La Tomatina!!!

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Trip Start Jun 28, 2007 Previous
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  Barcelona, Spain
Saturday, September 1, 2007

Ole' everyone!

We're in the gorgeous seaside city of Barcelona recuperating from La Tomatina -- it's been two days and we're STILL finding tomato seeds all over the place! :-)

It was an incredible experience -- and hard to describe how 35,000 people and 276,000 pounds of ripe, fresh tomatoes could make such a fun mess! We stopped by the TINY city of Bunol the day before the actual "tomato fight" to get a lay of the land. Of course, we needed to stop for a cerveza and asked some of the locals about the upcoming event. Most just shuddered and rolled their eyes. We couldn't wait for it to start!!

Since Bunol is such a small place, most of the participants stayed in nearby Valencia (another beautiful city - Spain has so many!)

Look how CLEAN we are!!

. The 5:30am wake-up call was brutal, but everyone said you had to get there early -- so off to the train station we went -- in the dark! The first train left at 7:08 and it was packed. We were squeezed together between a man wearing a white wedding dress (complete with sequins and pearls) and someone else with a mask and snorkel on his head.

The first event (and the one that determines when the tomato trucks start to roll) is the greased pole climb to retrieve THE HAM. Grease at least 3 inches thick covered the 50 foot pole and there on top, was tied a whole ham. The climbing (or I should say sliding) began around 9am. People dressed as cows, bananas, and masked avengers all tried their luck. Finally, around 11am, someone reached the top and the cannons blasted, signaling the tomato trucks to start down the streets.

OH BOY! We put on our goggles (absolutely necessary!) and waited. It didn't take long. The tomatoes were flying, people were squishing them over heads (CHERYL!), and we were covered in tomatoes. But that was just the FIRST truck!! Two more came by and then the water hoses started. By the time it was over -- you're only allowed to throw tomatoes for 1 hour! -- the streets were ankle (or calf in my case) deep in a gooey gazpacho of tomatoes, water, discarded flip-flops (some people had them duct-taped to their feet) and wadded up t-shirts

Here come the tomatoes!!

.

Clean up time! The locals helped out by using buckets of water from their balconies or turning on the hose for those who walked by. But we needed way more help than that! So we followed the crowd to the public showers by the river. The water was SO COLD!! We rinsed and sloshed and tried to get most of the tomato gerb out of our clothes and hair so we'd be accepted back on the train home. With all of the crush of bodies, it felt as though we had played an entire game of rugby while slipping through squashed tomatoes! I wasn't sure I'd be able to look at another tomato for a while, but just yesterday, I ordered mussels marinara and loved every bite!

More Pictures

Goggles ON!	That was just the FIRST truck!!	One hour later...	Ewww! Everyone is covered!
Locals help us rinse off	Woo Hoo!! It's Time!	THE HAM!!!	Slipping and sliding!
Even the ladies tried their luck!	Bananas tried...	Cows tried...	Almost there!
Train buddies	The first train to Bunol!	Duct tape anyone?	The local people KNOW!
Last minute preparations

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