Switzerland, Spain and La Tomatina!!

Hi all,

Well get ready for a big blog. Our free internet connection is working great guns today so we decided to make the most of it and catch up on the last couple of weeks.

After leaving Deb and Bruce we headed across to Switzerland (we are going back there in September). Headed to Bern for a bit of a relax (except for that bike ride) then it was off to Geneva on the train. Our flight to Barcelona was delayed by three hours meaning that we spent about 5 hours at the airport, but that´s all part of it. That puzzle book you gave me Deb came in handy - pity I couldn´t really do any of them. Ahh!

Barcelona wasn´t a bad place - it was hot and we overate at lunch too many times and Zoe needed siestas after that. Talking about living like the locals do. The shops close here between 1pm-ish and 2.30pm or so as all the locals are off having their siestas. The Spanish really know how to live. Went to the beach and checked out all the buskers etc. Woah, we thought Ireland had a lot of buskers. La Rambla (street) in Barcelona is the best place to see all that stuff and to get offered hash and coke. Dave mustn´t look shifty at all, but Zoe got offered the stuff at least half a dozen times in the space of five minutes. Do I look dodgy?

Anyway, La Tomatina. The funnest thing we´ve done so far. 40,000 people plus 115 tonnes of tomatoes = mayhem, but good mayhem for us. It started off with blokes trying to climb this greased up 5 metre pole with a ham attached at the top. The grease was an inch thick on the pole so needless to say the blokes all failed miserably in getting it.

Finally the trucks rolled in. We weren´t in the main square where all the guys were ripping off the girls shirts (for obvious reasons) but we were down one of the closest side streets chatting to this old Spanish man about the fight. He had tarped up the front of his house and was waiting (in good clothes) for the trucks to dump their loads. The first three trucks came and we didn´t really get many tomatoes to throw (but there were a few t-shirts being thrown our way) and we were thinking it was massively overrated and not as good as everyone said it was. The old Spanish man told us though to wait for the fourth and fifth trucks which were the fullest and dumped the tomatoes at the top of our street which was on a massive slope....and then it all happened. Just like the old man said, a mass of tomatoes and puree made it our way. We couldn´t see our feet because of all the juice and puree and it was like standing in the middle of a raging river of tomato. It was on! Juice kicking, tomato throwing, you name it. Pegging people in the face with tomatoes was stock standard, looking away cowardly so they didn´t know it was you was also a good trick. We did give as good as we got though. The best bit was the locals on the balconies above tipping buckets of agua (water) to clean you off, only for the fight to start again.

The whole thing lasted for an hour and once the rocket went at midday you couldn´t throw any more. The clean up needed in the streets was incredible. And the smell! Our clothes were so gross. Dave soaked his and kept the shirt and shorts...that´s dedication for ya. Almost saw tears when the volleys had to go though.

Oh yeah...and the last thing we saw of the old bloke was that he was covered from head to toe in tomatoes...loved it.

Since leaving Valencia, we headed to Madrid where we´ve hired a car and are touring around southern Spain and across to Portugal. It´s beautiful sun and sand for us but we are definitely the whitest people here, slowing building up a tan though. Europeans love the sun, but it is different here. It doesn´t burn you like it does back home. Zoe hasn´t been sunburnt once, so that´s saying something.

We are off to Seville tomorrow and we may be calling in to a town called Ronda just for a laugh (depends on how the driver feels about the extra 100kms or so). Happy birthday too Mum for today, hope Leo bought you something decent. :-)

Hope all is good with everyone. Not sure when we will get to do another blog so till next time, see yas!

Dave and Zoe

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