Day 5
Wednesday 30 August

We had our alarms set for 6am as the bus was leaving at 7am sharp and we had to get ready and have breakfast with everyone. Jazz told me that she'd been up sick in the night, I had managed to sleep through her vomiting. Whoops! She was feeling a little rusty but alright so we got ready and headed downstairs to the restaurant at the hotel. There were hundreds of people there already so we grabbed a few things to line our stomachs and found somewhere to sit. One half of the table was Aussie girls from Brisbane who now lived in London and the other half were English men & women who now lived a bit further south in Spain. After breakfast we went to have one last trip to the bathroom before jumping on the bus and managed to be the last ones on so we didn't get to sit together. Jazz was sat next to this really nice English girl called Swathi (we think) and I was sat next to some lady that was asleep.

The bus ride from Valencia to Bunol, where the festival was held, was about at hour. The PP Travel lady on the bus told us there would be 25,000 people there for the festival and that we had to be back on the bus by 2pm otherwise we'd get left behind. She also said that if we had any tomato left on us we wouldn't be allowed back on the bus.

We got to Bunol at about 8am and walked for around 30 minutes down to the village where the fight was going to be. On the way down their were stalls to buy cervesa (beer), Sangria & sandwiches. The walk was all down hill and was really beautiful. Lots of people were on tours like us wearing different coloured tour shirts. Some people had costumes on too. It was cool seeing people from lots of different countries. We said we should have worn something Aussie to distinguish ourselves. The coolest were the Japanese groups wearing dark blue kimonos and face paint. The Germans kept singing The White Stripes like a chant that everyone would join in on.

There were men on the side of the road selling goggles & ponchos etc. We'd come prepared so we didn't need any. The further down the hill the more police & security there was. Their were guys with big guns at the ready watching everyone go down the hill and there was even a helicopter up above circling around. They had a few portable toilets scattered around but we joked there were a lot more Sangria stalls than toilets which seemed contradictory. We shared a couple of big plastic cups of Sangria but then decided we wouldn't have anymore because they just made us need to pee and the lines were really big & the toilets were already disgusting. The fight was supposed to start at 11am so we had lots of time to wander around. The town itself was at the bottom of the hill and made up of winding streets with tall buildings all around. It was like endless alley ways and their were more Sangria stalls all around. Security guards blocked off all of the entrances (entradas) so you had to show your wrist bands to get in and out (through the Salida) and if you had the wrong colour wrist band for the entrance you were at, you wouldn't be allowed back in. We hadn't brought a phone or anything with us so we agreed on a meeting spot should we get separated from each other during the fight. All we had brought with us was some cash in the pocket of our shorts, our goggles for later and Jazz's water & shock resistant camera.

One of the traditions of the day is that earlier in he morning the organisers hang this big leg of ham off the top of a pole that's 5 or 6 meters tall. The pole gets covered in lard to make it really slippery and then people have to climb the pole to retrieve the ham. Whoever gets the ham is the winner and gets good luck (as well as the glory). We saw them putting the lard on the pole before it was erected and they made sure the whole thing was covered 2cms thick of lard. Then the guys would flick their hands at the crowd so anyone near got lard on them. A guy in the crowd made me smell him and the lard smelled like soap at least.

When the pole went up there was a real scramble around it. We stood a few meters away in the packed crowd so we could see what was going on. It was mostly guys trying and it is really vicious. Initially it was every man for himself, everyone wanted the glory and I think thought it would be easier than it actually was. Everyone was climbing all over each other and because it so slippery, falling off. People would stand on each other's hands, shoulders & heads trying to get up higher. Initially they were just trying to get the soapy lard of the pole so it wasn't so slippery. Anyone that tried got immediately filthy from the lard and also just from scrambling all over each other. We saw people lose shoes, phones, sunnies in an attempt to climb the pole as well as break their shoes or rip their clothes. Lots of people just wanted to get onto the pole for a few seconds so their friends could take a photo of them. You'd see them climb up and pose before someone would push them down. Some guys would just try over and over and others came and went really quick. Every time a girl made it to the pole or got up higher the whole crowd would cheer and scream. Lots of the tourists were trying and also some of the locals.

We watched the climbers for a while and then wandered up the street to see what else was going on. When we walked out of the dense crowd we got hit in the face with a big bucket of freezing cold water. The locals were filling them up in the apartments or with hoses and throwing them at the tourists and laughing at us all screaming from the shock. The buildings all had big blue tarps hanging off them to protect them from the tomatoes and some of the people in the apartments higher up had cut holes in the tarps so then could stick a hose out and aim it at all the tourists. The children locals were joining in on this too and looked like they were having lots of fun terrorising us all. It was pretty funny to watch ourselves but the water was freezing and it was a fairly cold day so we were all huddling together like penguins and shivering. Some of the locals would tip the bucket on your head but others would throw it at you which kind of hurt, like a belly flop into a pool hurts. The cheap shoes we bought felt like they were filled up with water, it was as though they were water proof but in the wrong direction.

The streets were starting to get really full and we could see people down the street still trying to get the ham. They had made progress but were still about 2 meters off. We realised we were standing next to the girls we had sat next to at breakfast and said hello and huddled together. We knew the actual fight started at 11am but neither of us knew what time it was. There was a lot of cloud cover so the sun didn't give us many hints either. We heard a bang go off and everyone cheered. The first of the dump trucks with the tomatoes was coming down the street. There were people in the trucks throwing them out of the truck at everyone. It was so exciting and everyone started screaming and cheering. When the truck drove down the street everyone had to move to the sides of the road. We had positioned ourselves to the side of the road so we had cover and were pressed up against it by all of the people. Whole tomatoes were being thrown everywhere and the energy was incredible. We had been told to crush the tomatoes before throwing them so they weren't so hard but lots of people weren't, so every time you got hit in the face (which was a lot) it really hurt. You were having so much fun though it didn't really matter, you'd just pick up the closest tomato and throw it at someone else. We were grateful for our goggles by this point although we couldn't see very well in them. It didn't really matter because we were just throwing tomatoes in every direction anyway. Another truck came driving down the hill and everyone cheered again. More tomatoes got thrown out and the fight got even messier. I think it was the third dump truck that when it got down to us it opened up the back and dropped a whole truck worth of tomatoes right in front of us. We were literally knee deep in tomatoes and everyone just went crazy. The tomatoes were starting to turn into the Sugo and every now and then you'd find a potato in with all of the tomatoes. People would lie down in the tomatoes and everyone would just start kicking the tomatoes on them so it would start raining Sugo all over. I kept yelling and screaming but would them have to spit because I didn't want to get the Sugo in my mouth. The fight itself went for about an hour and by the end we were literally covered head to foot in tomatoes. It was in our ears and our noses, all throughout our hair and inside our clothes.

People were still trying the get the ham off the pole as well, it had been up for 3 hours by this point and everyone climbing had tomatoes hurled at them. We shook ourselves off and headed back towards the pole to watch. There were a couple of girls working together that seemed to be making progress, guys were taking off their shirts and throwing them at the girls so they could use them to tie around the pole to give them some traction. At one point one of the girls managed to touch the ham but she couldn't get enough height to unhook it. She then slipped and fell on the guys further down the pole. I'm surprised no one (as far as I know) had neck or head injuries as people would stand or fall on people's necks. The area near the pole had heaps less tomatoes around then where we had been standing for the fight. As we looked around and saw others who were not covered in a thick layer of tomato pulp like we were, we realised we just had really good spots for the fight right in the thick of it. The locals were now helping us wash our faces and our hands with their water buckets.

We watched the guys and girls trying to get to the ham for a while and then decided we should probably try and wash off so we would make it back to the bus on time. We didn't really know where to go but we followed the crowd down to this stream that everyone was washing themselves in. We saw some space so climbed down this hill and jumped in the water. I stripped down to my knickers and Jazz to her bathers. We realised after a few seconds that we'd made a terrible mistake and had gone down stream and were washing in everyones filth (and probably pee). We climbed out and tried to find some space up stream. It was amazing how much cleaner the water was up there. We tried to dunk our heads to clean our hair and also got some local guy to throw buckets of water on us. It was like being in ye old'n times watching everyone washing themselves & their clothes in the river. When we felt like we were as clean as we were going to get, we put our wet shoes back on and started walking back up the hill. Lots of girls were just in their bathers or knickers so I decided to walk up in my underwear to dry off as we had to get changed before we got back on the bus anyway.

The walk back up the hill probably took about an hour as we walked pretty slow and stopped to get Sangria and Paella on the way. Locals had hoses and were washing the tourists for 2€ each on the way up the hill. There were also African guys who had collected clothes, sunglasses and shoes that had gotten lost or abandoned during the fight. They looked like they had haphazardly rinsed them off and where selling them back to whoever wanted to buy them. Everyone looked dishevelled just like us. We saw this funny Asian guy that was wearing black leather business shoes, no pants but g-string bathers.

On our walk we laughed lots about how crazy the fight was. We agreed on the following tips for anyone interested in doing La Tomatina at some point in the future:
- Bring goggles and wear them tight. They will impair your vision but that's better then tomato in the eye. If they are loose they will either fall off or get pulled off.
- Consider a shower cap too for the actual fight and before hand when they throw the water on you. This is not so much for your hair but for your ears.
- Don't be precious, you are going to get dirty and gross but that's ok. You're also going to have to wash in pretty questionable river water afterwards.
- Wear tight closed in shoes and just throw them away after the fight.
- Don't bring anything with you including your mobile phone & sunglasses, any belongings are a liability.
- Pack some tissues in a clip seal bag in your bra. Not to clean yourself with but for the toilet as their is no paper.
- If you are claustrophobic or germaphobic, this is not for you.

We made it back up to the bus with about 15 minutes to spare and got changed into the clothes we had brought before getting the all clear to get back onto the bus. We left our tomatoey clothes in a bag as there was nothing salvageable. I had a little snooze on the way back and Jazz chatted to an English guy and his daughter.

When we got back to the hotel we rushed off the bus as we both needed to pee from all of the Sangria. The lift in the hotel wasn't working for some reason so we found the stairs and made our way back to our room. Even though we had lay down in the river we were still disgusting and both jumped in the shower to get clean. Our eyes were stinging and very weepy. Despite the goggles we definitely got stuff in our eyes. We both washed our hair twice and tried to brush it through to get all of the gunk out. When we were finally clean enough to get out we brushed our hair again and there was still tomato skin collecting in the brush. We cleaned our ears and blew our noses as tomato remnants were still coming out. It was about 4pm in the afternoon by this point and we were both exhausted. We decided to just chill at the hotel for the next few hours. Their was an after party for the festival that apparently went from 6pm to 6am back near Bunol. The PP Travel lady told us their would be 5,000 people there but we didn't really feel like it was for us so I looked up a nice place on TripAdviser to go to dinner in the old town of Valencia instead.

We washed some of our clothes in the bath with some washing detergent we had packed and then hung it up all around the room. Jazz had a sleep and I worked on my summaries from the last few days until about 7pm when I woke Jazz up so we could get ready for dinner. She was all disorientated and sleepy and didn't really want to go but I made her.

We caught a taxi to the old town but the restaurant we had booked, El Forn del Carmen, still looked closed. We wandered around the block as we just happened to be right near where we stayed in Valencia 2 years ago and sat on the side of the road until we saw a lady come and open the restaurant. It was just after 8pm but that's really early for dinner in Spain. We went inside and got led to our table which was on a little mezzanine level with a really low ceiling. We joked that they put us up there because we are both so short.

The full menu was in Spanish and our waitress didn't speak much English so we ordered some things that sounded familiar - Jamon, patatas, nachos and Sangria. Jazz was really quiet as she was still quite sleepy but she perked up a bit after we had eaten. We didn't stay long after dinner and caught a taxi back to our hotel to head to bed. It had been a fun but tiring day and we were both exhausted. Our eyes were still sore from earlier and we both feel like they were quite weepy as gunk kept accumulating in the corner of our eyes and our vision wasn't so good.