There were a few other things that happened in Spain that we should sum up before getting onto other trips.

L’Hemispheric, L’Aquarium and La Ciutat
This was a good two days spent at an aquarium, an Imax hemisphere planetarium and museum of science and art. It is all in one complex, is very new and very impressive. The aquarium is the best past of the complex, with lots of walk through tunnels, strange and colorfull fish, and a dolphin show. Not much else to say, and as there are no photos for the other bits in this entry I will put some pictures up and spread them out.

Hotel of Doom
On our last night in Valencia, we planned on going to Tarragona, home of a water park. We arranged for the Hotel (Expo – Valencia) to give us a wake up call at 6:30 so we could catch a bus. I woke up, seeing some sun rays peaking around the curtains and we shot up realising it was about 8:30. Storming down to reception, I had a wee ‘discussion’ with the receptionist, in front of quite a full reception area. I got no explanation, no apology.. very grumpy, we packed and went down to settle the bill and find new transport. I demanded they deduct the cost of the missed bus tickets; they wouldn’t budge so we walked out without paying. An email or two, we managed to get the cost of the train ticket back out of them and have paid the remaining balance. The day turned out to be a flop, we couldn’t get a train until midday, so basically went straight through to Barcelona.

PickPocket
Upon returning to Barcelona, I was striding ahead through the underground towards our platform with the pack while Carmen was strolling along behind with the backpack. Carmen, heard the sound of the zip on her backpack (heard, but didn’t feel a thing) and whipped around to see a middle aged woman disappearing. It was quite a shock, it wasn’t crowded, and there was only the three of us in this particular tunnel at the time. The bag was now wide open, a quick check confirmed nothing was missing and we placed our small padlocks on the packs to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

Home Time
Final few days we strolled around the streets, bought some souvenirs and went for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. Then flew home via Switzerland again.

No time for recovery following La Tomatina. We arrived back in Valencia from Bunol at about 4.30pm and were totally starving after not eating since 7am that morning, despite that fact that we were covered in food all day. Grabbing a quick bite at BK (I usually try and stay clear of universal fast-food places while in a different country, but desperate times called for desperate solutions) and a well-deserved shower and lie-down, we received a phone call from Tim, our tour leader to let us know that we were heading out for dinner at the beach.

All 85 of us jumped on a bus and headed to the beach, where we split up between a couple of restaurants serving Tapas (entree's and snacks), Paelle (a spanish national dish) and Sangria (spanish wine). Apparently paelle was invented in Valencia, and the local speciality was rabbit. Our group went with seafood, and as Aaron and I had both had a healthy dose of BK only a couple of hours before we just tried things as they went past without really eating.

After a leisurely dinner, we strolled along the beach past families out playing (including many very young kids, and it was 11.30pm!!!) and market stalls to arrive at a night club that Tim knew about called Aquarella. Upon arrival the place was closed, but there were the biggest, meanest bouncers you've ever seen standing outside. One of the guys from our group enquired and managed to find out enough to assume that the place opened at 12.

The place was huge and all open air (probably about the size of the ballroom at uni as a comparison), there were at least 8 bars dotted around and no definite dance-floor. Upon arrival, we were a bit worried as the place was dead - we were the first ones to walk through the gate, but within 1/2 an hour the place was pumping - not bad for a Wednesday night.

I was in my element, all Latin music - some I knew and some other stuff, but all very cool! but it made me realise just how much I was missing all the dancing people at home. Had a really good night up dancing with some of the other girls (which was good as I had completely lost my voice by this stage of the night) and even managed to get Aaron up dancing up a storm. Taxi home in the wee hours and a big sleep in the next morning made the whole day perfect!

Waking early, we joined the group (timthetourman.com) for a 7am breakfast so we could get an early 8:30 train from Valencia through to Bunol. Not knowing what to expect, we drifted in out of conscious on the way.

Once in the city, ahem, town of Bunol. We made our way through the streets towards the Town Square and main street. You instantly knew you were in the right place by the tens of thousands of people on the street and the wise shop / home owners who knew what was to come and had covered their houses with large sheets, tarpaulins and canvas.

We were there very early, about 10am, and the actual festival wasn’t to start until 12. This didn’t stop the predominately local Spanish crowd breaking into sporadic bouts of football chants and water fights. We had by this stage, manoeuvred ourselves into a prime position near a 10 meter high greased pole which held a ham. The festival could officially start when this ham was retrieved. You would imagine this tasking taking only a few minutes, but the rilvalry meant that half the people were pulling down the tower of people while the other half tried to climb. It keep ours and the crowds attention for a good hour and a half. They finally managed to get the ham, much to the delight of the crowd, the festival could begin! Now approximately 40,000 people crammed the small narrow streets, in preparation for the tomatoes, the traditional T-shirt ripping occurred, resulting in t-shirts being hurled every where. Girls should be warned to wear a sports bar if you want to keep your dignity. The troops were getting impatient, and a chant had started 'TO-MAR-TEEE TO-MAR-TEEE'.

It was getting very hot, when a loud bang went off, followed by a roar from the crowd, this signalled the trucks were coming. The first truck was beginning to roll down the street. The crowd quickly parted, crushing people to the sides of the small road in anticipation. The truck stopping from time to time to dump a pile of new tomatoes.

After this first truck went by, there was a flurry of tomatoes thrown, they disappeared into a trampled thin muck on the ground and disappeared. We were left looking around thinking 'was that it', when another truck started to make its way up, then another and another. We lost count, but later news reports indicated that a total of 140 tonnes of tomatoes were used in the festival. It was mayhem.

Words, and even these pictures don't begin to describe it. It was almost overwhelming, the tomatoes ended up ankle deep and you were just scooping very chunky soup to splatter people with. For an hour, you were continually being pelted and pelting random strangers with tomatoes. All being assimilated into a massive human bolognese.

Once the second boom went off, signalling the end, put down your tomatoes, you were grateful. The tomatoes actually hurt a bit when you get hit and they really start to sting in your eyes. Temporarily blinding you while another person takes advantage of that moment to target you again.

We slowly made the walk back to the train station, as always up hill. The locals come out of their homes with hoses to help rinse off the participants. It didn’t really help. When you were this covered you need a fire truck to clean you off. The tomato pulp is in your ears, stuck to you everywhere. With the heat of the day, you could feel it all drying out and smell it starting to cook on you and everyone else.

They had showers set up at the train station, so we rinsed off, and bought a couple of souvenir t-shirts. Which were basically compulsory as you needed one (a T-shirt) to get on the train.

Rating out of 5: *****
Recommend you go, it just rocks. Oh and Spain is fantastic as well. I’m going to Pamplona next year, want to come?

See all the photos here

Being the suckers for punishment that we are, the day after our mammoth stair-climbing effort at the Sagrada Familia, we decided that it would be a nice day to go for a walk in the park. The guide books all mentioned Park Guell, but didn't seem to say much about it other than it was another spectacle acclaimed to Gaudi. They also neglected to mention that it was at the top of a big hill. (It was hot, no water, stuck in a desert, ready to pass out, hot! -Aaron)

Story goes that this guy, Guell, decided that he would have a park for him and his rich friends to play in, so he talked to one of his mates, Gaudi, who designed it. Gaudi's designs are all a bit different and the combination of his designs in mosaic tiles and large archways and the view from the top of the hill made the climb worthwhile.

Heading off at our usual first-day, break-neck speed, on our first day we headed off to see a famous church that had been recommended on the gumtree travel discussion board. Even though I had been told it was really spectacular, I was still just expecting a church... but the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi is a bit more impressive than that.

I think one of the things that make it quite impressive is that it was started in 1882 and is still not finished (and they are currently still working on it). You can tell when you walk around that different parts have been completed by different people as they are quite different. The other impressive bit it that it is currently 100m high, with 4 towers, and when it is finished (no idea when that will be) it will be 170m high with an extra 3 towers.

Gaudi's design, of which you get used to in Barcelona, are strongly based on geometrical combinations of parabolas and circles etc. He is also very into the Mosaic tile look (see post on Park Guell) and does not do things by halves. This meant to take full advantage of the Sagrada Familia and it's views you climb the stairs to the top of the 100m tower. Now I didn't count the stairs, but estimating they were 25cm high each, that means we climbed at least 400 steps, and more likely greater than 600 steps (on the way up and 600 on the way down) as we managed to get lost half way and end up at the bottom again (it's all one way and the directions were in Spanish).

Olympic Village (Aaron)
Carmen seems to have forgotten to write the second half of this post. After walking up and down hundreds of steps, we decided that we hadn't had enough walking. (We have come to a realisation that our holidays are, and always will be the same. We arrive, all excited and not wanting to miss anything.. storm around on the first couple of days taking everything in. Seeing the main attractions etc. Only to be buggered, and have nothing tourist-ie to do for the last few days. It is not a bad way of doing it as it leaves you some time to just relax and soak it in.) So we went to look at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Village.

It is all very pretty, and seems to be mostly unused these days, giving the impression of a slight ghost town.

The flight and arrival at Barcelona all went relatively smoothly, and the Swiss Chocolates on the plane were even worth the extra leg of a trip through Geneva (we booked the cheapest flight we could find). We even managed to find the right bus and the street where we were staying with no problems. We had booked a B&B just off the main drag, "La Rambla", and were lucky enough for there to be someone standing outside No. 25, which looked rather in descript, with no sign and not even a name next to any of the doorbells. Aaron asked "Casa Monica?" and the guy pointed to one of the intercom buttons and we were away.

Casa Monica was on the 3rd floor (which was really the 4th floor), but suited us perfectly. It is a small guesthouse with only 2 rooms run by Monica and Fillipe (who don't speak English, but we managed). We stayed there for 3 nights when we arrived in Spain, then another 2 when we got back from Valencia. We had the best room each time, which was really 2 rooms - a bedroom and a breakfast room, and was really spacious and had a balcony for people watching. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone going to Barcelona. Much safer and more comfortable than a hostel and didn't cost much more.

Eager to get out and see what we were in for, we dumped our bags and headed back to La Rambla (only a couple of minutes walk). La Rambla is the main tourist drag in Barcelona, it is a big pedestrian street with open restaurants, souvenir shops, market stalls, florists, open air pet stores, a street performer or artist every 10 metres and multiple scam artists. A walk down La Rambla to Port Vell can take any where from 15 minutes to over an hour depending on how side-tracked you get looking at things along the way.

A quick update, we are currently in Barcelona. Visiting the local tourist sites and soaking up the culture. Spain is almost just as you imagine it, endless night life which goes on and on. Everything has a raw, and dusty quality. It is the sort of place you feel you should have got a tan before coming, everyone is beautiful, tanned, and sexy. The local hero is Gaudi, a artist and architect. Almost every main tourist attraction has some connection to him )Gaudi).

We can´t really make proper posts while over here as we don´t have cables for our cameras. So we will give full updates when we return to london.

Tomorrow we head down to Valencia. This will base us for our day trip to Buñol for the La Tomatina, tomato fight. We will spend a few more days down in Valencia before heading back to Barcelona to complete our trip before heading home.