ola: Ibiza, Valencia and La Tomatina!

IBIZA
We arrived in Ibiza on Friday lunchtime not really knowing what to expect. The island is definately bigger than I expected, with heaps of buildings (mainly hotels) and plenty of action on the streets. Our hotel room was really good, we had out own room with air con and our own kitchen. That kitchen made me really happy as I haven't done any cooking since I left Perth [10 weeks ago!]. So we did some food shopping then had a look around the hostel. Had a look at the pool. The lobby. Not many girls around. In fact they were mainly men. Tanned men. Wearing not much more than speedos. With their belly buttons pierced. As it turns out we were staying at a gay friendly hotel! After much laughter, we realised this was a good thing as we wouldn't have to worry about what we looked like in the pool etc.
So we went out all 3 nights, the first to Space where we saw Temper Trap who were really good and made us feel a little at home, even though the lead singer has developed an American accent? Entrance was only 35 euros, which for Ibiza is not too bad. We had a free drink ticket with entrance too, but we only remembered about it the next morning! Drinks at 12 euros are not fun. The second night we went to a smaller club called Sankeys which had a few different rooms with different dj's, a terrace area etc. 25 euros entry, water was 8 euros. I think the bartenders were a bit embarrassed when they had to say how much the water cost. The final night we almost didn't go out due to exhaustion, but we figured the only thing worse that going out would be staying in, so we went to Privlege (the biggest club in the world apparently) and saw Steve Aoki! He was nuts, crowd surfed in a blow up pool, sprayed the crowd with dry ice and jumped onto his table and danced every 2 seconds. Drinks were 18 euros! The club had lots of scary looking dancers, the males were perfectly chiseled and the girls were perfectly plastic, but I suppose it was Ibiza! So we had three really fun nights, and fell into a routine that only works when you're in Ibiza, which is a sort of magical land where the real world doesn't exist. Wake up at noon, have lunch, check Facebook etc., pool, go back to sleep at 4, wake up at 8, cook dinner, get ready, start drinking and go get a taxi at close to midnight, home by 6 or 7am. Luckily taxis and alcohol from the supermarket is quite cheap. So even though we had a blast, 3 nights was plenty and we were more than happy to get on the plane on the Monday morning.

VALENCIA
The plane took us to Valencia (which only took 30 minutes), where we were for La Tomatia! The tomato fight! We had 5 nights in Valencia which is a long time in one place for us, and after not having very high hopes for it we ended up really liking Valencia. This first night we did not a lot as we had some sleep to catch up on, so the second day we went exploring, did boring things like laundry and food shopping etc. Valencia has lots of cool street art and graffiti which I took a few snaps of. We found the city was a bit strange in that we'd be in a completely deserted street then turn a corner and there would be people everywhere! Another early night on Tuesday, then up at 5am on Wednesday for the fight!

LA TOMATINA
So up at 5am, wearing our cheap clothes we were prepared to throw away, and off the to the train station. The fight is held in a town called Bünol, which is about a 40 minute train ride out of Valencia, and even though we were up early the line for the train was still massive, but we managed to get to Bünol by 8am. The town itself is nothing special, you wouldn't go there except for the festival, but there was heaps of music blasting, street vendors selling bocadillos (sandwiches), beer, sangria, sausages and souvenirs. We all got a huge sangria which we would regret later... At 9ish all the crowds started heading down the sloping streets to where the fight is held, and by 9.30 we were in place, squished up next to hundreds and thousands of people from all over the world. The houses on the street were about 5 stories high, so all the locals were standing on their balconies throwing buckets of water and hosing down the crowd. The first time a big bucket of cold water landed on my head I was not too pleased, but it's all part of the fun and everyone is clapping and eggings the locals on before long. The fight doesn't start til 11 so you just have to wait around until then; going to the toilet is not a option. This is where we stated to regret the large sangrias! Anyway, at 11am a loud shot rang out, and the crowd started cheering. People were throwing their wet, ripped t-shirts, and some locals were throwing their own tomatoes at the crowd. As for the actual tomatoes, we had to wait a bit longer for them. There are 5 huge trucks filled with tomatoes that work there way through the crowds and the 15 or so people on the trucks throw tomatoes at the waiting crowd, who then re-throw them at each other. Every time a truck came through the crowd we had to squeeze together to let it past, which meant lack of lung capacity and squished body parts. When the last truck had passed and the crowd spread out, we found ourselves ankle deep in half squashed tomatoes and then all of a sudden everyone sort of forgets they are a nice polite humans and you just pick up and throw as many tomatoes at complete strangers as you can! People were squishing tomatoes into other peoples hair and ditching them at anyone within reach, slipping, sliding, laughing, the locals are watching and laughing from their balconies and it's just so much fun. By the end of it we were covered in tomatoes from head to toe, out hair was crusted with seeds and pulp and I knew my shoes were going in the bin as soon as possible! The locals are kind enough to hose you down, as you can't get back on the train if you're too messy. The festival atmosphere in Bünol goes on for the afternoon, but we headed back to Valencia for a much needed siesta and to relax before the after party, which ended up being pretty cool. You had to get a free shuttle bus there as it was sort of in the middle of nowhere, there was a pool and drinks were very cheap! By the time we left the pool water was murky grey and a bit gross, but it was a really fun night.

So the rest of our time in Valencia was spent at the beach, exploring the streets and watching some Flamenco! We went to an amateur Flamenco show on our last night, but the singer had an amazing voice and the dancers and guitar players were pretty impressive. We were chuffed there weren't too many tourists other than us, and it was mainly locals, so we felt like authentic Spaniards.

So we arrived in Madrid on the bus yesterday, and spend last night there. We've just arrived in Lisbon and we'll be in Portugal for the next 6 days. We are going to try and see a football game if there are any on, I can't marry Ronaldo without meeting him first. Will report back on how that goes. X

P.s: no photos from La Tomatina! We took a disposable 'outdoor waterproof' one. It didn't survive. And, as always, sorry the photos are all jumbled.