Arriving in Spain from Rome marked my first visit to a new country, and I was immediately struck by how welcoming and kind the Spanish people were. After landing and collecting our bags, we boarded the metro and headed toward our accommodation. Just before leaving Rome, Ryan had received an email from the hostel explaining that they had been overbooked. What followed was an unexpected upgrade to a self serviced apartment with our own bathroom, kitchen, a double bed, and a fold out couch, all for the same price. It remains one of the best accommodation upgrades I’ve ever had.
The first afternoon was spent in search of Spanish food, with tapas and paella quickly found and enjoyed. Later that night, we went out and unexpectedly ran into friends we had previously met in Florence during the Palio di Siena, an easy reminder of how small the travel world can feel.
The next morning, Buñol was next on the itinerary for La Tomatina. The festival began as a spontaneous food fight during a local celebration in the 1940s and later evolved into the event it is today. Held each August, it now draws visitors from around the world for a single hour of organised chaos.
We woke early, packed light, and boarded a bus bound for Buñol. Waiting in the rain, we watched crowds gather around the greased pole topped with a ham, a traditional challenge that signals the beginning of the festival. Only successfully climbed once in the previous decade, this year was no different. Eventually, the first tomato trucks rolled into the main street just before 10am and chaos quickly followed. By 11am, the event was over, leaving the streets completely flooded with tomatoes. We cleaned up as best we could, with some locals offering their hoses to wash us off, before eating more paella and boarding the bus back to Valencia a little earlier.
Having our own apartment waiting for us was invaluable. Exhausted, we rested before heading out for a relaxed dinner. The idea of a late night afterparty quickly faded, replaced instead with tapas and an early night.
A few days later, we boarded a train to Barcelona. The journey was short and uneventful, and after stepping out of the metro and meeting fellow travellers we had encountered earlier in the trip, we found our hostel and set out to explore the city. One of the first stops was the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, which immediately stood out for its scale and intricate design.
Over the following days, time in Barcelona was spent eating more paella, relaxing on the beach, and wandering through the city at an easy pace. Soon enough, it was time to catch a flight back to London, bringing the Spanish chapter of the journey to a close.
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