La Tomatina!!!

La Tomatina was one of the most fun parts of our trip! Josh told me a little about La Tomatina when he first started researching for the trip and I was torn. Sure, it would be cool to go to the biggest food fight in the WORLD, but how much fun would it really be? Do I really want to spend an hour in crowded streets throwing tomatoes at strangers? Why WOULDN'T I want to spend an hour in crowded streets throwing tomatoes at strangers? We kept putting off the decision and when we finally decided to just go, tickets were sold out! Of course, as soon as we found out the tickets were sold out, we HAD to find a way to go. I guess that's the way things work...

We quickly found out there was a way to go, if you were willing to pay a premium. You could still go with a tour company. They would provide transportation from Valencia to Bunol, where the festival takes place, include showers, transportation to Requena for the water and wine festival, lodging, maybe a meal or something...and charge around €200. It may be worth it to consider going that route if you're traveling solo, but €400 was WAY more than we were willing to pay! We e-mailed one of the companies offering the tours and told them we already had arrangements for lodging and transportation, but we would like to purchase tickets from them if possible. They sold them to us for the face value of €10, plus a convenience fee of €1. I was SO excited at this point! We were going to the biggest food fight in the world!

We got a rental car from Valencia and found our own hotel room in Requena where we went to the water and wine festival, paid for gas and grabbed a sandwich after La Tomatina AND bought our tickets to La Tomatina and we spent €120. MUCH better than €400 and we had more flexibility! It took more planning, of course, but it was totally worth it!

We didn't get any good pictures with our GoPro, but here's a short video. Josh left La Tomatina with a black eye...the video explains it all. Apparently, wearing a GoPro gives everyone a target. :-)