Sure you’ve heard of a vacation: it’s the measly two week period you end up using up for doctor’s appointments and your cousin’s wedding. And the “staycation”? Well don’t get me started– you might as well call suicide watch on anyone that tries to convince you that sitting in the house for a week watching Oprah re-runs and getting sloppy drunk is a sign of a healthy work-life balance.
No here in Spain, they’ve got their priorities straight. If you’re going to travel half way around the world to see this fine country, you might as well throw tomatoes at people and call it a day. Tomatocation, err, I mean La Tomatina, is just that– a one day event in a week long festival, with 40,000 of your best friends, drinking before 8 AM and then taking truckloads of overripe tomatoes and chucking them. But someone must first climb the greased poll and reach the ham– which I’ve decided to work into my own life. “Hello, thank you for coming, please go climb that greased poll over there and pull down the ham or this party will never start. A bottle of wine? You shouldn’t have. Now get climbing.”
I’d like to tell you that there is more to the famous La Tomatina, but simplicity is the key. There are little rules other than “be nice” and with a crowd of this size, it was an amazingly feel-good atmosphere, which makes for less of a Tomato Fight than a Tomato Toss.
I even got the husband (Drew) out of the apartment– specifically for yesterday’s event and later he waxed philosophically about “next year”. (Um, sweetie, does that mean we will still be traveling in a year? Success!)
(The husband pretending to lick the front of the tomato truck. Boys are gross.)
August 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Great shot at the top, Christine! (Bottom one is fun, too. Boys ARE gross.)
Evas last blog post..Sounds Like New Orleans: The Meters
August 28th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Good job Drew has no hair! Did you partake to the same degree? Or beg off as the photographer!! Looks like fun.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Second Eva’s comment; love that top photo!
Julies last blog post..Mexico City by Metro
August 28th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
That must have been so much fun!
Tanyas last blog post..You Know You’re in Minnesota When…
August 28th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I´m such a hater right now. Throwing tomatoes without getting in trouble? LUCKY!
August 28th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Mmmm, tomatoes.
Theresas last blog post..5 Things I Should Not Have Left Behind
August 29th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Beautiful shot of the little girl!
I can’t imagine the smell for weeks
Lolas last blog post..Photo Gallery: Nigeria
August 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Love the photos! The Spanish really do know how to party and also create community though celebrations. It is one of the things we most love about our 15th century village in Andalusia where we have wintered for the last 2 years.
I love this quote from Travelers Tales:
“Spain in general and Andalusia in particular teaches us
that you can have no real communal life unless
you have focal and celebratory events throughout the year,
in which the large majority of people in that community participate.
That is because the only true basis of community
is not supposedly enlightened self-interest but actual shared experience.
This is much assisted by the preservation of pre-industrial feasts and saints’ days and by a due attention to the rhythms of the seasons. ”
Alastair Boyd
I have not been to the tomato fest, but we have been to so many celebrations large and small through out Spain in these last few years and love how it creates community and how everyone from the youngest to the oldest participate, even in tiny villages. I am so glad that my young child gets to experience that as a normal reality.
soultravelers3s last blog post..Power Surge in Galicia!
August 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Eek! I practically had to go take a shower after just LOOKING at that first picture. I’m with your husband, this is a situation that calls for faking it.
This is my first time here–I’m so happy to have found you. Subscribing stat!
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August 31st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
don’t throw the beautiful tomatoes! we must eat them!
i have to say this looks like a hoot of a festival…so wish i coulda been there with my salt & pepper shaker!