Tomatina!!

Valencia, August 17-26. Many things happened during the 9 days we spent in Spain's third-largest city, including the eating of a tortilla de patatas made by the jedi master of tortillas, Ximo's mother. We also ate paella de pollo y conejo, fideuá, many awesome tapas, and fabulous produce from Valencia's mercat central. We went to Europe's largest aquarium, toured a many-layered cathedral, and chased pigeons in the Plaza de la Virgen.

And we were robbed.

Yup, our backpack was stolen from right under our noses while on the beach with Ximo and María José. We lost MANY keys (leading to a long night of running around to replace said keys so we could get the car back to Valencia), Chaia's new camera, a book I loaned to Ximo 2 years ago and just got back, and some random clothes.

That said, we had a terrific time in Valencia and can't wait to get back again. The city is gorgeous, the food terrific, and the old friends can't be beat (Ximo and I met through an exchange program 27 years ago!). On the last day of our stay on the Mediterranean coast, I was able to realize a lifelong dream; Ximo and I went out to the unremarkable town of Buñol to take part in the world's most famous food fight, La Tomatina.

I have enclosed some stock photos below to illustrate (I didn't DARE bring our camera), but basically La Tomatina is this:

• for 364 days a year, Buñol is an industrial town of about 10,000 people.
• On the last Wednesday of August, the town becomes the focus of all chaos in the universe.

That's it. On said Wednesday, around 30,000 people descend on the narrow, winding streets of Buñol, dressed in bathing suits, goggles, t-shirts, some with watermelon-rind helmets, and throw very ripe tomatoes at each other. For an hour. Gigantic trucks bring in millions of tomatoes from western Spain (these tomatoes, everyone says, are overripe and in any case the wrong kind for human consumption) and, on a signal, begin to dump the tomatoes on the main street of the oldest part of town while driving at 2 mph up the street. Then people from EVERYWHERE (I met Serbians, Americans, Brits, Germans, Portuguese, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, and Spaniards) join in a messy, red, fragrant mosh pit. It instantly brings out the 8 year old in everyone, and people are smiling, laughing, and literally swimming in tomatoes and juice.
And then it ends (sort of). The trucks leave, people are dancing and singing, and from every balcony in the city water from hoses and buckets rains down on the heads of the tomato-warriors. People come out and uncover their housefronts and storefronts, and begin to clean up the streets. The acid from the tomatoes does a pretty amazing job cleaning the street and walls, and to be honest I can't remember when my hair felt softer and cleaner. The rest of the day is a street party filled with food stands, music, beer, and sangría. Then everyone goes home (or somewhere else), and Buñol turns back into a sleepy, industrial town.

For anyone not terrorized by crowds and chaos, I highly recommend the Tomatina. Just make sure you leave a change of clothes somewhere safe (I did).






Photos from google.com.