Back in the true north strong and free!
My time in Valencia was absolutely amazing, and I am so happy that I beat my homesickness and stuck around in Spain!
I took the bus there (about 4 hours and the kid in front of me was having the time of his life playing peek-a-boo with me!) and when I arrived I was assaulted by the ridiculously high humidity. After the dry, dry heat of Madrid I had almost forgotten what humidity was and it felt like swimming through the air. I caught a cab to the “Purple Nest” hostel and I was desperately hoping that there would be a bed available since my reservation was not until the next day (though I soon came to realize it wasn’t actually until Sunday…) and thankfully there was! I hauled my bags to my 6-bed room and it was really quite lovely.
The 5-days that I was in Valencia just flew by. A blur of fun-filled days and nights with new friends from all over the world (Poland, Australia, England and South Korea to name a few) exploring a really beautiful city. I think I came to love Spain’s third largest city the most out of all of the places in Spain I had visited in the past 3 months. It has a much more relaxed and calm atmosphere and the fact that I could visit the beach was a definite bonus! I didn’t get to visit any of the big tourist hot spots instead I chose to spend 3 days on the beach and the rest of the time was spent walking around the old historic part of the city seeing the beautiful old buildings and discovering the abundance of beautiful street art. I did however get to visit Albufera which is a beautiful freshwater lagoon a quick bus ride outside of the main part of the Valencian city- a definite must-see to escape the “hustle-and-bustle” of the city.
The main reason for my stay in Valencia was for “La Tomatina”- an internationally famous festival that happens annually on the last Wednesday of August in a small town called Buñol. The local population of just under 10,000 swells to about 50,000 as an approximated 40,000 people crowd the streets to participate in the world’s largest food fight. A greased pole, palo jabón, is the centre of attention for the beginning of the festival as the participants “attempt” to climb the pole and retrieve the jamon. Now I say “attempt” with lovely quotation marks because we stood in the crushing crowd from about 8:30AM until about 11:30AM and no one was successful in getting the jamon down, though it was incredibly close right near the end. You would think after 3 hours of trying to climb the pole that people would have figured out that team work is the key to success but testosterone was burning strong in the crowd and and macho men kept on pulling each other down in the hopes of being the one to retrieve the sacred jamon.
Now when I say “crushing crowd” I am not exaggerating by any sense. The streets of the town are a little less wide than a two-lane highway and you are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with all the other anxious participants. After about 3 hours of being the equivalent of a sardine it gets pretty hot and the chant of “agua, agua!” echoes through the streets. The town’s habitant, who are watching from the above windows and balconies, are kind enough to throw buckets full of water onto the desperate crowd; I felt like a lowly peasant begging the “nobility” for water.
Some of the more successful pole climbers were garnered with incredibly racist and stereotypical nick-names; anyone who was Asian was cheered on with “Jackie Chan”, “Jet Li” and “Ninja” while someone with a beard was dubbed “Jesus” and the only black-skinned participant to face the pole was immediately named “Usain Bolt”. The names were pretty funny and everything was done with good intentions though I couldn’t help but cringe a little at how quickly we place people into racial boxes. I had gone to La Tomatina with three friends from my hostel (two Polish guys and a girl from South Korea, all really nice people!) and while we were watching the antics at the pole we made friends with two travellers from Australia and it was such a pleasure to spend the craziness of La Tomatina with them.
Once 11:30AM rolled around, a gun was fired and La Tomatina officially started. The crowd was parted in an epic-Moses fashion as 5 trucks rolled by in intervals of about 10 minutes carrying the mother load of tomatoes; in total, about 40 METRIC TONS of tomatoes are thrown. Though the rules clearly state that the tomatoes are to be crushed in-hand before being thrown it is more of a guideline and it is amazing how much it hurts to get hit with a fruit… The fight only lasts for exactly an hour but honestly I don’t think people could last much longer than that, it is exhausting work throwing tomatoes! As the gun was fired for the declaration of the festivities end the crowd was directed off the streets in a intimidating crush of bodies, I honestly think that if you fell down you would not get back up… 40,000 people all moving in the exact same direction is a death trap. The streets had become the equivalent of a tomato soup/ gazpacho river that rose to about mid-shin peppered with discarded t-shirts and worn-out flip flops; I don’t know if I will ever want to eat another tomato for as long as I live.
Thankfully we made it through fine and along the way the town’s habitants stood on their door steps dousing people in buckets and pails of water. We were told that there was a body of water just outside of the city and we made the 2km trek outside of the city to the most beautiful body of water, I think it is called the pool of “los peñones”. Mostly Spanish locals were there but the few festival goers who had made the journey to the secluded pool were clearly identifiable by the head-to-toe tomato covering. We stayed there to wash off and to relaz for about an hour or so and then on the walk back we were able to enjoy some of the delicious wild fruit that grew along the roads; what a day!
We beat the crush of people that were waiting for the train and I had an enjoyable ride back into the city talking with an Aussie who is currently living on the west coast of Canada. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting my bags packed for my flight the following day. I enjoyed my last night in Europe by going to a fiesta with my South Korean friend and two new Aussie friends, it was a great night filled with lots of dancing and chatting with great people from Scotland, Brazil and too many Aussies to count.
My flight home was without a hitch (though I fell asleep in the airport in Paris for my connecting flight and almost missed my plane into Canada!) and I finally got to watch The Avengers and Hunger Games- I was so deprived of English movies this summer!
It is so strange to be back home, the fact that I can understand everything that the people around me are saying is so relieving. I have been wearing long-sleeve shirts as frequently as possible just because it is cool enough to do so now. The first thing I had to eat when I arrived back in Canada was Tim Horton’s. Even walking into a Walmart felt so alien. As my jet lag slowly wears off I am coming to realize that I am actually back in Canada. It is amazing how fast my time in Europe flew by, the past 3-months already seem like an incredibly amazing dream. I am going to miss everything about Spain; the food, the language, the scenery, the people. I cannot wait to get back. Of course I am thrilled to be back home and to be able to spend time with beloved family and friends but Spain became a second home for me.
This summer was probably the most life-changing 3 months of my life and I cherish every moment, I feel like I have grown into a more mature, wiser and worldly person. Thank you to all the people who have been reading my blog, I feel so honoured that I have had just under 800 hits since I started blogging. Keep chasing your dreams and I hope that you will be able to go on your own adventure one day and see the far stretches of our incredible planet.
Live life abundantly.
Tags: Bunol, festival, La Tomatina, Spain, Travel, Valencia
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