Hordes of bodies churning. Rain from hoses. A human tug-of-war hurling wet t-shirts into the air, chanting “Ole, ole, ole, ole… ole, ole…”. It was the most intense experience of my life.
A horn went off. The crowd went still. Then, cheers. I asked myself “Where are the Tomatoes?”
I decided to escape through a side street. There were no tomatoes in sight. Then, I saw it. A slice of red. I looked up, Tomitana had begun.
The festival was incredible. I brought along my old bar-star digital camera that has seen better days, but it managed to capture some pretty epic pictures. I also took a little video clip that puts you right into the action. I’ll post them tomorrow when I arrive in Barcelona and have WiFi Internet. It will be worth the wait. I’ll also post a video from London, and pictures from Paris.
I need to figure out how to get back to London, so that means planning the end of my trip. Errr. That means you tell me where to end my trip… Ha ha.
“Jeremy!?”
“WHAT? NO WAY!!”
“What are you doing here?”
“What are YOU doing here!?!?!”
In a city of twelve million people, I stumbled upon a friend from high school. Times like this always make me wonder how much we miss by mere seconds.
I had a fantastic day in London. It was rainy, but that didn’t stop me from taking a 3 hour walking tour around the city. Best of all, it was free. If you ever have the opportunity to take a free walking tour, do it. It’s amazing.
I also made it to the changing of the guards, which was really cool. Certainly worth your time if you are ever in London.
Tomorrow I am taking an night bus to Paris. The thirty pound one was sold out so I was forced to pay thirty seven… Eighty dollars to bus to Paris. *Shudder*. At least I’ll save a night of hostel expenses. My Master-card was decided and I had to call them. I was terrified when a voice told me I had a credit balance of $30. I thought this meant someone racked up $4970 in debt and I had a little panic attack… but it actually meant I paid too much money on my last bill. We figured stuff out, and all is good.
Tomorrow, before I peace out, I’ll go to the museums like Rosanna suggested. I’ll update you soon.
Any ideas of cities (with hostels in them) along the coast of Spance, France, and Italy I should check out?
Oh shoot, I forgot to tell you. Someone stole the power cord to my computer!!! I have no idea why, but I’m going to have to buy a replacement. Gosh darn it! I hope I can find a North America version and not spend $200. GRRRRR. It might be a while before I update this site again since I only have two hours left.
UPDATE! The person who “borrowed” my charger has since returned it to the front desk. I think I learned how important it is to be security conscious… and how foolish it is to be a bit careless.
Hey there! Sorry for not posting yesterday, the Internet was down.
Yesterday I came to a stark realization. Sitting in the hostel, searching website after website for a Hostel in Paris, emailing about 10 of them, waiting for a response, figuring out busses, making a reservation in Barcelona, canceling the reservation in Barcelona, blah blah blah for three hours was not the best use of a day in London. I did manage to bus around London and check out Hyde Park, but still. I think for my sanity (and to allow me to actually do the things you tell me to in the places you tell me to go to), we need to make plans in advance. A week should be fine.
Here’s the Itinerary so far:
On Friday I am taking an overnight bus to Paris. It’s going to be a terrible experience, but I think it’s going to be so bad that I might actually like it. Then I stay two days in Paris, take an overnight train to Barcelona, then one to Valencia for La Tomatina. I will be for three days.
I need to start booking hostels for the following week, so where do you think I should go?
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I’m off to tour London… and actually be a tourist. Ha ha. More pictures and videos to come soon.
Right now I’m experiencing total sensory overload. It’s 9:00 London time, and I’m trying to force myself to stay up until 10… my little anti-jet-lag trick. I probably had 3 hours of sleep in the last 30 hours? And surprisingly, I’m not hungry.
This whole backpacking thing is unbelievable. I think I’ll need to settle in to it a bit more before I can articulate my experiences, as I am having trouble finding words to describe the experience. It’s simply overwhelming, but in a very good way. The steep learning curve is actually a lot of fun.
Today I realized many things.
1) When you first arrive in London, don’t cheap out and assume you will be able to walk to your hostel. It’s not as easy as you think, and you’ll end up buying a ticket anyway. After you walk 2 hours in the wrong direction. Ha ha.
2) Find out how to get to your hostel before you leave. I assumed that the address was enough. I was wrong. Obviously I made it, but if I was in a non-english speaking country I would still be on the streets.
3) Meeting people is easy. Super easy, and backpackers are really nice.
4) When you get lost, make a video. It’ll probably be funny, and you’ll regret not having the footage if you don’t.
At UVic I was known for many things… but the two that come to mind right now are my abundance of keys and my pink shoelaces, both of which I am leaving behind. Another thing I am leaving behind is my excessive amount of internet surfing. I’m subscribed to many blogs and I have no intention of sitting behind my computer in Italy being a big nerd. So Robert… I’ll leave the internet thing to you. Ian, it’s up to you to keep me up to date with the happenings of the online travel community. Ryan… well, you keep doing what you do because I love reading your blog and I can deal with three. And to the 50 something blogs I unsubscribed from. Well, so sorry.
Enjoy the next 13 hours of your life. I’m going to do my best to enjoy mine.
Here’s a video I made in the Airport. It’s boring, but I promise that they will get better.
I felt bad for not updating the site recently so here I am… and I forget to bring my camera’s cord. I improved - and the quality is terrible. But you’ll get the idea.
Tonight I’m having a big good-bye dinner with some of my friends. Tomorrow I’m hitting up a party… packing on Sunday, then leaving on Monday. Wow.
So here’s everything so far:
I arrive in London on the 21st, and then I stay there for three days until Friday the 24th. I have a hostel booked in Valencia on the 28th, so we need to plan how I am going to get there. I’m thinking it would make sense to train from Barcelona in the morning of the 28th… so if you want to think of towns I should stay at along the way, let me know. It just has to make train sense.
I thought I would practice using the Internet at a WiFi powered coffee shop, and I did… and I’m incredibly slow. I think I’ve already been here for an hour. But practice makes perfect, and I am seriously going to have to learn to speed things up.
But, I signed up to a few video sites so I can upload videos on the go. Here’s a video I made explaining how this site works. Sort of. You already know all this stuff, but to all the new people on the site it might help make more sense. Or not. I’m pretty confusing.
Anyway. I’m going to go get a dose of Sushi and diet coke. Mmmmmmm.
If the answer is no, please don’t tell me. Today I purchased my incredibly expensive $1,000 Eurail pass. I guess this will be the ultimate test of its worthwhileness. The problem with all the information I found about them on the internet is that the info is coming from people who sell the things. How trustworthy is that?
Anyway.
My thoughts are this: even if the pass isn’t worth it, I am sure it is worth at least $500. And in the scheme of things, if I really want our adventure to be fun, having the flexibility to travel whenever you want me to is sort of important. So I bit the bullet and bought the Eurail pass. In three months I’ll let you know if you should buy one too, ha ha.
We really don’t have any guidelines set up about changing a decision that’s already been made. 13 people voted, and most people said I should skip Ireland and try to go to the festival, and it looks like I am going to make a go of it. I read on about.com something about taking a night bus there, and I think that might be the only option at this point, since it is less than 18 days away and all the hostels are booked. As long as I can say the words “La Tomatina!” I’m sure i’ll be fine. And the uncertainty will only make the story better.
I’ve booked 3 nights at Palmers Lodge in London. It was a suggestion left in my FaceBook group, so there we go.
Does anyone have any ideas how I should make my way down to the festival?
In the last week of August, in the tiny town of Bunol, Spain, thousands of people throw tomatoes in the street during La Tomatina: a food fight of epic proportions.
Unfortunately, all the hostels in the surrounding areas are booked up and finding a place to stay to would be a challenge. But Kristy from travoholic has suggested that I make my way down there and give it a shot anyway.
The adventure you’ve designed so far looks something like this:
Arrive in London on Tuesday the 21st. Stay for 3ish days, then head to Ireland on the Friday or Saturday.
Here’s the next branch: I could head to Scotland before Ireland as per Rex and David’s suggestion; or I could go right to Ireland (and start using my Eurail pass) and chill there for a bit; or I could hit up Ireland later and make my way to France and train train train down to Spain and try to catch the tomato festival.
I can’t afford the available $120 canadian hotel rooms, but I’m sure with enough coffee I could somehow make it work. And if not, the failure would be an interesting story nonetheless. The only issue is what am I going to do with my lap top. I’m totally up to carrying it around… but not when people would be throwing tomatoes at me, ha ha. If you vote yes, try to think of an idea :D.
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