Friday afternoon at 6:00 we boarded a bus to Pamplona, Spain. Our plan was to stay up all night, see the bulls run at 8:00 am then go home on the next bus at 1:00pm. We had NO idea what we were in for.
We wandered around for the first few hours and drank wine and saw the city, watched the sunset and just hung out. Everyone there wears all white with a red belt/scarf. There was a fair kind of area with food stands, the streets were filled with people and there were groups of people sleeping on the grass. Around 11 the fireworks started and I have to say, they were some of the best fireworks I've ever seen! I was actually really happy we were there for that because I was sad about missing the 4th of july. It made up for it and made the night THAT much better. The Spanish guys behind me kept saying "Que Bonitaaaa" every time one went off (HOW PRETTY!). After the 4th or 5th time they said it I just started laughing. I'll post the videos if I can!
After the fireworks, we walked to a Plaza with live music. We hung out and I photobombed as many pictures as possible, both our groups AND random peoples'. In the middle of the outdoor concert (around 12) I had to go to the bathroom and so did my friend Mike. He just peed on a trashcan like all the guys in Spain do, but he walked with me to find a bathroom on the other side of the Plaza. When we got back about 15 minutes later, everyone had left without us. That was a bummer, but we just made some friends. First we met some Australians that we ran into later, then we met some Spanish guys that helped us figure out how to get back to where we needed to be. We walked back to the fair ground area and sat there eating snacks. It was supposed to be our meeting spot, but no one every showed up. We talked for about 3 hours then decided we needed to find everyone else since they weren't finding us. We walked into the grass area and immediately found Ori, Lana and some other people sleeping in the grass. I was SO excited to find them. We huddled next to each other from about 3am till 4:30, trying not to freeze to death before getting up and going to stand by the deep fryer, hoping it would keep us warm. It didn't. Around 5, some other people showed up at the meeting spot and we all headed for La Plaza de Toros. We found the bull running street used as a track, followed it to the stadium and got in by around 6. By then things were ALREADY crazy. We sat and waited from 6-8 (watched the sunrise) and the bulls run.
The bulls running was by far one of the coolest things that I've seen here in Spain. It was CRAZY. Everyone was screaming and chanting and clapping. The bulls ran in and they corralled them into the other end of the ring while the people hung out in the middle. After everyone got to the ring, bulls and people, they started letting bulls into the ring individually to run among the people. They tossed people around and it was INSANE. Whenever people grabbed the bull's tail or horns, the crowd would yell, "hijo de puta" which translates to "son of a bitch" and threw stuff. Everyone seemed to agree that animal cruelty was unnecessary. It was actually kind of sad to see. After the show, we met up with everyone and went to the bus station and waited till 1pm to catch our bus.
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1) I never want to live in a place like Pamplona or Madrid, it smells like pee too much. People pee EVERYWHERE.
2) I never want to be homeless. I felt dirty, too tired, and freezing.
3) If you ever go to Pamplona, get there late and leave early... or buy a hotel room. That would have been smart.
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