Monday, 3 September 2007
La Tomatina
The last Wednesday in August was La Tomatina, one of Spain's messiest festivals. It's held in the town of Bunol, 40km west of Valencia, and attracts a crowd of close to 30,000 people to a town of just 9,000.
The locals covered their balconies with plastic, stores were boarded up, and the streets swelled with tourists in all manner of dress.
Just before noon 5 truckloads of ripe tomatoes were dumped into the crowd and for the next hour everyone joined in a frenzied tomato battle. The air was ripe with the smell of tomatoes and we were up to our ankles in tomato mush by the end of it.
At 1pm a rocket signaled the end of the battle and we headed down to the river to wash off the tomatoes and don fresh clothing.
It was absolutley incredible!! Words don't even come close to desribing the feeling that was in the streets. Crazy!
The locals covered their balconies with plastic, stores were boarded up, and the streets swelled with tourists in all manner of dress.
Just before noon 5 truckloads of ripe tomatoes were dumped into the crowd and for the next hour everyone joined in a frenzied tomato battle. The air was ripe with the smell of tomatoes and we were up to our ankles in tomato mush by the end of it.
At 1pm a rocket signaled the end of the battle and we headed down to the river to wash off the tomatoes and don fresh clothing.
It was absolutley incredible!! Words don't even come close to desribing the feeling that was in the streets. Crazy!
Valencia - Home of the Paella (apparently!) and Nasty Beach Girls
Valencia is an amazing city. The mix of old and new architecture around the city is absolutely breathtaking. It would have had to have been one of the most beautiful cities that we have visited while in Spain.Valencia recently hosted the 32nd America's cup, and many parts of the city, especially the port, had been re modeled.
Susie and I had a great time. Armed with our Lonely Planet each day we would discover something new and exciting about this city. We ended up spending a whole week here d we were never short of things to do and see.
We started at the Jardines del Turia(Turia Gardens). The gardens actually used to be a river that flowed through the middle of Valencia. After record flooding in the 70's, the river was diverted and dammed, and the riverbed made into 9km stretches of gardens, cycling, jogging and walking paths, fountains and gardens.
La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias is a massive 35,000 sq meter section of the former Turia riverbed. Most of it is the work of architect Santiago Calatrava. It comprises of the planetarium, science museum, aquarium and opera house. The opera house is covered by translucent mosaic tiles and looks a little bit like the Sydney Opera House, which by the way is the only other Opera house that has more seating capacity than this one.
We then made our way into the old town. The old city lies in a haphazard manner of jumbled backstreets in the centre of the city. Two imposing stone towers, Torres de Serranos and Torres de Quart, are all that remain of the old city walls and were once the main exits to Barcelona and the North. Look closely at the second photo of the Torres de Quart. You can see the pockmarks caused by French cannonballs during the 19th century Napoleonic invasion.
We then spent the afternoon wandering through the many backstreets of Barrio del Carmen in the old town. The Cathedral and Plaza de la Virgen were particulary beautiful. We spent a few late nights here drinking Sangria or Agua de Valencia (a local white version of Sangria) and watching the world go by.
We met a girl who was staying in our Hostal from England called Lara. She was as mad as a cut snake so Susie and I adopted her for a few days on our travels. Between the three of us there was never a dull moment.
Our first outing together was to the city beach alongside the port.Playa de la Malvarossa is a broad beach that is bordered by the promenade Paseo Maritimo.
On the afternoon that we went the European Volleyball Championship were being held. The volleyball was action aplenty, one player even got a blood eye when a ball was spiked into his face breaking his sunnies, calling for a time out. That was when the real fun began.
Nestea was a sponsor, and they had the 'Nestea Beach Girls'. They would scramble onto the court in between sets to entertain the crowd. In their tiny bikinis they would gyrate provocatively to music, looking to each other to see what the other was doing as they constantly forgot their limited dance moves. When in doubt they would revert to a sort of mambo, swinging as much butt as possible and making rubbing moves over their breasts. What made it even more hilarious was that the sports caster's English was really bad, and every time he announced the 'Nestea Beach Girls' it came out as 'Nasty Beach Girls'.We couldn't stop laughing as that was what they looked like...Nasty. Priceless! Lara and Susie got in the act and mimicked their dance moves at every opportunity they had. This continued throughout the week whenever one of us would say 'Nasty Beach Girl', the others would start gyrating dance moves and rubbing themselves suggestively.
10 km south of Valencia is La Player El Saler. Being the good tourists that we were we had to visit that beach too...
15km south of Valencia is La Albufera, a huge freshwater lagoon separated from the sea by a narrow strip of dunes and pine forests. It's a breeding ground and sanctuary for many species of birds. The views are spectacular. Local fisherman wait at the dock with their boats to run you out onto the lagoon to enjoy the sunsets.
A few days were real stinkers, 38 degrees in the shade. It was so hot that you couldn't do anything. We felt sluggish and uncomfortable and sweated constantly. Susie and I headed for cover at the Mercado Central to buy some local produce (jamon, bread, queso). Then we spent an afternoon in las Jardines del real (Royal Gardens), stuffing our faces and napping in the shade of the trees.
We were also lucky enough to see a live Flamenco show at Radio City one night. The guitar was beautiful and the singer was incredible. Not only did she have an amazing voice, but they way she played the castanets and danced was out of this world. I've seen Flamenco on TV before but to see a live show was something else.
Valencia is known as the home of the Paella. La Albufera is surrounded by rice fields. So naturally one would think that you would be able to get a good Paella in Valencia...
Nearly every place offers Paella on it's menu, and it's even included on Menu al Dia at some restaurants. Susie and I tried many times different Paellas and most were pretty poor. However the place we ate at our last night in Valencia would have had to have been the worst Paella in the world, hands down. We'd walked past this restaurant all week, and it was always full (a good sign no?). First we were told that they couldn't make the paella that we wanted and had to choose one from the pre selected menu. Susie had a seafood paella, I wanted the Valencia Paella (it's a chicken paella). I had to have Vegetarian (as apparently they had no chicken. I couldn't have the Valencia Paella in Valencia..go figure?!). I was presented with a pan of greasy rice with saffron thrown over it that had absolutely no flavour at all. Then to add insult to injury the whole debacle cost us nearly €50.
I couldn't eat it. After dinner I was still hungry obviously, so we stopped at a Kebab shop and I had a meal for €3.50. I can't believe that I ate a kebab while in Spain, but at one in the morning it as the only thing open and I was hungry.
Valencia was far better than I had ever imagined in so many ways. But as for being 'The Home Of The Paella I was sorely dissapointed. Then again, after eating my father's paella, nothing else quite shapes up.
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