole ‘nother story. It was very entertaining – one of the boys actually had a tooth knocked out from a particularly aggressive “victim” – a victim who was a woman too!

Some people in the crowd started to get antsy waiting for the tomatoes to come out – I don’t know how it started, probably with a t-shirt thrown up into a house, but at one point an all in war started between one particular house and the crowd below. We even saw picnic chairs and a picnic table thrown down into the crowd. Ridiculous.

Supposedly the festival starts as soon as someone has climbed the very tall (two-stories high) greased wooden pole to reach the ham at the top. We could barely see the ham so we’re not sure if anyone actually managed to reach it. All I know is that there was suddenly firing of giant water hoses closely followed by slow-moving trucks coming through the streets and tomatoes spilling forth. For those who haven’t already realised La Tomatina is a tomato throwing event that is held on the last Wednesday of August each year and is part of a week-long festival. They say that on average 20,000+ people come to pack the one narrow street to partake in this. So imagine a narrow street barely wide enough to fit a truck, in this narrow street are thousands of people packed in like sardines and THEN the truck comes through leaving just about half a meter on each side of the truck. All I can say is I’m glad we found a spot in the square!

I would advise that anyone concerned with not getting tomato in their hair (and it is a real b!tch to get it out apparently) to wear a bandana or some sort of head covering. We were able to finally pick up bandanas at the festival so thankfully our hair was protected. You are also advised to wear goggles as the acidity of the tomatoes hitting you in the eyes can really sting. At first I was reluctant to wear the goggles worried that I’d get a black eye instead but I’m sure glad I had them to protect from most of the yuckiness. You’re supposed to squish the tomatoes before throwing them but I know that there were many unsquished tomatoes. There was heaps of anticipation when the first truck of tomatoes came through – before we knew it the fight had started and we were getting pelted left, right and centre. Caroline managed to score a few good ones right in my face from point-blank range. Thankfully she was kind enough to scoop out the soft bits in the tomato to throw at us first so it didn’t hurt but it sure was gross! 🙂 The tomatoes surprisingly got used up very quickly and then the scary time started – throwing wet t-shirts. If you’ve never been hit with a wet t-shirt before it is like getting hit with a giant bullet. I swear I still have a bruise on my arm from the first t-shirt that hit me. Worse than the t-shirt throwing was the t-shirt whipping – I’ve never seen a crowd move so fast to get away from the whippers. Thankfully the trucks soon came along again and we could safely go back to throwing tomatoes at each other.

The fight takes exactly one hour at the end of which large cannons go off signalling the end. The trucks came through about 6-7 times and more and more often the people on the trucks became targets more than the people on the ground! We decided to leave the fight a few minutes from the end so we could start to get cleaned up. The day, though not as hot as the previous day, was still pretty darn warm and the tomatoes were starting to sm-ell so we couldn’t wait to get out of there and the tomatoes off us! As you make your way back to wherever you came from the local residents stand around with hoses ready to hose you down. They say that often it will be the, um, dirtier old men who are there to look at the young ladies in bikinis with the hoses but to be honest there were all sorts ready to hose us down. The kids seemed to take the most glee in getting us washed down. Having all my layers worked well to keep most of the tomato off me. Just be warned that anything you wear to the fight – whether it’s your shoes, your socks, your shirts or your shorts – is unlikely to see the light of day again. In fact as we were leaving you could see everyone’s belongings just left behind on the street. Apparently a group comes along to salvage what they can for charity so its not a total waste.

The bus ride back to Valencia was tortuous mainly because we sat in the parking lot for what felt like ages. It wouldn’t have been too bad cause as we could have just kicked back and slept on the bus (by then it was about 2pm and we were knackered) but for the smell of the tomatoes which was just disgusting and sickening on the hot bus.

Finally we got back to the hotel. The girls had a bit of a kip and I grabbed a bit of lunch (I starving more than I was sleepy) and I actually had planned on going for a walk to check out some more Valencia sights but in the end just ended up hanging out at the hotel. We didn’t have much time before we had to head out again for a cruise down Port America’s Cup – host to the 32nd America’s Cup.

First Festival, who were the tour group we opted to go with for our entire Valencia trip, had arranged for a nice giant catamaran to take us around the marina and out to see for a couple of hours in the evening. It was a perfect and relaxing way to finish our Valencia trip but I was a bit annoyed at First Festival’s organisational skills – or lack of. We got there for the time they specified and yet the tour leaders didn’t turn up until about 45 mins later. How annoying. We were then forced to take taxis to get to the catamaran’s launch in time.

On the catamaran we got to see the sun set which was beautiful. The cruise took us late into the evening and by this time we were well hungry for some paella. We looked for some spots along the marina but despite the fact many of the restaurants were still heaving with business many of them had taken last orders already by 9.30! At one of the restaurants I ran into one of the guys that I was talking to at es paradis in Ibiza – small world though I did know they were going to be in town for the tomato throwing. In the end we did find a restaurant and got our paella. Not the greatest I’ve had however. 🙁

After dinner I did contemplate heading out to one Valencia’s night clubs to see if we could meet up with one of our air stewardesses who said she would be going but the long days had caught up with me and sleep was my number one priority.

Day 3

I don’t know why but on our final day in Valencia (we were going to drive to Madrid to get our flight back to London) I decided to get up very early (7.30!) to take a long walk along to the Turia gardens to the City of Arts and Sciences which is an area at the end of the gardens which consists of a number of beautiful and amazing pieces of architecture including the Opera house and performing arts centre, L’Hemisfèric (Imax Cinema, Planetarium and Laserium), L’Umbracle (Walkway / Garden and the Science Museum.

For me seeing these beautiful buildings in the gorgeous morning light was worth missing the few hours of extra sleep.

After a bit of drama, at around lunch time we started our drive to Madrid. Or should I say Caroline started our drive. Madrid is literally a straight line out of the train station which made the drive easier. Its about a 5 hour drive to Madrid so along the way we stopped at a small village to grab some lunch. It felt like the entire village were in the one café we ended up in and the one street village reminded me of my time in Western Queensland when I was out there auditing some interesting clients. I can’t knock it though as I had the best lunch there ever with my hot chorizo baguette. Mmmm ….

Madrid airport is gigantic. Just driving there involved us driving around and around on highways – it very worrying as there were lots of road signs saying airport this way and that way – most often not in the direction we were heading. Got there in the end though so we were all happy.

The trip to Valencia sure felt like a whirlwind one – as it felt like we were either on a bus or on a tax on the way to one event or another. Still I had a few hours to explore the city and I must say I’m impressed. Its very pretty and appealing. Lots of trees and I love especially the Turia gardens which is a filled in river running through the city. The festivals (Wine and Water and La Tomatina) were a blast and something I’m sure you don’t get to be part of that often. Great times.