SPAIN

SPAIN

29th AUG - 3rd SEPT

Annie's, Linda's & Bora's itinery

Days 1-3: VALENCIA

Arrived in Valencia airport on a late Tuesday night with no confirmed accomodation booking! We were fortunate enough to have met these 3 fellow Japanese guys who were also there for the Tomato Festival and they offered us 1 out of the 2 hotel rooms they had booked since one of their friends had pulled out at the last minute. Yay for us I'd say!

The following morning was La Tomatina Day and we got up bright and early at 6am, met up with the Jap guys in the lobby and off we went to Bunol, 45mins drive away where the event is held, on a yearly basis. We were there quite early and got to see the whole preparation of the festival from putting up scaffolds over the residential flats, putting disgusting fatty white grease onto the famous pole before attaching a bag of ham on the tip of it which would in fact initiate the whole festival tradition of people trying to climb up the pole with the aim of getting the ham down so we can start the tomato fight! The climb took a good two hours from 9am- 11am before someone actually got the ham down and seriously, towards the end of it all I had lost all hope in thinking the damn ham would ever come down!! People tried to climb up in groups and they tried to build a pyramid structure so one could be on the very top to reach the ham but they didn't get it right and hilariously they would always collapse and tumble down on one another hehe. In the end they all resorted to trying to climb up by themselves and one guy eventually got it- right on time at 11am!

The tomato fight then began by the sound of a loud horn and several trucks slowly drove by with people in it throwing tomatoes down at you. It was awesome!! We stayed in the main square where it all happens and it was unbelievably crowded. On one side of the square you had people on a stage holding massive and powerful hoses and constantly pouring it over the crowd (possibly a way of cleaning off the tomatoes on us) whilst we all were picking up the tomatoes and chucking it at eachother! It was sooooooo fun!! The ground soon became flooded with the water, tomatoes, ripped shirts and the dirt that's usually on the road- eeew that was disgusting! The only downside to it all was that the Spainsh local guys would try to rip off girl's shirts. Yes, they don't have any respect for us girls- especially those that aen't local! They would pick a girl, circle her and try to rip her shirt off. It is awful as it sounds but apparently it's some sort of tradition. They go abit too far though (possibly because they're drunk) and they'd even try to rip off whatever's under the shirt! I got surrounded by them several times but I managed to escape from them but my friend was unlucky and got her shirt ripped off from the front and one of her cossie straps got pulled off too! She ended up wearing her shirt back to front to cover more of herself. Towards the end I got pretty paranoid and couldn't wait for the whole festival to end. The throwing of tomatoes had gone on for a good two hours!!

The event was definitely a crazy experience for us girls and we have no regrets being there (even with the ripped shirt and paranoia)- I'm happy to say that I've been here, done that and I don't need to do it again! =)

Us girls with the Japanese guys during the traditonal climb... right before the party began

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

Days 3-5: BARCELONA

I simply love this city and would love to come back! It's an amazing city with so much to do from checking out the Gothic buildings with all thanks to the Architect Antonio Gaudi with his famous Sagrada Familiar and Parc Quell... the shopping which has endless numbers of stores to check out and they all don't close til 9pm every day-ahh! ... the many different tours to go on.. the food.. the strolls esp. down the famous strip The Rambla... the museums and exhibitions.. ahh! The list goes on! We all loved it here and wished we could've stayed here longer because we couldn't do as much as we had planned. Though, with all our mighty energy and endurance we surely did make the most of the 3 days we were here!

What a walk it was up to Parc Quell!

Breakfast in Barcelona.. ooh la la!

me at Spain's Arc De Triumphe.. me at Gaudi's Sagrada Familiar

Day 6: MADRID

Well, we knew there wasn't much to check out in Madrid but since our flight back to London departs at Madrid Airport on the Sunday, we gave Madrid that one day to check out. The Picasso Museum located in this city is opened free for the public on the first Sunday of every month and what do you know.. we were right on time! It was a long queue but it was all worth it. This is my favourite painting..