San Fermin

The song for the festivel of San Fermin:

"Uno de enero, dos de febrero,
tres de marzo, cuatro de abril,
cinco de mayo, seis de junio
siete de julio, ¡SAN FERMÍN!
"Uno de enero, dos de febrero,
tres de marzo, cuatro de abril,
cinco de mayo, seis de junio
siete de julio, ¡SAN FERMÍN!
A Pamplona hemos de ir,
con una media, con una media,
a Pamplona hemos de ir
con una media y un calcetín."

This past weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Pamplona during the Festivel of San Fermin. The actual saints day of San Fermin was Monday, July 7 and that is when the festivel began with the first Encierro (Running of the Bulls). We were there Saturday and Sunday morning, so saw the very end of the festivities.

On Friday at 9:00 pm, two of my friends and I boarded a bus to Pamplona. We went with a group and a guide (WAY cheaper). We rode the bus all night to arrive in Pamplona around 10:00 am. Granada and Pamplona are literally at opposite ends of Spain: Granada is almost on the southern coast, and Pamplona is only four hours from France. They are even different climates, Pamplona being significantly colder then Granada.

We got there, settled in (as best we can: no hotel, only a bus) and went out to explore the city. Almost right away, it was obvious to us that most of the people walking around have been drinking and have been walking around since at least the night before. The first thing we did was find the streets the bulls run on and walk the length of the Encierro. We had already decided against running, and after seeing the marks from the bulls horns on the fences and walls, our decision was reaffirmed. The city was packed with people, most in some sort of red and white. All over were bands marching through the streets, giant dancing puppets and live statues. At one point, a giant jump rope competion was being held in the middle calle Santo Domingo. After wandering for a while, we found a monument (statue) for the festivel and the running of the bulls. Obviously, we took pictures with it. :-) We eventually made our way to Plaza Castillo (I think) and sat at a little cafe with our guide and his friends. (They had found us near the monument) Plaza Castillo was set up for a concert and was packed with people although the concert was actually going on. A man in a paper maché Pirata costume was running around hitting people on the head with what looked like a balloon. After it hit me, I realized how hard it was and somebody was kind enough to explain that it was a pig's bladder, blown up like a balloon. That was an interesting coversation in Spanish: we've found explaining organs is hard because, well, you can't really point to them.
By about 4:00 we were pretty tired and hungary, so decided to head back to camp. I mean camp literally. MaKenzie, Grace and I had a tent and set it up next to the bus. Well, the people at the gas station we were parked didn't really like that and said we needed to move. Eventually (after a number of places) we were set up under a bridge in park. It was raining pretty hard at this point, so we were now, tired, hungary, cold and wet. yeah Pamplona. No worries, we were with quite a large group and many other people were set up where we were. We actually took a pretty good siesta in that tent.

We woke up from our nap and finally got a hold of Grace's Dad's Brother's Wife's Sister. (So, Grace's Aunt's Sitster) We had been tyring all day and kept getting people who were laughing. Apparently, we had the wrong number. We eventually met up with her and went out for pizza (our first real meal!) Meche was her name (sp??) and after dinner she brought us to a park to watch the fire works. It was an AMAZING fireworks show! The show was celebrating the end of the festival and it really made up for missing the Fourth of July. I have never seen such big fireworks or so many. When the really big ones went off, you could feel the air hitting you. Meche offered us a place to stay, but we had only met her for the first time, we were already really dirty and wet and didn't want to ruin her sheets (jaja) and also we weren't ready to call it a night yet. On top of that, we had to be at "our place" to watch the bulls really early, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see. So, we said goodbye and thanked her. We met up again with some people from the bus and walked with them pretty much all night. We found the corrale where the bulls are kept; we stood on a wall and were able to see them pretty clearly!. Its pretty late at this point: in fact, its about time to go stake out a spot by the encierro. At 5:30 (yes, AM) all the really good spots were already taken. The bulls run at 8:00 am. We had a good view but it was at the beginning of the run. All this bus time, coldness, and waiting (without sleep) was totally WORTH IT! A gun or explosion of some kind went off at 8:00 en punto and suddenly, all the people on the street were running! The bulls ran by: they were huge. The point we were at, they were still pretty grouped together so if you had blinked you would have missed them all. So, people started slowing down, cause the bulls had passed. Suddenly, they start running again! Good thing too, because a second wave of bulls was coming right at them! Tricky, tricky...:-)

It was an amazing experience to be in Pamplona during San Fermin and actually see such a widely known event! I never thought I would be able to say "yeah, I was at the running of the bulls..." but, now I CAN!



PS I only have video of the bulls, and it won't let me upload it! :-(

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