Bulls bulls bulls :)

I SURVIVED PAMPLONA!!! Woooo!
San Fermin 2010 began for us as follows… we got to Pamplona at around 7 or so yesterday. Right when we got there, we made a quick pitstop to pick up the official red handkerchiefs for the festival of San Fermin. For those of you who don’t know, everyone that goes to San Fermin is supposed to wear head-to-toe white with a red handkerchief around your neck. And we were told not to spend much on these clothes because they would be ruined by the end of the weekend as a product of everyone throwing wine at each other. We walked into town and found the plaza de toros, where the “bullring” is. We found where the bulls enter each morning after the corrida. The actual corrida consists of 6 bulls being let loose with the runners on a course of sectioned-off streets in Pamplona that makes a total of 826 meters. The runners have to start behind a certain point, but as soon as the first rocket goes off, they run like hell. For most runners, as soon as the bulls reach them, they take off to the sides of the course so they don’t get trampled. But of course there are the crazies too. They usually end up run over :) We walked the entire route, ending at the bullpen where they start. They say the scariest part is the tunnel into the plaza de toros because it’s so skinny, and if you get stuck in there while a bull’s running through, have fun! Haha… When we were done, we enjoyed the crazy business that is Pamplona for 9 days each year. It was crazy… there were SO many people! Two hundred thousand people live in the city, but at least a million cram in it every year for San Fermin. Let’s just say there’s an extra person or two here and there. And of course everyone parties hard 24 hours a day. We met up with our crazy friends that had gotten there the day before, and were going on their second night without sleep, seeing as how hostels and hotels are booked months and years in advance. We watched some good break-dancing courtesy of Street Flow aka “Estreet Flow” and then headed to a park where we popped a squat with the whole 18 or so of us. And kalimochos (a mix of wine and coke) all around. Now here’s the best part… we got to watch FIREWORKS! For those of you who didn’t know, I LOVE fireworks, and I was pretty sad to have missed the Fourth. But now my summer is complete! :) And the fireworks show was AMAZING! Well done, Pamplona. GREAT show.

Next it was time to find some clubs for dancing :) All along the route of the bulls’ run there were a MILLION people flooding into the streets from inside different bars and restaurants. Pure craziness. I loved it… we found a good bar to dance. After a bit, we met up with the rest of the group since we had all been separated. Two of the guys, Mike and Trevor, left because they had decided they were going to do the big run. FYI, sleep is pretty much necessary if you don’t want to be trampled. Some of us decided to take a breather and found some benches to sit on. By this time, it was probably around 4 am.
As we were walking, we just see that people are just passed out EVERYWHERE. Seriously, any place you could imagine… it was pretty humorous, really. Homeless for a night :) Oh life experiences :) Unfortunately, we had expected it to be in the 90’s, but it ended up being a cooler day and consequently night. And by this I mean it was FREEZING. We ended up finding one of the only café/bars still open where we sat for a bit before needing to leave to get ready for the corrida. Basically, you have three options as far as this goes. A) You try to find a good place along the route to watch the bulls go by. The trick is finding a spot where you’ll be able to see well with people all around you. And you have to realize how fast it all happens, so you’ve got to pay good attention. B) You buy tickets for the encierro, the “enclosed” part, which is the bullring. Here you can see the bulls run in with the runners ahead and behind them at the end of the course. And the surprise for me was that they let out some younger bulls to charge the people at the end. A bit of a game, if you will. C)You run. And you better be fast, smart, and rested. Know that you have a definite chance of getting run over and that people do die. We were told in more or less words that we weren’t allowed to run with the bulls. Not in an explicit form, but implied well enough. We were told that our school health insurance doesn’t cover any injuries… after a kid from Western ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks 7 years ago. And one of our teachers even said she’d fail us if she heard that we ran. But that didn’t stop Mike and Trevahhh WOOOO. You only live once :)

Anyway, we opted for option B, because we felt that we’d probably see more action and we’d probably get a better view of it all. However, what we were told was that they often sell a bunch of tickets, but not everyone that buys them gets in. We took the risk. We got in line at 5 or 5:30 am, and got into the plaza de toros at around 6, as soon as they opened it up. Would you like to know the BESTBESTBEST freaking part?! Insert REALLYYY excited voice: WE GOT FRONT ROW!!! Holy poop :) Front row at the corrida de toros during San Fermin. Does life GET any better? Ummm… NO. On a side note, I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad… some moron RIIIIIIGHT next to me snorted a line of coke with a five dollar bill just right there, like it was no big deal. What the heeeeck.

In the plaza, there was a band playing and the people were doing cheers and the wave like crazy. There were TVs so that we could watch the run progress outside. A bunch of people ran in acting like they ran with the bulls before it even started. Ahaha, the Spaniards did NOT like them. They paid for it with lots of cuss words and bottles/liquids thrown at them. But then the race did begin, and shortly after, the toros were in. HOLY CRAP. Did you know these things weigh like 2000 pounds? Like as much as a car? How would you feel about getting hit by one? Haha… no thanks! Trevor and Mike wore some classy Gilligan hats, and we were able to spot them. Pretty sweet, huh? Jamie and I decided to get down into where all the runners were that had jumped the fence to get out of the ring so that we could go into the ring and find the guys. Well let’s just say that we didn’t realize that a series of 6 baby bulls would be let out amongst the runners to do a little damage amongst some major idiots :) Ahaha Jamie and I got up close and personal, meaning that I was right next to an unconscious guy that was pulled out of the ring and had to be taken away on a stretcher. That was just the first of the many injuries I saw. We got to stand right up against the wall and watch each bull charge all the people. So close! I swear that if I would’ve been wearing tennis shoes, I would’ve been in that ring (of course, keeping to the outside) screaming like a girl, which is convenient, because I am a girl. Jamie got LOTS of good pics, which I’ll be stealing since I didn’t bring my camera into this craziness. Anyway, we finally did find the guys, who were super hopped up on adrenaline. Not going to lie, I’m kinda jealous. But I’m super glad they did it… they are alive, and they have the best story to tell for the rest of their lives.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful… we got on our bus at 11:30 am, and didn’t get home until 5:30 pm because we had to stop in San Sebastian for a couple of hours. This wasn’t such a bad thing, except that it was a bit of a tease. We walked to the beach, and I’ll just inform you now that it is the prettiest beach EVER! The water looks just like in the Caribbean, and the sand was completely PACKED with people. The weather was great, so I just wished that we had some time to enjoy its beauty a bit more. By the time I had gotten home, I had gone about 32 hours without sleep, and I was pretty dead. But props to me, I just took a two hour nap, then I ate dinner with the padres, and here I am now!

Overall, San Fermin did not disappoint. Actually, it did quite the opposite. I’m kinda wishing we would’ve went for a round 2… dang :) Crazy to think I only have two more weekends living here before I head back to Madrid. To be honest, I’m not liking it at all! But it’ll be good to see everyone back at home, too :) But as I knew it would be, this is really turning out to be the experience of a lifetime.

Abrazos y besos,
ME

P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn’t see inches of pee and poop. Really, it wasn’t THAT bad. Just some stray pee-ers here and there, but no big deal! But I’m not taking any chances... I'm still throwing away those shoes.