It's been quite a few weeks. I am actually sitting in my living room right now. No longer in Europe. Nonetheless, I shall try to recount my adventures in Pamplona, Spain.
I should start off by saying that I was the only girl with, well, I don't even remember how many guys from law school. It was around 15, maybe? But I actually never felt weird or out of place, but they are awesome guys, so I was never worried about that anyway.
The group I was traveling with was Elliot, Bradford, Brad, George, Dixon, and Will. Right after class we all rushed to the train station to pick up our rental car. Bradford and Brad knew how to drive a stick-shift, so they were our drivers for the trip. The only rental cars available were stick-shifts, which made for an interesting ride over there. Not many of the guys were used to driving them, so there were a couple of stall-outs on the way to Pamplona. haha.
The trip there was relatively painless. Since Europeans love American music so much, we had no problems finding familiar tunes on the radio. There were 3 vans in all, so it wasn't too hard keeping the caravan together. One of the vans had a GPS, so they took the lead. We only lost a van once, which Tom was driving, but they somehow found us at a McDonalds, so it all worked out!
I also ended up getting mooned by guys in the other cars... not surprising considering I was with a bunch of boys... haha. All the cars were mooning each other. I didn't mind. It was pretty funny.
We were not staying in Pamplona because, as would be expected, there were no places to stay. I mean, the running of the bulls is kinda a big deal. So we stayed an hour outside of Pamplona in San Sebastian. The other two vehicles continued on to Pamplona and slept in their cars... Boy, am I sure we didn't do that. We found out later that most of them didn't even sleep that night. They were all dropping like flies after the running of the bulls the next day because they were so tired!
Well, back to San Sebastian, we got there around midnight. It was a lovely town. We had a bit of a problem trying to find the hostel. We had followed one of the other vehicles up there because they had a GPS. Our car was supposed to have one, but... well... the French suck. haha. So, we ended up using someone's GPS in our car. The place it led us to didn't look like a hostel at all, but it was it! The Spanish speakers of the car, Will and Elliot, and George, who booked the hostel, ventured inside. Turns out the hostel owner and/or manager spoke no English and a strange form of Spanish so communicating was difficult. It also turned out that he had over booked the hostel and had no room for us. Apparently this was good, though, because from what George told us, it was rather nasty inside.
This rather shady hostel dude took our friends off to this other place he said would take us in. So, of he went with our friends... down a dark street... then turned a corner... went out of sight... for a very long time... We got a little worried after a while. We thought about following them but then we didn't know where they went after they turned that corner so we decided it was best just to wait. We always had the option of just sleeping in the car!
Luckily, after quite a while, our friends and the shady hostel dude reappeared. Thanks goodness!!! Our friends then led us to our place of rest for the next few days. It was almost like someone's home. But it was definitely a hostel, with multiple rooms. But I think the lady owned this one floor, dressed it up like her home (I'm actually pretty sure it was her home.), and let people stay there. Almost like a bed a breakfast, I would guess, though I've never stay in one.
Now here's a fun part: we had told the guy we only had 6... but we had 7. So the shady hostel dude told the bed and breakfast lady that we had only 6.. then 7 walked it. She was already upset because shady dude had woken her up and asked her to house 6 American kids, but now there was an extra! Not to mention, she wasn't expecting a girl, so I kinda freaked her out. Apparently she didn't want any of the guys near me at night, so I ended up getting my own bed! In my room there was Elliot, Dixon, George and Brad. In the other room were Bradford and Will. The bed and breakfast lady finally calmed down, and we went to bed. It was around 2, I think, when we got to bed, with a 4am wake up time. Woohoo... :/
The next day (or the same day?) we got up at 4am and hit the road. Most of us slept on the way to Pamplona, with the exception of our wonderful drivers, Brad and Bradford. They didn't get to steal any naps while they were driving... for obvious reasons. haha.
Parking was easy-cheesy. We parked near some fair that was in town. Then we followed the crowds to the Running of the Bulls area. We didn't have the proper garb, so once we figured out where the boys needed to go, we went in search of the necessary items. Luckily we ran into some of our fellow classmates along the way and decided on a meet-up place after the running had ended. After taking some pics, we continued forth on our journey for bull-running clothes. The proper attire was wearing all white with a red bandana tied around your neck and a red scarf around the waist. Everyone is supposed to look alike so as no one sticks out. If the bulls see someone who is sticking out then... well... let's just say it wouldn't be good for that person.
Dixon didn't need to procure clothing, because he dressed up as Elvis for the running. It was epic! People kept on coming up to him and taking pictures with him. He was kinda a big deal that day. Haha. Unfortunately, the cops wouldn't let him run because, as I mentioned earlier, no one was allowed to stand out for safety reasons. Sad day.
Here is the whole crew. Well, most of it.
After a time I started getting rather nervous because I knew they would releasing the bulls in the near future and I DID NOT want to be on the road when they did that. We finally found a place to watch the bulls run by and bid farewell and best wishes to our friends who were off to face the beasts.
It was difficult to see from where we were because a lot of people had already gotten all the good spots. But I got a tiny spot at the bottom of the barricades to peak through. Soon there were gun shots and people running. I had Bradford's camera and was given the task of trying to take pictures. Sadly, there was little success in that area. As the bulls ran by I tried to at least get some shots of their feet running past, but no luck. :/
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WARNING: It has now been over 6 months since I've been to Pamplona. I'm going to try and finish this trip before I forget any more so I may not be as detail oriented as I was before due to fading memory.
Shortly after the bulls ran by, I decided to hop over the fence and start walking around to meet me friends. Well, as soon as I stepped onto the road, everyone who had been running down the street following the bulls turned around and started running towards me. I FREAKED! Apparently one of the bulls got turned around and started running the other way. Fortunately, he was only confused for a moment or two and turned around.
It took a while to meet up with everyone in the square, but eventually we realized that everyone made it. A lot of the guys hadn't slept the night before so they were going to nap. Bradford, Elliot, Brad and me decided to grab some grub in the square. We found this place that served burgers so we took a seat. We also found out that they made delicious sangria and began to partake. We spent about 4 hours sitting there, talking. It was a really nice afternoon.
This guy was performing next to us while we drank. He was awesome.
After a while, we realized that the bull fight would be starting soon so we got up to meet up with the others. In the arena, it was split up into two side: the sunny side and the shade side. In the sunny side, everyone threw/spit/poured sangria all over each other and basically just acted a fool the entire fight. In the shade side, which was a little bit pricier, you got to calmly watch the fight. Needless to say, we got tickets in the shade, but many of our companions didn't. They were quite a mess afterward.
Here's a link if you want some quick information about the bullfight. It's really quite interesting if you can get past the whole "bull dying" part. Bull Fighting in Spain
Before the fight, one of our friends was really drunk and tired and passed out. The guys had a little fun with him.
The opening ceremonies of the fight.
The bull fighters.
Sorry, I know this is gruesome, but the dragged the bull out of the arena afterward.
I don't know how well you can see it, but this is the sunny section covered in sangria.
Us after the bullfight.
Dixon and George did sit on the sunny side.
After the fight it was really neat. There were several little bands of just random people that were playing as they exited the stadium. It was a lot like Mardi Gras. It was really a blast.
After the fight we went home to get a few hours rest before we got up early the next day so the guys could run again. This time Bradford and Elliot didn't want to run so I got to hang out with them. It was unusually cold that morning (the weather in Europe is just crazy sometimes), so I have a nice souvenir in the form of a sweater with a bull on it.
For the running of the bulls, the run ends in the arena. Therefore, everyone just runs into the arena. There were several guys who ran into the arena before the bulls were even released, obviously because they were scared and just decided to run. Everyone in the arena started calling them "pusta"s, which is spanish for "bitch". It was hilarious. After this, the bulls that actually ran get put away, and they let out, one-by-one, these little bulls that have rubber stoppers on their horns to keep them from hurting anyone.
There was a small band that played before the running of the bulls.
The Wave. lol.
They showed the running of the bulls in the arena.
Bull running someone down. Haha.
This was really neat. Every time they let a new bull out, the people would line up in front of where he was going to come out. Then the bull would (hopefully) jump over them into the ring. Very daring/stupid on the part of the people underneath the bull.
It was fun watching people playing with the bulls. It was a big deal of you could smack the bull's butt. One of our guys, Ryan French, was able to, but came away from it with poop on his hands. Hahaha. But pulling the horns or touching the head of the bull was forbidden. The Spanish people really respect those bulls (Just because they killed them doesn't mean they didn't respect them. It's a different culture.), and they would punch people who tried to tug on the horns.
Anyway, we made our way home after the fun in the arena. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive.
The Pyranees mountains!
A Douche!! aka Elliot in some room in Spain. Haha
There were beautiful fields of sunflowers all along the drive.
After a very cold (thank goodness for air conditioning in cars) ride home, we finally made it back. It was a wonderful adventure. I only wish I had written this sooner so I could write more...
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