165 - La Tomatina, world's biggest tomato fight

La Tomatina is a giant tomato fight that’s held every year in
Buñol, Spain, on the last Wednesday of August. There’s celebrations
all week, but most people go just to throw tomatoes at each other,
and this year we joined in the fun. We had a great time, but as
always we learned a fair bit about what we could have done better.
What we did right Arrived early Although the fight starts at 11am,
you can’t get there at 10am and hope to be part of the action. The
smart people are in the main square at 8am – we didn’t make it that
early but we were there by nine. Didn’t prepare too much but knew
where we were going We travelled by train, and we knew that the
train we wanted left from San Isidre station and not from Valencia
Nord, the main station in the centre of town. The night before, we
worked out how to get to that station (by metro) and we got there
as soon as we could. We’d tried to find out about train times, but
couldn’t – which didn’t matter anyway, since there was a crowd
waiting at the station and everyone just had to wait until the next
train, whenever it might be. In Buñol, we followed the crowd to the
main square, but we knew we wanted to be in sight of the ham, so we
squirmed through until we could see it. We had a great spot which
ensured we were part of the action. Wore sensible (and disposable)
clothing Despite the fact that one of the few rules of La Tomatina
is “don’t rip t-shirts” a lot of people lost the shirts off their
backs. We wore shirts that we wouldn’t mind losing – in fact
Linda’s was one wear away from the bin in any case, so she threw it
out afterwards. Linda wore shorts with a zip pocket for a credit
card, train ticket and a bit of cash, and bought a pair of cheap
sunglasses instead of wearing her hat. Craig wore swimming trunks
with a deep pocket. We both wore sneakers instead of flip flops.
This was definitley a good idea, we saw hundreds of flip flops
floating on the tide of tomato, and many people were shoeless at
the end of the event. Washing our shoes wasn’t fun, but it was
better than losing them. Didn’t take too much We didn’t take a bag
with us. There just isn’t room in a crowd like that, and it would
likely have been stolen. We took a cheap camera which we tried to
waterproof, and a video camera that now needs a bit of love. We
also took a plastic bag with some croissants in it, but we bought
water when we arrived. There was plenty of food available, but we
enjoyed having our croissants on the train. Were in a good mood
Being in a good frame of mind is essential to enjoy La Tomatina.
Some people were angry about being pushed around or having wine
poured on their heads, others panicked when the crowd were too
dense. We tried to relax and enjoy ourselves (and practise deep
breathing occasionally) and left with a positive view of things.
For more information, and to find out what we did wrong, visit
http://indietravelpodcast.com