La Tomatina and Ibiza

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Hola!

What a trip! We're both exhausted but had amazing times in Valencia for La Tomatina (the Tomato fight) and Ibiza for partying and relaxing. Here's what we got up to:

Valencia, Spain. Home of the Valencia Orange for those of you who are thinking that rings a bell.. We did a tour with The Fanatics, along with about 1500 other people for La Tomatina. We set off pretty early in the morning from our place in Acton at around 1am, having to catch 2 night buses, then a shuttle to the airport for a 7:30am flight... Arriving early in Valencia to check into our hotel (and very tired from the journey) We changed from our London gear (jeans and jumpers) into our beach gear as soon as we could! We then were told where we could catch the local bus to the beach where we could meet up with other Fanatics... but if you know Craig and me... we tend to always end up lost... so, in true form, we caught the wrong bus... and had to talk in our best Spanglish to the bus driver... about getting to the beach... he pointed us in the right direction, but turns out we were at the wrong end of the beach to where we were supposed to be... but we found that out after about 2-3hrs of strolling the beach trying to avoid staring too long at all the topless sunbakers... Eventually we found the rest of the crew and then found some lunch. We caught the right bus back to the hotel then checked into our hotel officially. This hotel was sooooo good. We even had a bath!! haven't had a bath since we moved to london, so we made the most of that! there was a bidet as well as a toilet... but we're not fancy enough to know exactly how that works lol! We had a drinking night with all Fanatics people in the town, which was good. Pretty fancy bars, pretty dodgy ones... At a bar called Gecko... John Farnham was playing, so with all the Aussies on the Fanatics tour, it went mental!

We caught the earlier shuttle back to our hotel...12:30am because we had to be ready to leave at 6:10am for the hour long shuttle to Bunol for La Tomatina. We had to walk about 2.5kms from the bus depot to the main street where the tomato fight was happening. Luckily it wasn't too hot, because the year before it was about 43C. We had approx 30C so it wasn't so bad. The tomato fight started at around 11am, but before that there's a ham challenge... The only way to describe it is a giant wooden pole, slathered in lard with a ham leg bone tied to the top of it. Secured vertically... people have to try to climb the pole to reach the ham. It's pretty crazy, and also very funny to watch. If you attempt it, be prepared to be trod on, climbed over, have your clothes ripped, be pulled off the pole... its mental. It took about 2hrs for someone to finally get to the top, after climbing and wiping and falling and repeating the process. Then we waited for the tomato trucks to roll in.

We had a really good, close spot to where the ham pole was, up against the wall, so when the trucks came through, the crowd got even tighter, and was crushing! luckily we had a wall to push back from, cos you just lost your footing and became lost in the crowd. The trucks threw tomatoes at you, so you had to stand there and cop it until they passed. Then when the crowd moved back into the space created by the trucks you were able to MAYBE bend down and collect the tomatoes from the ground, or pick them off yourself or out of your hair... then squish and throw! you're supposed to only throw squashed ones, but some evaded the squashed part and really thumped when you got hit with them... I had my hat on so was able to protect some of my hair and my eyes from the bombarding tomatoes, but even that didnt save me. It was so crazy... About 5 trucks of tomatoes went passed, crushing us every time. We got drenched with tomatoes more and more every time. The ground became covered with squashed tomatoes, which became really slippery. After the last truck went by the sludgy tomatoes filled the streets. on the main road, it was filled to the gutters with tomatoes. I stepped off the curb and my foot disappeared under about 15cm deep of tomato juice and leftovers. We headed back to where we were supposed to meet. Covered from head to toe in tomato pieces, and juices and stinking pretty bad... the crowd was insane and you could barely move. you were pushed along by the person behind you into the person in front of you and thats how it went for the length of the street. Locals were hosing people off as we walked, and people found and used any source of water to wash the tomato off/out...

The fight was insane! I decided to leave my shoes behind because they were not worth saving. (luckily i bought them specifically for the occasion 3 quid well spent!) Craig on the other hand didn't pack any other shoes besides thongs, so we salvaged them as best we could. Once white, they are a nice pinky shade now.

Very fun day. so exhausted. nap. go out again for dinner and late night stroll. check out the next morning for ferry to Ibiza!!

5hrs on the ferry... port in San Antoni, IBIZA!! Weather was hot. and with about 500 people checking into the same hotel at the same time... it wasn't the best of circumstances... but we were looking forward to our air-con room... only, the air con didn't work... This hotel wasn't exactly nice... the bed/s were comfy enough, and the view was amazing. but the bathroom facilities were dodgy, and it just wasn't as clean and neat as we were hoping for. oh well! not like we planned to spend much time in the room.

We stocked up on supplies... gold fleck vodka liqueur... mmm...mixers, nibblies and drinking water. We spent the day exploring the beaches, bars, clubs, shops, restaurants. We had a sunset party with drinks on the beach wandered around and found a restaurant that made delicious paella (rice dish).

Friday we caught a ferry to Cala Bassa beach, which had crystal clear waters, where you could see the bottom of the ocean and all the fishies. So beautiful and relaxing. Complete opposite to that night when we caught the shuttle bus to Bora Bora beach, joined in a beach party, then had 3hrs of free drinks at a bar, which was deadly. Then we headed to Space club to see Tinie Tempah. Drinks were so expensive in the club, so luckily we didnt need many... 24 euros for 2 drinks... so... about $40!! EEP!

Tinie Tempah was good, but way too crazy. Craig left to pee, and left me with a group of people, but one by one they went to look for each other, and then I was left by myself... and... the crowd was so tightly crammed in i could barely move. So i gave up and went to find them, the crowd to get out was as bad as the one to get in... it took me about 20mins to move the 20m to the exit. Finally I found Craig, but it was impossible to get back in to the main area.. We ended up leaving cos we couldnt get back in, so went back to the hotel after a walk along the beach...

Saturday we had a day to kill, so we went para-sailing. Clear blue skies, clear blue water, fresh sea air, great views from the air and from the boat, great fun. We went shopping for a few touristy things. We spent some time at a beach party where the bloke in the band on stage singing should have stuck to Spanish, cos his English singing was worse than karaoke, and the songs included Aqua's "Barbie Girl", Shakira's soccer song.. so strange. We went to a club that night, called Eden, and saw some very strange dancers... Ibiza is definitely for the weird and wonderful.

Sunday we checked out of our hotel, left our bags there and headed out for a day on the water. We jumped on board a speed boat for a coastal tour, swam in the clear water, and got to use an aqua diver, which was a jet powered hand held scuba thing. Good fun, but turns out I'm not the best driver of those things... hehe!

We went to Ibiza rocks for a few drinks, caught the sunset with cheese and crackers which we bought from the supermarket, then grabbed our bags and caught the bus to ibiza airport.

Home was so far away... flight at 1:20am, got home around 7:15am after planes, buses, trains and walking... Another 24hr day. Bedtime.

And that is it. I think... believe it or not that is the short version... Now you know why we dont blog... it's too much work! haha!

Hope you didnt mind reading all that...

Cheers!
xox

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Photos

juicy tomato
so hard to take a photo during the fight!

Gold fleck vodka liquer
vanilla flavour and so yum

The Ham
Lard pole with ham at top.

La Tomatina
some of the carnage

shoes
the shoes I left behind... and these had even been rinsed.

Bunol
Home of La Tomatina

San Antoni, Ibiza
view from hotel, that egg ship thing is on all the postcards.

paella
actually delicious

night view from hotel
san antoni

ibiza rocks!
and it really does.