La tomatina is a festival that began years ago with a few local boys from Bunol getting in a food fight with tomatotoes from a near by tomato display after a disagreement. The next year they decided it would become tradition for the two rival groups to fight this way, soon it got bigger and bigger until this year where there were 41,000 participants!

So meeting Annie we organized our outfits, we were told that locals would tear off your clothes so wear layers! We as well as thousands of other tourists went shop to shop buying covered shoes, cheap shirts and shorts. Walking the street it seemed everyone not only spoke English but also were Aussie. It seemed that we had been bussing hem in for the big event for days and now we were overtaking Valencia.

That night Aussies came out in force there were a few thousand of us wandering the streets. We were accompanied by a few locals and a few other nationalities as we all drank (not too much! Don't want a hang over) and met people whom we were going to search out, tomato in hand the next day. It was a really good night and became like a reunion for people whom Id met in the previous five months of my travels. After a lot of excitement and anticipation Annie and I headed back to the hostel for an early night

Next morning I was up at six, it was to exciting to sleep. So I tried to lay still waiting for the six thirty alarm to end my suspense. We jumped out of bed quickly got ready and met the rest of our tour group for the bus trip to the small village of Bunol. The trip went quickly, and as we got closer the sheer amount of people became overwhelming. The streets were full, there were hundreds of buses and even more cars clogging up car parks and near by streets. Finally we were off the bus and making our way by foot to the main street, passing friendly locals trying to make as much money of us as possible as we headed into their home.

Instantly we ran into some friends! It was so unexpected because of the amount of people; but it turned out finding friends in the massive crowd was not as impossible as I had expected! We grouped up and continued, massive cup of sangria in hand.

The main street was incredibly crowded with a dense, sweaty, crammed group of people. We started weaving our way through hoping to get closer to the action. On our way to the main square I spotted some friends of Annie's we'd met up with the night before, we fought our way over to them and combined had a group of about ten people!

In the distance we could see the famous ham on top of a greasy pole, where people were climbing on top of each other to unsuccessfully retrieve the ham. Personally I think it was added just to make fools of the tourists! It was entertaining to watch. As we waited the two hours until the beginning gun shot the crowd chanted, danced, had water fights, created mosh pits, wrestled (there was a lot of extra testosterone), threw bottles and wet tshirts at open windows playing games with the local residents! It was an awsome, electric atmosphere! As soon as the gun fired the crowd surged forward, locals threw tomatoes from their rooftops and things got a little intense. Most girls left at this point and I followed a little disappointed to be missing out on the action! But the lack of space was very overwhelming. For the rest of the fight I sat on the outskirts and watched a massacre of tomato fighting and wrestling! Four massive trucks had to fit through the already impossibly crowded streets, but somehow they worked their way through leaving a trail of tomato armed fighters behind them.

I was left with a shoestring for a top after a circle of locals absolutely shredded my top, it was all in good fun though and they patted me on the back as I walked from the pack. Lucky I was prepared with my layers!!

Walking back to the bus was entertaining, the once crowd was now head to toe covered in tomatoes and headed back towards the buses being washed off by locals and their hoses. Food stalls were now set up and a dj on one of the streets, a mini rave started in the street and the festivities kicked off again.

The whole experience was amazing, such a strange tradition. When we finally got home everyone was exhausted so went home for a siesta! When we were all rested annie and I headed to our friends hotel room for a debriefing and some predrinking for the night ahead.

It was a big and very fun night out! A perfect way to end my trip in Valencia! But the hang over was brutal, as they usually are in my case. And I walked like a zombie to the bus stop and then laid like a bum on my back pack as I waited for the now all to familiar busabout bus! When it finally arrived and we were on our way I crawled up into a ball on the isle getting some sympathetic smiles, closed my eyes and hoped the trip to madrid would go quickly.