Made in Spain

La Tomatina: Spain's Epic Food Fight

• Made in Spain • Season 4 • Episode 2

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Ever wondered what happens when you mix 10,000 locals, 22,000 visitors, and 150,000 kilograms of tomatoes in a tiny Spanish town? We plunged headfirst into the chaotic wonder of La Tomatina to find out!

This annual festival transforms the sleepy town of Buñol into ground zero for the world's largest food fight. Armed with media passes and a healthy dose of caution, we navigated the narrow cobblestone streets alongside revelers from across the globe. The atmosphere was electric – locals offering food and drinks from their homes, music pumping through the streets, and morning drinks flowing freely (though we stayed sober for the drive home).

What struck us most was the surprising diversity of participants. From young children gleefully pelting their parents with tomatoes to elderly folks with canes, La Tomatina draws people of all ages. The festival follows strict traditions: the greasy pole challenge where brave souls attempt to climb for a ham, the cannon blast at noon signaling the start, and the precision one-hour timeline that ends exactly at 1 PM – a remarkable display of punctuality in a country not typically known for it!

We learned the fascinating history behind this bizarre tradition, which began spontaneously in 1945 and was once banned by Franco for being "un-Spanish." Today, it's one of Spain's most internationally recognized festivals, inspiring similar events worldwide. The tomatoes themselves aren't even edible varieties – they're specifically grown for the festival, addressing concerns about food waste.

Whether you're planning your own tomato-soaked adventure or just curious about Spain's more unusual traditions, this episode offers an intimate glimpse into an event that defies easy explanation. As we discovered, La Tomatina isn't just about throwing tomatoes – it's about release, community, and the strangely therapeutic joy of embracing absurdity.

Ready to add this messy bucket-list experience to your travel plans? Listen now for our complete survival guide, including how to secure tickets, what to wear, and why you absolutely need goggles!

SPEAKER_01:

What do you get if you mix 10,000 locals with 22,000 visitors, 150,000 kilograms of inedible tomatoes, and 35 degree heat on the last Wednesday of August every year? Bolinese. La Tomatina. Woo! I'm Nalini Sharma, and I am the co-host of Made in Spain.

SPEAKER_03:

And I am Laura Senior Garcia, and we are delighted to be here with season four, episode two, the one and only La Tomatina. Yes. So um do you want to get into it, Laura? Sure. So as Nalina described, this is such an interesting event. No. I was at a work event last week. I mean, it was really that, you know, we we did this last week, and it was a Tuesday, and we were going to go on the Wednesday. So as I was leaving, I said to a couple of people, they were like, Oh, you know, what are you doing this week? And so on. I'm like, oh well, tomorrow I'm going to this tomatina, and I tried to describe it, and a few people looked at me like I was going crazy. Uh yeah, it's it is a very crazy event. As a Spanish person who lives in the Valentine community, I've always seen it, always been fascinated by it, but never got anywhere near. So this was the first time for both of us, and it was amazing. I think it is described as the biggest food fight in the world.

SPEAKER_01:

It it has to be. I can't imagine anything being bigger than that. Okay, let's first say where it takes place every year. It is in the town of Bunyol, which is just west of the city of Valencia, the actual city itself, but it is in the Valencian community. Yes. So Nalini drove from here, which is yeah, uh near Benedorm-ish. So that took me a good almost hour 45 minutes. It wasn't bad, but still it's a drive.

SPEAKER_03:

And in my super incredible naivete and you know, sometimes not great planning, I stayed in Valencia thinking, oh, you know, Bunyol is in the province of Valencia. It's gonna be like super close. It was still a 47-minute drive just to get there. Yeah, yes, from Valencia.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, talking about the parking situation. But um, we'll talk about that in a second. So this is where it takes place. It is if you plan to attend it, just check whatever the last Wednesday in August is. That is when it takes place. They don't change the dates. There is no rain, so I don't even think you need to worry about that.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it'd be kind of nice if it rained. Oh my goodness. I don't need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Water mixed with tomato. Yeah, definitely a tomato soup, that tomato swimming pool. So, do you want to maybe cover a little bit of the history of the festival?

SPEAKER_03:

The history is very unique. Yes, very, very unique. And I'm, you know, it's one of these things when you start doing research for these topics, I I read different versions and I'm always like, really? Like, you know, I'm not entirely sure that a lot of these things are accurate, but it is what the research shows.

SPEAKER_01:

It's I think it's just passed down. It's stories that are passed down that have taken on its own, I don't know, its own life now.

SPEAKER_03:

This is very interesting. Origin year 1945. Yes. So not that tremendously long ago, and apparently it was a spontaneous tomato fight.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

So, how on unearth a spontaneous tomato fight broke out. Broke out. Who knows? But apparently it was there was some kind of parade and there was a float, and people were throwing beels in frustration. So who knows? It may have been a bad year, a bad crop, you know, mid-40s, you've got, you know, Second World War, God knows. Like, but that's what happened. And it was in Bunol specifically. Yes. They are super proud, as Nalini can tell you, that this event happens there, and it is extremely unique. When you get there, you know, I don't know how many people, how many nationalities do you reckon we saw a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a whole world. The whole world converges on this town that is has a population of just under 10,000 people.

SPEAKER_03:

So you a little village. It's a little village. A little village that you have to be going there to get there.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not somewhere that you're gonna go and stumble upon this village. No.

SPEAKER_03:

Another interesting, very interesting fact from a historical standpoint, Franco banned the tomatina.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Because it was unspanish, you know, from what he kind of perceived. I he see he saw it as something rebellious. Yes. So he banned it. And it was actually in the 50s, Locus actually held a symbolical funeral. Yeah. You know, trying to kind of get it back. And you know, all of this, if you haven't been, may sound like what, you know, but it is very special. I can't describe it. Like, you know, I thought it was gonna be a lot more wild or whatever you want to call it, like, oh, you know, this is kind of crazy. But the whole vibe of the event, I got really, really positive energy from it. And I was surprised how many people of like different ages were there. What were your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think it was probably one of the strangest things I've gone to in my life. I mean, honestly, but not in a bad way, in a good way. Also, it's I don't it's hard to listen, it's a small town. Yeah, it's away from the sea. You really have to drive in and it is up high. So to get to the street where they hold the festival, you have to descend. And it's quite far. It's a good 25 minutes in if you depending on the route that you have to take. Um I I saw people there who were older. I don't know how they managed. I saw some kids, I mean, younger.

SPEAKER_03:

We saw ladies with canes.

SPEAKER_01:

I yeah, I don't know, because we were we did it. We had to go back to the car, come back to the thing, but uh lee and yeah, it was we were dead the next day, dead.

SPEAKER_03:

But I actually said to Nelini, I had like the wor you know, I could barely walk because I really the next day I I was really not expecting for us to do so much walking.

SPEAKER_01:

These little stairs, these little cobblestone stairs, and you're walking through the village. So the I arrived just maybe half an hour before you, and I thought I'd like 7 30 in the morning. Yeah, yeah. And they uh the organizers said you have to arrive. We this was the first time we applied for a media pass. Uh as our podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you, Town Hall of Uny. For giving us a media pass.

SPEAKER_01:

For giving us a media pass. So appreciate it. I was very excited that I got there early and they said, well, actually, I was late. I was it was about 7 15. And they did say they closed the entrance to the town after 7 a.m. Which I thought, okay, this is ridiculous. Like, who's there? It doesn't start. It's a one-hour festival that starts at noon and finishes at 1 p.m. on the dot. Uh I got in, she let me in, fine.

SPEAKER_03:

I thought I had a What did you say to her to let you in?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I was just kind of like friendly and laughing, and she just was like, Who is this? Just go. I think that was just she's like, uh, I have a lot of people to deal with today. You're the least of my worries. So she let me in, and I was trying to find the press parking, which let's use that in loose quotations, press parking, very loose quotations, right? That's interesting. Yeah, and uh also very, you know, organic directions, let's say. So I had a parking spot just sort of on the edge of the main street, which I was so happy with. I thought fantastic. You did good, you did good. Uh you know, I have never been to this town, and I thought, great, I can see the ticket office there, I can see where you collect tickets, I can see an entrance. This is gonna be fantastic. I brought a book because I thought I would read in the car while Laura arrived, we'd go for a coffee, we'd have some breakfast. That did not happen. No. So I now I'm trying to get to the press office, which is a good 20-minute walk at a very fast pace away from the ticket office. So ticket office is on the outskirts. The press office is in the center of the city.

SPEAKER_03:

And by the way, probably do not recommend showing up without a ticket. Because you can't. I understand this year it was 22,000 tickets. 22,000. 45,000 people showed up.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So they have after parties, etc. But there it is an actual ticketed event. So it's not this where you know people go to, I don't know, like say a Santa Claus Day Parade or a St. Patty's Day Parade. You don't need tickets for that. You just go to the parade. It's not like that. You need a ticket, they close it so you cannot access the street in which you know the festival takes place.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it's good though, it's just safety. You know, they're just trying to make sure that however many people are there, if something happens, it's manageable.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they also don't, I mean, it's a town of so little people compared to their population doubles.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

At the minimum. At the minimum, it doubles. If somebody gets hurt or something happens, who's helping you? Like, I mean, it's not, yeah, it is not for the faint of heart. I would not say this is a yeah, you're just gonna go hang out for the day there. You're getting covered from head to toe in tomatoes, except us.

SPEAKER_03:

We did not I think we had like a little splash, but between the media pass and the fact that I think we're pretty crafty and we were like hiding behind like a, you know, like some kind of like glass pane. Yeah, it was actually pretty comical because there were quite a few people with very young kids, like very young, four or five years old, and it was hilarious watching these kids. They were so mischievous, they're like grabbing the tomatoes as soon as they could. And I saw one kid, he was going against his mom like as hard as he possibly could. It's just really interesting, as we said, people of all ages from all over the world, and actually the theme this year was tomaterapia, which is like the therapy of the tomato. Right. Because it is something that you cannot take yourself seriously when you're surrounded by people who are covered in squash tomato dancing at like, I don't know, 11 o'clock in the morning. Before that.

SPEAKER_01:

It was before yeah, it's before. So as Laura was making her way into the town and trying to follow those directions, I'm trying to follow my Google Maps to get my press pass, which was not working. Um, I finally met up with another girl who's looking for the same pass as well, and we kind of found our way to the office. But the whole way down, I mean, the families of the town themselves, they just which I I don't think I've really okay, this is the best way to put it. It's like uh a tailgate party.

SPEAKER_03:

It is a tailgate party, but very, very welcoming. So not clicky at all to the point where we were walking past people's houses.

SPEAKER_01:

They have Yeah, they'll offer you stuff to eat. So they just like here, you want to come on? Yeah, they put out their tables, they put out a tablecloth, the whole family comes out, they have breakfast, they have snacks. Um I mean, there are people who sell things from their house where I no license is required. Um, you know, I mean proceed with caution, I would say, for some of the drinks, but I've never been to a party or a function where drinking really begins at seven or eight o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_03:

We were walking into the town, I think the it was like seven thirty in the morning. People were doing these orujo shots, which I think I would die.

SPEAKER_01:

No, they were doing shots.

SPEAKER_03:

But or just like a grappa sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just shots, shots in the morning. And anyway, we got the passes, we get to our location, uh, we made our way back to the car to sort ourselves out, walked back down. That's probably an hour and a half of walking we did just in that alone before the festival.

SPEAKER_03:

So 12 kilometers. Yeah, that's what it said on our phone that we done that day, even with all the hills and everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Up and down. And by the time we got back to the street, it's very funny because now we're starving. We need something to eat. There are places, but they're not a lot. And we should have really purchased something from somebody's house, but I don't know why. I said, that looks good, and maybe not.

SPEAKER_03:

Massive bocadillo.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we had a bocadillo, but it's funny because the line for food maybe had three people. Then the line for the drinks had a hundred, and the other line for the drinks had another, whatever, 50 or 60 people. There's just few people in line for food. So we had a bocadillo each and a soggy donut and a bottle of water.

SPEAKER_03:

And Nalini at the press area, which again, shout out, Red Bull was actually the big sponsor. They had all these free Red Bulls and everything else. Nalini had her first Red Bull ever.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't think I've had honestly, maybe I had a sip, but I actually drank the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03:

I was thirsty. I was on my second one. Yeah. Had like three hours sleep, and I'm like, okay. We did go back and forth whether we were gonna get in the middle of this thing or not, which was pretty comical. The one thing as well that I didn't know about that was pretty interesting was they a lot of people throw water at each other before way like a couple hours before the tomatoes start getting thrown around. They're like spraying each other with water.

SPEAKER_01:

The people in the apartments have a ho they have their bring out their garden hoses. Um I mean, it's very strange to have a garden hose in an apartment, but obviously they have that specifically for that event every year, and they hook it up and they spray it every 20 minutes. But by the end of the festival, people are standing above the apartment asking, please can you wash me off here? And they do it, you know, they like will hose them.

SPEAKER_03:

Initially it's kind of the people in the apartment laughing because they're kind of like, huh, that person is like dry, so you know.

SPEAKER_01:

So the way it works is that I guess you get let in with the tickets, your ticket. You find your spot on the side of the wherever in the town, you know, you stand there, but people are in the streets. Yes. They're in the streets. There is music. It's like a rave.

SPEAKER_03:

Really, I mean, people are dancing, but we've got so many cute little videos of like people dancing like no one's watching.

SPEAKER_01:

But like really dancing, like as if you're at a nightclub and it's 2 a.m. and yeah, they're and it's you were we're like, it's only 10:30. We still haven't the two of us. Mine's an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_03:

We were not drinking at all because we were driving. So you can imagine you're in the middle of this thing. People, a lot of people are drinking. And of course, they're in a whole different plan.

SPEAKER_01:

They really are in a different planet, and it's a lot of I mean, just people showed up there with uh themed wear. So, like a whole family. They have t-shirts made that represent, you know, this is their family. Yes, full Spider-Man gear. Before the event kicks off, they do what it translates to in English, the Grease Pole. Palo Javon, yeah. Yeah. So do you want to explain that? Do you want to? Oh, okay, I'll explain it. I actually sat beside the journalist from Vancouver and he showed me the footage. We could not we saw it happening, but we couldn't get to it simply because there were, I don't know, 10,000 people between us and the pole. So about an hour before the festival, the tomato throwing kicks off. I don't know what the representation of it is, but it's a wooden pole, kind of sort of like a telephone pole. It's just a big wooden pole. Yeah. They put grease all over it, and the I'm pretty sure it's like lard. Right. So it's covered in that, and now you have to climb it to get the ham at the top. So the way you do it is one, it's usually guys, it's usually teens teenagers. Yeah. So these I saw the video where the boy got it, and um he one guy grabs on, another climbs on his shoulder, and you keep mm rotating like that till the one gets on the top. But the way they hang the leg of ham is you can't pull it. So he made it to the top. So they make it even harder. So the poor kid gets to the top, and apparently it doesn't happen every year.

SPEAKER_03:

I think they said it's been several years since anyone could get the ham.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's not as if somebody gets it every year. Some years go by and nobody gets it. So this kid gets to the top, and now he thinks, oh, and of he's balancing on his friends who are holding on for dear life on this grease pole. And the poor kid, and the whole crowd's like going mental and with the these huge water hoses, everybody being wet, and people screaming and music and cheering. And now he's gotta balance and hit it up so it comes off the hook. And then someone. Yeah, which he did, and he yeah, so he won. He won the leg of a ham, I guess.

SPEAKER_03:

So supposedly that's when the tomatina truly starts. Right. When the ham comes off, but it starts anyway. If it does, if the ham doesn't come off, it starts anyway. But that's supposedly, if you want my perspective, I think they said, okay, all these people, this is probably what someone thought, you know, all these people showed up and they're waiting around, you know, for all these trucks to come with the tomatoes. We need to find a way to entertain them. Some very horrible person thought that greasing up a pole, right putting a ham at the top, would be the best possible entertainment for 10,000 people waiting for, you know, a bunch of tomatoes to show up.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, first of all, people will ask, they'll say, well, like it's incredible food waste. But the tomatoes are grown outside of uh in Extremadura. That's apparently where they come from, and they're grown specifically for this now. So they're not tomatoes for consumption. It's a specific type where you wouldn't eat it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I after that day, I actually think it was several days before I wanted to get anywhere close to either any tomato sauce, any tomato, because the smell, the acidity of the tomatoes, like you smell like you've just basically had your kid pour spaghettios all over you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not. And it's I mean, listen, it is if you're in the melee of it and your thing is to get covered head to toe in tomatoes and you know, your hair, and it's on your and we had goggles too, even though I mean we didn't get nearly we were quite far away. We still wore the goggles.

SPEAKER_03:

I I did record Nalini throwing a couple of tomatoes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, which I felt bad because I was so far back and I thought I'm gonna throw it and somebody's gonna see that I've thrown it and I'm gonna get a tomato in the face.

SPEAKER_03:

Her look of guilt, and then one of the press came up, and because you know, we were gonna go in after they told us, after the we met this gentleman, Dave from Canada.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And Dave from Canada, who's been going for 25 years, said, Really, yeah, get in after the fifth truck. Right. Because that's when people have calmed down a bit, they've had all their tomato throwing, got it out of their system. And then one other guy from the press looked at us and went, you know what? I would not go in there if I were you because you guys are clean, pristine white right now, and you are targets for people. Like they will absolutely, you know, beat you up with the tomatoes, and we're like, okay. So, you know, we were in it, but we weren't in it in it, and I have to say, the police did a great job. That's another story.

SPEAKER_02:

It's another story. Okay, it was like a modeling police show or something. Really? There were all these like really good looking police. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Shout out to the Guardia Seville in that area. I think it's the uniform tonight. I don't know. Like, I think there's a lot of really good looking police here today. But they all the poor, these poor people, like I felt bad for them because you know, you you think, you know, you're a guardia civilized like, what am I doing here?

SPEAKER_01:

Trying to they were like I mean, they were stone faced while like people are throwing tomatoes and bikinis and like, yeah, whatever. And they're just like very straight faced, very professional, watching everybody. They have the helicopter that flies over to make sure you know things are safe. Um, I don't know of any incidents that happened other than petty theft.

SPEAKER_03:

Because what happened was during before it was like people got really into the throwing of the tomatoes, and then it was very common. So actually, supposedly they kind of put some rules out there. Like, you know, you're supposed to only throw tomatoes, like don't throw bottles or hard objects, which again is interesting that you have to tell people that. Uh squish your tomatoes before throwing them. So if you get a whole tomato, you're supposed to squish it. Okay. So that again, because the the whole tomato is like throwing a rock at someone, so you can imagine it'd be quite painful. Don't tear clothes. So that is what I saw. A couple of people going up to the police going, Oh, you know, like I got like someone grabbed my t-shirt and like they tore it, kind of getting to um and then the other thing is uh stop when the second cannon. Right. So there's a st there's a start where everybody just goes, ah, you know, and then there is a stop. And they do ask you not to throw tomatoes at the people in the balconies.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But where we were standing, that the that's the only thing the two guys beside us were doing.

SPEAKER_03:

So here's my take on it. I believe the guys that were standing besides us worked at the town hall, and they were throwing tomatoes at some of their colleagues.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh it must have been, because it's the only direction they threw tomatoes was through that window at the women standing there.

SPEAKER_03:

And I kept kind of seeing they knew each other. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

They must have.

SPEAKER_03:

They knew each other. It was it was pretty comical for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So, I mean, overall, would you go again?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, I would. I think if I go again, I think I am gonna go again. If I go again, I would like to make it so that I am not driving. Right, you know, in and out. I don't know how. I'd have to figure the logistics of this out. I mean, we've seen quite a few people on bus tours, which again, interesting how those buses smell afterwards. It would have been especially some people that I think came because there were signs, just like Madrid, Barcelona. I'm thinking, oh my god, eight hours in a bus to Barcelona after being in this thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they have people. I mean, we saw the guy when we were leaving on the our side, that side street we were on. He had, I think he was with the town, but he had a hose and he was hosing people off one by one. Right. It's just a hose though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

There was no like soap or anything.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's no soap.

SPEAKER_03:

Just say it's like, you know, a lot to go through. But I would go back not having to drive if someone else was driving, because I do think it would be fun to have a couple of drinks and kind of get into it a little bit. You know, stone closed over like throwing tomatoes at each other is an interesting situation.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's why it's there's a lot of morning drinking. Yeah. Like but it is it's an event that I mean, congratulations to that town of where they bring in, I mean, the tourists spend money on drinks, they bring a tour in, there's an after party, you have to buy tickets. It has to generate revenue for that town.

SPEAKER_03:

Like, yeah, I mean, and the pr even though the press passes like the press area was an interesting location, it was very well set up. They were very kind, they were very responsive, you know, leading up to it. So I think it was a great experience. To me, what I would describe from an observation standpoint is it was almost like cathartic for people. I think so. Like people are going in there, and you can you can see people of all different ages, like we mentioned, and they're coming out, and one lady, you know, she's smoking a cigarette, and then she's turning around to the lady next to her, and you can see the other lady's going, like, I'm not going back in there. She's like, I'm going back in, you know, she puts her goggles on and she's back in there. So I think there's something in it of people just like just let it all out, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think for some people it is a bucket list item. Like it's something that they want to do because they go specifically to it, they are prepared and they are going all in with the the trucks and the throwing and the music and drinking, everything. It's interesting because the people that were in the trucks throwing the tomatoes, over the last couple of years, it's only been reserved for residents of the town. So it's kind of an honor to you know be asked to do that. The last few years they've started to invite influencers into the trucks, so you know, too, which I don't know how they could even make it any more popular. They have a capped number of tickets, and the tickets are sold out.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so that it's not a popularity thing. No, the one thing that was interesting as well is the the the covers, how they cover the whole town. Yes. Because of course it's dirty, so you know, they put these like blue tarps, is that what you call them?

SPEAKER_01:

So they put tarps over the facade, the faces of all the buildings in which this and the street that the trucks make their way down, it is not streets, a street, the one street. It is very small. It's a very narrow little street, it's just a very typical Spanish village street. Like that's the only way to describe it, with shops and a few restaurants, and you know, the town hall and the little town square, and this is where thousands of people converge to take part in this. So it's very, very special. Good for good for Bunyol.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. I think uh a few facts that I kind of uh thought were interesting that I actually saw afterwards that I thought we could share. In 2015, the tomatoes that they got in were so acidic that it temporarily damaged the town's drainage system. Oh, so the juice that was coming out was so acidic that it like damaged the drains. Interesting. And then also I read that in Japan there's a tomatina theme obstacle race called the tomatina run. Trust the Japanese isn't Japan, it keeps coming back. And apart from that, even airlines have used it as an ad to advertise Spain.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Which I think is quite interesting because if you think about most Spanish people have never been to the Tomatina, will never go to the Tomatina. It's the kind of thing that the following day they kind of see on TV go, all these crazy people. It's like the San Fermin, you know, with the running of the bulls and all that. Most people in this country will never go to that. It's like one, but it is highly representative for people from outside of Spain.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I've I've also read that the popularity of it, um, other places in the world. So there, I think in Nevada and Colorado, there's some kind of tomato throwing festival every year of two odd places, but uh in China as well as India, they that's crazy. They have uh, you know, um I mean a much smaller version, but it's based and in Colombia. And they do say it is based on the that particular festival. Go buñol.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Made me laugh when you said the tomato festival because uh Nalini and I were, you know, laughing that you know the day before she, you know, spoke with her husband and I was like, So, did you, you know, did you tell your husband we're going today? She said, Yeah, I told him we're going to the tomato festival. I said, I don't know if tomato festival is quite representative of how I would describe this. Because that kind of sounds like we're going to like a nice, calm, like gar you know, a farmer's market that sells like it's like this is more like a massive food fight.

SPEAKER_01:

Food fight, and it's a huge street party. It's what it is. It's a morning street party. But I mean, they ran it exactly on time. That cannon goes off at noon, the trucks start, the tomatoes start flying, it continues, and up until about 10 to 1, that double cannon goes and it's done, and everybody gets starts to make their way out.

SPEAKER_03:

I have to say, if you were to tell me that as a Spanish person, I would be like, No way, no way. No, every single time you go to an event here, it's like, oh, it starts at such time. A concert, you name it, unless it's something like religious, like you know, the Easter and it has and you know, three hours later it was like, what is going on? You know, why are we late? You've been planning for this all year. No, in this case, yeah, you said it's extremely timely.

SPEAKER_01:

And just a word, a little piece of advice. Um, if you do happen to attend this next year, uh they Guardia Seville have, or at least this year, had two uh checkpoints. Don't drink and drive. Do not drink and drive. I mean, don't drink and drive in general, obviously. But just yeah, you will get they breath, they were breathalyzing almost every car leaving.

SPEAKER_03:

I have to say, I I it's embarrassing, but that so they did stop me, and I had not had to, you know, blow into a breathalyzer machine. I don't know, like 10 years or something. So, you know, all of a sudden, even though you haven't done anything, we haven't been drinking or anything. I wanted to be nervous.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, we had and honestly the car before me, and I thought, oh my god, I'm gonna get stopped. I'm gonna have to do a breather. I've never done a breathalyzer. I start to panic because they're so serious, Guardia Seville.

SPEAKER_03:

They're not friendly. I actually I actually didn't tell you fully what happened as well. Where he handed me the thing and then I started blowing into it. He's like, Lady, you have to take it out of the plastic bag. And I'm like, what? It was in a little plastic bag. And I just start like he put it in the machine. I just started blowing into it. It was in a little plastic bag. And he's like, You have to take the little plastic bag. Wait, but are they individual ones? Oh, okay. I'm looking at the case. And then you put them in and he's looking at me. I'm like, I'm sorry. And then I try to crack a joke. I'm like, this is like tests for Red Bull. And he's like, not laughing. I'm like, no, they're not. They're not over.

SPEAKER_01:

They're not there for jokes. They are not. They're they are working and they're going to get people. So I didn't, they did not. I think they looked at my hair and my face, and I was just like, They just went, okay, zero, zero.

SPEAKER_03:

You're good.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, but yeah, you immediately anyway. So but again, good for the town that they put controls in, even though I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

I really say this to every person that comes here, rents a car. Do not take the car.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, just don't stay in an Airbnb or what have you, or at least be prepared. You need to have a designated driver if you're going in a group. And the festival is so big now, there's an after party sponsored by Red Bull. Yes. There's an after party.

SPEAKER_03:

It was a huge at the bull fight? No, at the sports center. Yeah. The sports scene.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's a huge after party where after you shower off.

SPEAKER_03:

We were we were done. No, yeah, we left.

SPEAKER_01:

But it was I mean, can you imagine from this little town that it started off as something small and it's grown and grown and grown?

SPEAKER_03:

Food fight in 9040, 1945, to what it is now.

SPEAKER_01:

And now Red Bull's a sponsor of the you know La Tomantina after party, which again, I think it's fantastic for that the town.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Slice of life, slice of life.

unknown:

Yay!

SPEAKER_03:

Slice of life. Slice of life. So Laura, what are we having? We are having a little bit of toast with the tomato.

SPEAKER_01:

Tomato on it, which is very typical Spanish breakfast here.

SPEAKER_03:

Olive oil. We actually had this in our first ever episode. Pan con tomate. But Nalini likes it so much that we had to bring it back.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's my favorite. It's my favorite breakfast. I love it. What's important is that if you make this at home, you have to grate the tomato. You don't put it with the skin. So you take the tomato on a box grater, grate it, and it's the inside.

SPEAKER_03:

Some people will also put a bit of garlic in it. I personally find if you're having it in the morning, especially, it's a bit heavy.

SPEAKER_01:

But it's honestly my favorite breakfast. So uh we're gonna talk about uh in Slice of Life today, the idea of retiring here in Spain, specifically Alicante.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, so Alicante, and actually I've seen a couple of articles even yesterday about you know assessing how far will X amount of money get you depending on the city. Right. And the first thing it's said on there is definitely, you know, unless you have a lot that you're retiring with, maybe best not to consider Madrid or Barcelona.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. I mean they're big cities and they're they're big cities, they're very expensive.

SPEAKER_03:

I always say to people, it's like if you think of other European cities, so if you think of uh a Paris or a London, you know, you are still going to have you know find things more affordable in Madrid. Yeah. But compared to the rest of Spain, it's still expensive. Yes. Alicante is a city that over the last few years, and we are going to do an episode, uh actually, like in a in a couple of episodes, we're gonna do a full episode specifically focused on the gastronomical side of things. But it's a city that over the last few years it's got prettier. They have invested a lot in refurbishing different parts of the city. There is quite a lot of compared to other cities, there is quite a lot of housing um available from a from a rental and purchasing standpoint. So it is supposed to be a really great city to retire in. Alicante and Valencia.

SPEAKER_01:

If you want the city lifestyle, could because they consistently um when they do these sort of studies and you see articles about best places to retire as an expat if you're coming from America or Canada, for example, or even somewhere else, how far your dollar would go. Valencia sometimes tops the list. Um, and now Ali Kante is starting to pop up on it because it is. I mean, I don't know what it looked like prior. I've only lived here for a number of years, but the promenade was dice here before, but it has got a lot better. Well, the promenade is quite beautiful when you're deep near the water, it is actually very pretty. And for a city, uh what people might not realize is that you have a beach.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you have beaches that you can beach here, yeah. And beaches and beach clubs, which again you don't find in a lot of other places, and also the again, the cuisine, which we will be speaking about. And it's also very easy access. The airport is a very unique little airport. It is, it's actually a pretty good airport. It even has a beer garden. The airport? Yes, it does. Where? It it it's got like this Budweiser beer garden that you can sit outside. It's one of the only airports in Spain that I've seen that you can actually sit outside and drink beer at the airport. Inside, I mean, after you've kind of gone through security. Really? Yes. Oh, I had no idea. It's even like a little casino in there. Oh a little gate. It's really strange. It's Alicante Airport, it's very unique. I mean, I actually like traveling in and out of there way better than Valencia. It has more, believe it or not. Yes, Alicante Airport has way more options for food for a lot of different things than Valencia Airport. If you go to Valencia Airport expecting anything, you will be disappointed.

SPEAKER_01:

Very much and oddly enough, Valencia tends to have more flights. Yes. Even though Alicante is one of the busiest airports in Spain.

SPEAKER_03:

We are going to do this in a few weeks, but I think one of the funnest things to do from Alicante Airport is just take, you know, one of these like random, where are we going, and look for cheap flights, and especially with Welling, you know, they tend to have a a ton of options. I mean, I've flown to Moscow from Alicante. Direct. Oh, you can fly to Iceland. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Direct. Yeah, direct from Alicante.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So a great place to retire as well, because if you are coming here and you want to be able to travel, you can you can from the airport, most definitely.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about the market culture here in Spain, which and I know this is very strange as I'm holding this. Shall I hold this up?

SPEAKER_03:

Nalini, so for those of you who are watching us on YouTube or or are seeing this on socials, Nalini's been holding this like gigantic It's an eggplant.

SPEAKER_02:

I found at the local market.

SPEAKER_03:

And full disclaimer, yesterday she called me and she said, I'm standing here in front of this like supermarket stand, and there is a very funny, weirdly shaped eggplant. Yeah. Dot dot dot.

SPEAKER_01:

So I said, I'm going to buy it. So I bought it. And I said, I'm gonna use it. And the lady who was actually, I shopped from her every week. She was laughing because she just had it on display. She didn't think anybody would buy it. And I said, I really can I I want to buy that eggplant. So she thought it was funny. But the market culture here actually dates back to I mean, prior to the 12th century. Wow. So it's from the time of when the Moors ruled Spain, and it it comes from the souk culture. Yes. So these markets where as a grower, a farmer, you have something to sell uh to in that village, you would come together from outside, you put your wares out, and you sell it to the local villagers. I mean, time goes on, cities industrialize, become more modern. Some of the you know, big Mercats now are in, you know, like in Madrid or Barcelona or bigger cities. Even Alicante has a quite a big Mercat on the Benedonor was a huge one.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But uh I'm saying the ones that have moved inside. So okay, but natural mercados. Yeah, so they went from being street markets to being more permanent fixtures. But the towns along, especially on this side of the coast, on the Costa Blanca, every week each town has a specific market day in which you get fresh produce, you get, I mean, uh I mean, if you need a part for your washing machine, you can probably find it at the local market. It's just a random collection of things. So in my local market, it happens to be on a Sunday, and I love going because I get super fresh produce. They sell things that are seasonal. So right now you're not getting berries, for example. You there are trucks full of watermelons and melons and peaches and plums, eggplants, um, those types of things. Uh and it's very inexpensive. So if you I I take a bag of coins when I go, I barely even use bills, it's just coins. You can buy fresher things for a fraction of the price. And it's really interesting too. It's just an interesting kind of collection of people at the local market.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a really good activity to do, even if you're just walking around and looking. And it's funny that you say that because I immediately said, Oh, the Benedict Market is on Wednesday and Sunday, because when I would, you know, when I live there, like you everybody just knows like that is the market day. It's the day that you want to go buy XYZ. And there's always like really unique things. Like most markets, maybe not the one in Polo, but uh some of the bigger ones have the salted fish stand.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, we don't have that.

SPEAKER_03:

So we have roast chicken. Poisado. It's like you always know when you're getting close to the salted fish stand. Because you can imagine, like in the middle of August, and you've got like salted cod, it smells like you know, it's they just buy you buy it there or oh, okay. Yeah, you they have like you know, the salted fish hanging sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I mean this is very interesting because in my local market there are vegetables. There's a lot of vegetables, um, fresh produce. We have uh one stand where they sell all the fresh um spices.

SPEAKER_03:

Which I haven't actually seen that in other ones.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, they have I mean, and they sell it sea so it's seasonal. So this time of the year you get all like the basil and oregano, and um, it's a lot of uh North Africans that go for their specific herbs, so they sell that there. And they also have a large, I would say, population of South Americans that shop there and also sell their things there, so specific produce for South Americans. And this is just my local market. So if you happen to travel here in anywhere along the Costa Blanca, you can easily find the information online.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and you just look up your town and their weekly market day, it won't change because it hasn't since the 10th century.

SPEAKER_03:

So it will stay the same. And don't be alarmed, by the way, if you see the aftermath, they do clean it up very quickly. But within hours. Within hours it's all gone. But when you see right after, it's terrible. Like it looked like you know, a war, but uh they do clean it up really quickly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so that's my Sunday activity.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, do you want to do the sentence of the day? Sure. I'm just gonna continue holding the eggplant Strange eggplant.

SPEAKER_01:

I have to cook the plant.

SPEAKER_03:

We're gonna call it a stranger things eggplant.

SPEAKER_01:

It is okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Sentence of the day. And think Tomatina.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. No, that one I have no.

SPEAKER_03:

I I have no concept of that. Okay, so this is gonna finish like the rosary of the Aurora. Okay. So it basically comes from they when they did these kind of religious processions.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh Aurora, I guess, was like right after the sun goes up. Right. So really early in the morning. And for some reason, a number of these processions finished very badly. Like they would either start, I don't know, drinking very early, or like they were there were fights between the different brotherhoods of the different cofradillas. Wow. And this actually comes from the 18th and 19th century. Uh so it is dated back quite a while. But it basically, and most people don't know the origin of where that comes from. Right. But it basically means this is going to end like in a mess, you know. So I thought that today, since we discussed uh La Tomatina, and it's sometimes a sentence that people will use, like, let's say you're at a family event and you can see like, you know, it's getting tense and people are gonna end up in a fight. This is gonna end up like the Aurora rosary.

SPEAKER_01:

That's good. That's a per that is how the I mean La Tomatina kind of ends. Everybody's covered in tomatoes and this town is a disaster.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, we we recommended uh what is it? We recommended uh Ghetto and San Juan de Gastelugate for uh dates. Like, do not take uh no not a it's not a good place for a first date, can you imagine? Like the other one for your first date.

SPEAKER_01:

No, but not a definitely not a good good good outing for a boys trip, you know, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_03:

So climbing, like, oh yeah, like let's go and climb a pole full of lard, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

But you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, we did it, Laura. Thank you very much, everybody, for tuning in. Please uh hit follow, subscribe, look for us on socials. We do have a lot of very fun videos of that tomatina and pictures of Nalini getting caught, you know, throwing a tomato and looking very guilty. We look forward to hearing from you. If you were there, drop us a note, you know, write it in the comments on Spotify or Apple Podcast. We would love to hear from you. Thank you. Bye for now.

SPEAKER_00:

The Made in Spain podcast is an everything's rosy production with executive producers and host Nalini Sharma and Laura Sr. With special thanks to production assistant Ayrton Knuff.