Running of the Bulls, Spain

5/7/08
Pamplona Running of the bulls festival was a must see on my list of things to do, immortalised by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Always Rises. This crazy festival runs from the 6-14th of July where the city is over run with thrill seekers, me and Dale and the bulls. The Encierio (Running of the bulls) starts at 8am daily the bulls and people run 825m which takes three mins.

We stayed with Top deck camping for four nights, we found our tent got some beer and got into the party attomsphere. We soon found a couple of kiwis so we joined up and spent the rest of the festival hanging out together.

The first day was opening day we got into our gear (whites with a red sash and neck scarf). We arrived at 10.30 and found Sangrea at the first shop we found, it turns our to be a potent mix which I found out later. We went to the big town sq because the small one was too packed already. Soon our white clothes where pink, yellow and red from all the sangrea, sauce and eggs that were thrown around, at 12pm all the red scarves were taken off our wrists and waved in the air. The next day we went to the first run of the bulls having to get up at 5.00am to get there in time for the run. Unfortuately we didn't manage get a good space by the fence this morning so we had to get glimpses throught the holes between the fence. The next day was the same drill but we went straight to the arena which was so cool, we watched as all the people ran through into the arena followed by the 587kg bulls. The bulls ran through the arena and out the other side so they couldnt come back through. The runners had a few mins to relax before they brought a stear out. The stear ran around chasing people, some people ran in front of it and they got bucked into the air. (crazy people). It was great fun to be part of it.

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