Barcelona

20th August 2010, Barcelona hostel terrace.

Last night we arrived at about midnight in the pouring rain and had to walk for what felt like ages to find our hostel, however now in the day it seems so beautiful. The interior is really nice, I love it. Right now I'm sitting on the terrace in the sun! It's hot and I can't wait to get going. Once Michelle is ready we're gone! So much to see. Here's our room:

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So we went on a hop on hop off bus with the whole thing taking 6 hours. We saw he beaches which we'll be hitting tomorrow and then our first stop was Sagrada Familia, the famous church which is still being built. Building began in the late 1800's and won't be ready for about another 50 years. Yet, though unfinished this place, to me, was so much better than the Vatican! The architecture is beyond amazing inside you feel like you re under a forest canopy, which is actually what it was inspired by. The outside even resembles a tree trunk. I really hope that one day I can see it complete.

The next stop off the bus was Parc Güella which was inspired by Gaudi, the architect that made Barcelona so unreal. I don't know how to explain this place but it's just a super creative park which you must visit when in Barcelona.

After this stop we went on the conjoining bus tour for the other side of the city. Not as great as it was mainly in the new part with the Olympic stadium and buildings. It did have the beautiful palace though. This tour brought the day to an end and we now have most of our stay here planned from now on.

23rd August 2010. Hostel.

For our second day in Barcelona (21st) we visited Casa Batllo. A house which is on our street (along with Chanel, Burberry and McDonalds), which is considered to be Gaudi's best work. There's an under the sea them all throughout and is simply amazing to see.
It was 40°C all day this day so we finally went to the beach. The walk down seemed soo long but we got there.

The beached in Barcelona are packed, we were lucky to get a good spot with enough space for both our new towels. We looked around and noticed something we didn't expect. A majority of the women here were topless. It was like Moulin Rouge but here not everyone had that perfect dancer body. In fact some women were very old, some had kids with them. We kept our tops on and walked through the different types of sand to the water. Don't be fooled, Barcelona doesn't have pristine white sand. It has brownish dirty sand, then that stuff you put in fish bowels the tiny stones then rocks and your feet sink in so it's hard to get out of the water as it's a bit of a drop to get in and out. But it was a beach and after 9 months of no beaches, it was good enough.
We laid in the sun and pretended to be asleep while people walked around us trying to sell drinks, food, hair braiding, massages and weirdly, tattoos. Walking back from the beach took forever. It was so hot we had to keep stopping. That night we went to a music festival. It had cool fireworks and we got lost a 1am in 35°C heat. Not fun.

Yesterday we caught 2 trams up to what must have been the highest peak in Barcelona, Tibidabo. We went and saw the church which looked over all of Barcelona as well as the little park there.

In the afternoon we went back to the beach but later on so it wasn't so hot. The best part of this day happened last night. The 2 Aussie girls in the room - Vanessa and Ashley got fed up with the Ukraine girls turning off the aircon as soon as they walked in the room. So they did it again on this night and Ashley says to turn it back on and they say that 1 of them is just sleeping for 15 minutes (in high heels) before they went out for the night (they had thick blankets on their beds as well). Once they left Vanessa stole the remote and put it under her pillow. Much later the Ukraine girls came back and went straight for the remote, realised it wasn't there, and got reception to turn off the aircon. We all pretended to be asleep whilst this was happening. Vanessa turned it back on later and our room got so cold. Now, this morning, Michelle and I are a bit sick from the extreme changed in temperature. Great.

La Tomatina

"Are You ready Tomato Fighters!?"

24th August 2010, Bus to Valencia.

We're on a bus full of mainly 20-somethings to Valencia. I'd so far enough to say that 95% are Aussies. We are everywhere! Yesterday we just did some laundry and went to H&M to buy some cheap clothes for the fight as well as a disposable camera and we're now all set and I'm beginning to worry.

25th August 2010, Valencia hotel room.

Last night we went for a little walking tour around the town of Valencia with our TravelTalk guide and it wasn't hard to notice that everyone was Australian. The Fanatics, a tour group made up of no less than 1,500 young Aussies, were running around making it embarrassing to call yourself an Australian. They wore yellow shirts with a Heinz tomato jar on it and were extremely loud. Apparently there was only around 10 toilets for them at their campsite. Where as we had a really nice hostel with a room to ourselves which felt like luxury. This night we had our first Valencia Algua, which was really tasty.
This morning we woke up at 6am, got dressed and piled onto the bus towards Bunol. Here's my outfit for the day, swimmers, white tank top, pinkish top over (they said they'd tear off our shirts) and white short shorts along with my good walking shoes:

People were sleeping in the streets waiting for the event, some still drunk from the night before. Constantine, our guide, led us Tomato fighters as he called us down the hill and placed us in front of the church which would eventually turn out to be the center of the action. This was at about 8 am. We waited, and waited. Slowly things began to get crowded and finally a greased pole was put up with a ham on top. The aim is for someone to get the ham and then the fight will begin and they can keep the ham afterwards. If no one gets the ham the fight will begin at 11am. We watched in amusement as people tried and tried. The crowd would cheer , sigh and chant all in chorus. Sangria, beer and fat were being thrown through the crowds. I swear a dead squirrel was as well. Finally the men had figured out that teamwork was the way and a guy reached the ham! he touched it, posed for a photo op among the cheering crowd, then got down. 60,000 (mostly Aussies) people hated him at once. Because this super smart kid didn't actually get the ham off the pole we had to wait another 30 minutes in the sun. And I had already had a hard tomato thrown at me.
It was so crowded by this time, you couldn't move and we were chanting "algua" to the observers on the rooftops so they would throw a bucket of water over the edge. all he sudden you could see the tomato fight beginning at the start of the street. The trucks were coming! We were pushed to the side of the street and you could feel your lungs being squashed. Michelle and I held onto each other as the 1st of 6 trucks came through. The tomato fight had begun.
The people in the trucks were pelting the tomato's at us and the juice stung my eyes so much even though i was wearing goggles. By the 3rd truck we became trapped where we were. Couldn't see, couldn't move. There was tomato slush up to my mid calves. I just huddled up covering my face, put the camera down my pants and thought why the hell I wanted to do this in the first place, all the while trying to remain sanding. 6 lorries past and it was hell. We began to try and make our way to where they were hosing people down with fire hoses. Slowly we got there and could finally see properly again. The place looked like a disaster zone.
There were people everywhere, tomato juice everywhere and tomato's smeared across the buildings. As we made our way up the hill we were hosed off by kind locals and changed clothes at the bus. I had tomato's seeds all through my hair and in my ears. I didn't need bobby pins or anything to keep my hair in a bun on the way home either, it simply stuck. Everything besides my swimmers was thrown out. Now I'm clean but the smell of tomato's still lingers...