Spain: The Magic of La Tomatina

“Any reasonable, sentient person who looks at Spain, comes to Spain, eats in Spain, drinks in Spain, they’re going to fall in love.”

I can’t agree more with this phrase of Sir Anthony Bourdain. Spain is indeed the dream of the whole world. This beautiful “country of wine and songs”, as Goethe put it, has everything a joyous and zealous human soul could desire. With its splendid architecture, amazing weather, and its undying love for food, music, and other pleasures of life, the country of Spain has always appeared to me as one of the most fascinating places to visit. Quite recently only, I get to experience this lovely country of Spain.



I remember waking up in a BnB in Barcelona, with the jolly voices of young Spanish lads playing football across the street. I hate to be disturbed while sleeping, but I found myself smiling as I stood there at the window looking outside at that lively city of beautiful Barcelona. With a blissful state of mind after having Spanish breakfast, I wasted no more time and was out to begin the exploration of the city.



First, I headed towards the Park Guell, followed by Sagrada Familia. These places are famous for their nature-filled aura, and their marvelous architectural pieces, and are undoubtedly a great place to visit on a pleasant day. I then hopped around a Gothic quarter of the city, to end up in the dusk, wandering around La Rambla, immensely famous streets, filled with unique art pieces, and entertaining performers throughout, with the mixed fragrance of elegant scents, and aroma of appetizing cuisines.



I traveled to the province of Valencia the next day. One of the major reasons for visiting Spain in August was the incredibly admired festival of La Tomatina. The festival was going to happen 2 days later, and so I have 2 whole days to fall in love with the city of Valencia, and I indeed fell in love with it. With its incredibly friendly and comforting vibes, combined with majestic historical sites, beautiful beaches, rivers, and pleasing weather, I was so much in awe of the city that it felt like I could stay there while having horchata and fartons for breakfast for the lifetime. Little did I know that the best part of my trip was yet to come.



The next dawn, I woke up in an exciting small town of Bunol, filled with thousands of people, gathered to celebrate the world’s biggest food fight festival. With tonnes of tomatoes dropped off throughout the streets by trucks in rounds, the entire place was more happening than any other place I’ve ever been to. while people fought friendly and with gladness, blasting into each other the crushed tomatoes as soon as the fireworks started, and there were friendly hugs among strangers, people from around the world dancing together, all singing in joy, with music all around, and it seemed like the entire world was painted red. It was all magical, the way that whole day went by, the sweet itches and burns in the body after showering with tomatoes and befriending many beautiful people from different countries while celebrating this extraordinary festival of La Tomatina.

George Orwell was indeed correct when he mentioned, “How easy it is to make friends in Spain”. It was profoundly delightful to see, travel, eat, and celebrate a few days of my life in Spain.