02 Sett 06 – Valencia
I was looking for tomatoes… and we were late. There had been a traffic jam getting into town, and now, here I was… following everybody else down the lanes of Bunyol. Looking for tomatoes. We reached a corner � and found, well, something.It was a press of bodies – Spanish, Australian, British. Locals outnumbered easily by the foreigners. Goggles, watermelon hats, full piece jumpsuits, bikinis, sunnies, headscarves. Shirts, screaming You throw like a girl!… Fluoro snorkel masks even – and a press of bodies all around, squeezing me against the wall, the person next to me, the elbow at my head. Chins, elbows, and hair, everywhere. The chanting continued getting louder and louder … and there it was; above my head – my first (and what would later turn out to be my last!) sighting of a whole tomato.
SPLAT!
It hit the tall neighbour next to me, juicy pulp and seeds hitting me on the face. I didn’t even have time to think then – soon I was swept away by the mass of bodies, out of the way of the truck coming up the alleyway. It passed by, empty of tomatoes and the chanting for tomatoes continued.
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!
No worries, I’d found some anyway – squishing and slurping between my toes, in my thongs, and covering me to my ankles. It was a river of red, pulpy mess. I had found the tomatoes – and it seemed like I’d missed most of the real tomato-throwing fun! Not that it mattered: it was still free for all in this alleyway of tomato slush. It was in fact, an all-on Tomato War! I ended up stamping, stomping, and squishing my way out of the crowd, emerging with all clothes intact, but with tomato pulp, juice and seeds everywhere, from my hair to my ears, to down my shorts and in-between my toes.
Sitting in the sun later, letting the tomato juices bake off my skin, I came to the thought: This definitely had not been tomato domination. In fact, I think the tomatoes won out on me this year. No worries: next year is another year. And this time I have an arsenal of ideas to make it a winning one!
+ get there earlier! As in, 9am early: 11am start means 1030am traffic jams on the roads from Valencia to Bunyol.
+ Wear clothes that you won’t miss, if it becomes irreversibly stained with tomates or ripped off your body during the mess.
+ cut out watermelons make great cups to scoop up tomato juice from the ground. For throwing purposes, of course.
