We left Biarritz at around 6:30pm southbound across the Spanish border. Mulder struggled over the foothills of the Pyrenees with 4 passengers and their luggage on board.
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| Welcome to Pamplona! |
We arrived at our desitination – Pamplona, home of the famous San Fermin Festival and Enciero aka bull run at around 8:30pm. After a half hearted look for dinner – we were staying in the industrial estate outside of town, we decided on wine and cheese up in Tom and Becs room SURPRISE, SURPRISE J
While Bec and I made use of our time skyping and blogging the boys prepared their costumes for the following day which involved Tom sacrificing his red pashmina from Paris to make the red sashes and neck-kerchiefs.
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Dave tries out his costume for the festival – Zoolander eat your heart out! |
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Practicing the bull fighting – the idea is to avoid the bulls guys |
Wow! Is all i can say about the San Fermin Festival at Paplona. 1000’s of people in white with red sashes all crowding into the tiny piazza outside the town hall on July 6th waiting for 12noon when a rocket is let off signalling the start of the San Fermin festival and time to put on your red neck-kerchiefs.
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The place was so jam packed we didn’t even go close to making the square and had to settle for one of the the surrounding streets. Here was where Bec ad I learned to hug the walls as revellers squired, tipped and sloshe sangria all over one another, soon turning those pristine white outfits to a lovely shade of pink. The people watching the festivities from the balconies so not to feel left out participated by throwing buckets of water showing the crowd below. An extremely rowdy start to an extremely rowdy week to come.
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| The beginning of the Sangria consumption |
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| I said consumption of Sangria - not wearing it. The local fashion was definately Sangria dyed clothing - a lovely shade of pink wouldnt you say? |
Chants of Ole’, ole’, ole’ ole’ could be heard continuously throughout the day – there were other songs too but this was the only one we knew and could join in with.  |
| Everyone holding up their neck-kerchiefs waiting for the big moment where they can put them on. This is a VERY intense moment for serious San Fermin-er's |
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| Neck Kerchiefs on and ready to go - notices how Bec (and I) managed to stay relatively clean and dry... |
We Managed to find some shade under a tree in the larger plaza between the new and old cities and found one of the many grocers selling sangria in 1.5L bottles for 3€. We got to talking to some Aussies who told us how to find the bull ring or Plaza del Torro – site of the end of the famous Enciero or bull run. We decided to make our way there and then follow the 800m cobblestoned path that Dave and Tom were planning on taking the following day in the first Enciero of 2011. As we approached the bull holding yard at the start of the race we realised that we were embarking on a steep decent meaning that the start of the race would mean runners were sprinting up a 150m hill in front of 6 charging bulls – not a good idea. So we back tracked a little – one of Tom’s least favourite past-times, and found a more suitable starting point for 2 Aussies on their virgin Encieros.
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| More evidence of Sangria bathing |
By now the town was really starting to get seedy. The streets which were once running with sangria now carried the unmistakable odour of urine – delightful! Everywhere you walked you just naively hoped the liquid you were walking through was water.
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| Some more refined people decided to use the outdoor communal urinals as an alternative to peeing on any wall, bin, pole etc. |
Anyway we made it back to the large plaza and continued our way through another bottle of Sangria- none of us by the way found Sangria particularly pleasant after 1.5L but we carried on regardless- we are such troopers!
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| A safe starting place? |
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| Practicing for the run |
At a few stages during the afternoon we went in search of an Aussie bar to see if we could catch any of the state of origin, but unfortunately we had to settle for text message updates from Dad – Dave and Bec were happy, Tom and I not so happy with the result.
It was 6pm ad we had to decide whether to keep partying all night or catch the last bus home to get some food and sleep and return early the next morning for the run. Maybe were getting old but the idea of pulling an all nighter in the urine soaked streets didn’t really appeal, so it was home on the bus we went.
The next mission was to find some food in the middle of an industrial estate. A truck stop was our only option and we had what can only be described as an “interesting” meal (to give you an idea Dave was starving and didn’t even eat any of his entree except the chips-hmmm) – possibly the last the boys would have depending on the outcome on the streets of Pamplona and the arena...
THE ENCIERO
Another early start. The Enciero was due to begin at 8am on each of the 6mornings of San Fermin. To be admitted onto the track and to get a decent viewing position for the race we were told we would have to be there by 7am at the latest. We caught the 6:30am bus (we were told by the hotel that there were no buses running as it was a public holiday – scammers!), ate a few very stale bread rolls from dinner the night before and went our separate ways- boys to the starting line and girls towards the end.
Bec and I made our way to the opposite side of the track where it was a little less hectic – only 2people deep along the barrier. We gradually made our way to the barrier where we managed to get glimpses of the track between the legs of some Spanish teenagers that were sitting on the top of the barrier.
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| Our view between the legs |
Somewhere close to 10mins to go we got a phone call from the boys who were trying to find us. Apparently they had found their starting place on the track only to be rounded up and herded off (eg shoved in the back by the Milerteria) the track as there were too many runners and it was too dangerous. At least we knew they were safe – if a little disappointed.
The race went on and was a little tamer than we all had anticipated with the volume of all of the medics on standby – all the same I think I knew which side of the fence I would rather be on.
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| View of the race |
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| The boys safe and sound at El Torro - the Bull ring/arena |
Afterwards we found some breakfast and watched the replays of the race on TV. Only 1 casualty that we could see – a guy that fell/tripped, got trampled by a couple of bulls and then trampled again by about 20people. He bounced back up standing and looked to be A-OK.
We heard a few days later that the 2nd day had considerably more carnage as they allowed double the amount of runners... Sort of glad we decided to move onto Barcelona.
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