Justine in Camden

La Tomatina is the local festival celebrated in the Valencian area of Buñol, in which people throw tomatoes at each other. It takes place every year, on the last wednesday of august, in order to mark the week of parties thrown for Buñol. It all started on the last wednesday of august back in 1945, when some teenagers were hanging out in the village main square. Just then, a line of big, hat-wearing musicians passed.

The bored teens decided to join the line, causing one of the people further along to fall down to the ground. Angered, the man started to hit everybody in his path. It just so happened, there stood a vegetable stand nearby, which is where the party’s protagonist comes in; the tomato. The angry mob started to throw tomatoes at one another, until the authorities finally ordered a stop be put to the tomato battle. Without meaning to, the people taking part that wednesday in 1945 had made history. The following year, the same thing was repeated, with people bringing tomatoes from their own homes, and the battle was eventually shut down by the police. Though the fiesta was officially prohibited, the participants carried on year after year (along with the occasional arrest).

Finally, in 1957, the “tomatina” was christened as an official festival. And ever since, it has been organised and sponsored by the Buñol council, and is one of the areas biggest tourist attractions. The festival starts at around 10 in the morning, though most people have already arrived the night before, to take part in the local festivities. The fiesta is opened with a soap stick, a custom which involves going up a soapy stick, which has ham on top. When the ham is finally removed, the battle can commence.

Everybody is sprayed with hosepipes, people ripping their tops and other people’s, and spray water on anybody passing through the square normally clothed. Vans filled with tomatoes start their route from the park known as San Luís, ending up at the village square, where most people are congregated. The tomato throwing goes on for an entire hour – every single person there throws tomatoes, and has tomatoes thrown on them. All tomatoes must be crushed before they are thrown to avoid any injuries. After the hour of combat, the streets are transformed into tomato rivers, and there is red everywhere. After the festival, everybody gets together to clean the streets, and then it’s time for the Siesta Popular.

The council makes showers available for those who have taken part, and people also head down to the river to wash out any remaining traces of tomato. Other towns round the world celebrate similar festivals, in countries including Columbia, Costa Rica, China, Chile and the United States. A few words of advice beforehand; go in comfortable clothing which is not precious to you, which you don’t mind ripping – as we said before, it is customary for people to rip one another’s tops. To avoid any problems with eyes, swimming goggles would be a good idea – and finally, the swimming pools of the village residents are not the place to wash out bits of tomato; just ask to be hosed down. Valencia apartments are an ideal way to see this great Valencian festival!

original here

One of the great artistic events of the year in Barcelona Spain, ​​has nothing to do with its vibrant and rich range of galleries and museums dedicated to contemporary art, but the reopening on the 30th of June, after a long and arduous process of remodeling the rooms containing the Romanic art galleries of the National Art Museum of Catalonia - probably the largest and most important collection of its kind in the world .

Paradoxically, despite being a 1000 year old art, the reopening of the museum’s Roman collection can be seen as a sign of a modern penchant for Barcelona, ​​as few things are as modern from today’s perspective as he paintings and carvings from this cultural and artistic period being also an international style that swept across Europe, just as Art Deco curiously began to be the same around 1919 and 1923. the Museum Board decided to stop the frenetic activity of traffickers buying art in an unprecedented decision, obtaining all the sets of paintings and works of art they had seen in the photos Lluis Domenech i Montaner, a true “re-discoverer” of the temple of St. Clement of Tahull had taken along with the watercolors that Vallhonrat Joan painted reproducing images of many churches in the Catalan Pyrenees, images that the Board of Museums was commissioned to replicate in several of its publications, arousing the greed of smugglers, who started a kind gold rush and began to ransack the country at a pace that was becoming alarming.

Thanks to that decision, which involved the hiring of Italian technicians to transfer,by a innovative method, the paintings to Barcelona, once their pigments were transferred to fabric, today we can admire at the beautiful and evocative museum Montjuic this extraordinary collection, perhaps unparalleled in the world, covering the period between the XI and XIII centuries which continues to fascinate today as it fascinated Picasso and contemporary historical avant-garde artists of the time with its forceful and eloquent expressive silence. It is perhaps not coincidental in this respect that he was a modernist architect, the before mentioned Lluís Domenech i Montaner, one of the first persons responsible of drawing the attention to these strikingly beautiful and deeply moving works of art.

original found here

Get ready to rock and roll for a good cause and enjoy the music in Paris during the Solidays festival 25 until 27 June. 10 years ago, that this festival began to bring together some of the most interesting musical offerings at a good price. The festival is an incredible bargain and features concerts by more than 80 artists over three days for only 49 euros, and even better, profits go to charities for the fight against AIDS. More than the typical festival of drunkenness and flirting, it’s a “militant festival”, which supports social solidarity.

Previous editions have had more than 100,000 attendees, and the stars and talent present this year should attract similar crowds… There will be concerts by Florence and the Machine, Local Natives, NERD, Brother Ali, Femi Kuti, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Crookers, Wolfmother, Kasabian, Delphic, Staff Benda Bilili, the Toots and the Maytals, Vanessa Paradis, Archive and Wax Tailor, just to name a few.

Authentic Chinese Recipes | Apartments Ramblas | Fine Wines UK | Barcelona FC

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) hosts a historic retrospective on the work and activities of art dealer and painter Konrad Fischer.

Born April 11, 1939 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Fischer was a painter and gallery owner who revolutionized the art world. He studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy where he was a student of Maestro Bruno Goller and Karl Otto Götz.

In the ‘60s he had several solo exhibitions in Germany and in Paris, and worked under the name Konrad Lueg, his mother’s maiden name. In 1963 along with two other artists Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter he curated “Living with Pop,” an alternative exhibition in a furniture store in Düsseldorf.

Authentic Chinese Recipes | Apartments Ramblas | Fine Wines UK | Barcelona FC

Have you heard the words “Optimus Alive”? No? This young festival has only been around for four years but it was already named in 2009 “one of the top 12 festivals in Europe” by the prestigious British music publication NME. This year’s festival will take place on 8, 9, and July 10 on the Alges seafront, near Lisbon. The festival has attracted considerable attention for its good organization, for being a great value for the money, and especially, for organizing a flawless and varied lineup from the first year.

So what you can expect to see this year? Well, if you keep up with trends in fashion you know that grunge is undergoing an amazing renaissance, and guess what, it is in music as well. This year, Alive features concerts by Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Faith No More, and the Deftones. It is a perfect time to take a cousin or younger sibling to the festival, so they can share these memories with you.

Authentic Chinese Recipes | Apartments Ramblas | Fine Wines UK | Barcelona FC

Barcelona is certainly an exciting place to be, but together with that buzz come a few more unsavoury angles, including the problem of pickpockets.

Tourists in all parts of the world are continually advised to take precautions when travelling, not only about shopping around for a travel insurance quote before they leave home but also about taking care where they go whilst abroad and the need to keep a close watch on their possessions.

Already the Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail newspapers in the UK have published stories about the problem of pickpockets operating in Barcelona, with two of them alarmingly calling the city the pickpocket capital of the world. Many of Europe’s big tourist cities like Rome, Madrid, Prague and Amsterdam also have issues with pickpockets and it’s a problem that is difficult to solve without the combined action of the police together with tourists taking adequate precautions themselves.

more here on Travel Smart Barcelona

Authentic Chinese Recipes | Apartments Ramblas | Fine Wines UK | Barcelona FC