I can’t tell you much about it yet because even though I am back from the trip and we are done filming there is still so much more to do to make this a real show. However I have had a few great adventures so far.

While planning this trip I knew that I was going to be going to La Tomatina festival with Cam my camera man in the small town of Buñol just 45min outside of Valencia. On the last Wednesday of every august this small town of 9,000 becomes packed with 40,000 foreigners all there for one thing, to throw tomatoes at each other. It is one of the craziest, messiest, biggest food fights in the world and should be a must do on everyone’s bucket list.

Right away I was thinking about how we would protect the camera in the middle of this craziness and we had seen videos online of people filming from balconies above the fight. I searched and searched online looking for any information on how to book a balcony above the fight but could find nothing. I tried having Spanish websites translated, started asking people on twitter, had my Spanish speaking German friend Skype phone numbers I found on the internet that I thought could help and even emailing the hostel I would be staying at for help. Finally I got a hold of the Mayor’s Assistant in Buñol and I found out from her that the Town Hall is right in the middle of the fight and that I could pay for a Balcony or a window from them to use. I was thrilled and excited, until I found out that it would cost me 3,000 euros and I was defeated. However she did also mention that if I didn’t want a window or balcony that I could also ride in the back of one of the dump trucks throwing tomatoes at people, but once again for 3,000 euros, once again defeated. That was almost the price of my whole trip and production costs of making my TV show up to that point. I then made the decision that we would just protect the camera really well and fingers crossed we could find a balcony to use for cheaper on the day.

There is no doubt that La Tomatina was the big feature of this episode and Cam and I began hearing more and more horror stories of cameras being destroyed in the fight. We made sure that we packed a lot of tape and plastic bags and hoped for the best.

The day before La Tomatina Cam and I travelled to Buñol from Valencia to film some “before” shots of the town and get our bearings. On the train on the way there as I caught up on some Z’s Cam started speaking with a guy travelling solo from Denmark. His name was Benedict and he was interested in what we were doing. He was travelling around Europe and at the moment was camping and living in Buñol. He graciously agreed to show us around the town and to be interviewed for the show since he was a solo traveler like myself.

We walked into the town and sat down on a door step on one of the side streets near town hall in the middle of the city. As we began filming the door behind us opened and a Spanish man started talking to us. Cam and I know hardly knew any Spanish but luckily for us Benedict knew quite a lot and quickly became our translator. The old man named Serrano welcomed us into his home and was showing us all the crates of tomatoes that he had in his kitchen, as he was getting ready to throw them at people from his roof top the next day. From his roof top? Immediately I started getting Benedict to ask him questions about his roof top and asked if we could see it.

We climb 3 or 4 flights of steps all the way to the top and came out onto a full huge roof top patio looking right over the cities main square, across from the 3,000 euro town hall balcony that was tiny in comparison. We tried to get Benedict to explain what we were doing as he told us stories upon stories about the tomato fight. I’m pretty sure this lasted a couple hours even though he knew that Cam and I hardly understood a word but he was amusing to say the least. By the end of our conversation with him he had agreed to let the 3 of us come back the next day before the tomato fight and promised that he would give us food, beer, sangria and would also let us use his washroom and hang out with him and his family all day. We were thrilled and it was amazing, but of course there turned out to be a catch a small fee, tiny in comparison to others and he asked that we haul the crates upon crates of tomatoes from his kitchen downstairs all the way to the top as he was too old to do so.

The day of the fight we showed up at 8am, rang the door bell in the secret password type way he told us to do to let us in and we carried tomato upon tomato up the flights of stairs. From above we could see the streets getting more and more packed and could see people trying to climb the greasy lard covered pole to win the ham at the top. When the time came for Benedict and I to go down into the fight I was somewhat worried, however extremely happy that the camera had a nice perch on a safe roof top. The fight was ridiculous and one of the craziest things that I have ever been apart of, I didn’t get as much into the mess as I would have liked but it was impossible to move at times and to get any closer but it was an amazing experience and the footage is even better!

I am editing the show together right now and hope to have a trailer on the website soon, where you too can meet Serrano the man who saved the day! www.travelyourself.ca