La Tomatina

So I was ecstatic when I learned we would be in Spain during La Tomatina. If you don't know what it is, it's the world largest food fight, where the city of Buñol fills with people and truckloads of tomatoes are hauled in. It's utter madness. 

We woke up at 2 am to meet the bus. The company, Festivals All Around, is actually one of my clients too! They gave me an awesome deal! But we then drove to Buñol, about 4 hours from Barcelona. We arrived, got all our stuff ready, and proceeded to the Pre Sangria Party. At 8 AM.

Here we are Before! 

We then made our way to the streets, and found a spot. Unfortunately, we ended up near all the locals, who were throwing ice cold buckets of water on everyone.. it wasn't pleasant. We then waited for the official start of the fight. The people of Buñol hang a ham from a pole, and grease it up with lard, fat, anything and everything. The goal is to get the ham. Everyone failed. At 11, they just let us start the fight. 

So the streets of this town are tiny. There are thousands of thousands of people, and 5 large garbage trucks come through and dump tomatoes. No joke. It's insane.

And then for an hour, you get tomatoes thrown at you, smashed on you, and in places you never want tomatoes to be. It wasn't too enjoyable being the tallest person around, as I took quite a few tomatoes to the dome. And it was a little claustrophobic.... but it was a blast,  And you look like this after. 

After the fight has stopped, you walk back to the buses and hope you can find someone who will hose you off. We ended up buying food from a place that gave you a rinse off with a purchase. You then try and change into dry clothes, even though there's no where to change. Luckily we brought a large towel and just held it up against the bus for each other. Word to the wise if you ever go though, being a baggy or loose fitting outfit. Trying to shimmy into leggings in confined space still kinda wet wasn't too fun! But still, it was all worth it. 

We then loaded onto the bus at around 2, to head back to Barcelona. So yeah we were there for only 4 hours or so, and spent 8 hours on a bus. It was a very long day, but man did that shower feel amazing once we got back! 

Also, in case you didn't know, I actually really don't like raw tomatoes. And after that, I don't think I ever will. I can still smell those damn tomatoes like I'm still there.... 

🍅,

Ellen