Surviving Running of the Bulls in Pamplona!

Two weekends ago we went to Pamplona with our University group from Madrid to partake in what is the most unbelievable cultural event in the world. The actual festival is called San Fermin, a week long celebration from July 7-14 every year to honor the patron saint of Pamplona, San Fermin. The main event of this festival is el encierro, the running of the bulls. The running of the bulls takes place at 8AM each morning during the week long festival. People begin lining the streets at 4AM for a place to observe, or for the brave ones, a place inside the route to risk their lives and run with the bulls. At 8AM sharp the gun shot sounds and 6 wild, dangerous bulls are released from their corral and begin running a 850km. (about 1/2 mile) route through the streets of Pamplona, making their way to the bull ring in town, la plaza de toros, where they are again corraled and held until they meet their fate at the evening bull fight. Along the way thousands of people are lined in the streets to run alongside the bulls and thousands more lined along the route to watch. Obviously it is extremely dangerous and each day several people are seriously injured or gored by either the bulls or the chaos of all the people. The general atomosphere that surrounds this event is a 24 hour 100% all out fiesta for everyone and anyone, young and old, Spanish or not.

So we thought... yes... we need to be a part of this fun! This celebration attracts thousands of people every day, so there are NO places to stay unless you book 5 years in advance. We were lucky to go with our university group who had arrangements for us in rooms at a University in Pamplona. Mostly everyone else who attends either stays up all night or finds a nice tree in the park to sleep under for a bit. It´s like a giant sleep over! While here we were lucky to again meet up with Sarah (Steph´s sister) as she came up from Granada with some friends for the experience.

The attire for this celebration is wearing all white, with red panuelos (scarves). When we first arrived in Pamplona we thought we´d just walk down town and see what it was like. About 2 minutes into our walk a city bus passed us and EVERY person was wearing white. At that moment we realized they weren´t kidding and we better get our white on. So we did, then we fit in much better! It´s hard to describe how many people there were, and how much everyone there got into this celebration. Streets were jam packed. At points you were just stuck in the mass of people and couldn´t move. Every plaza was full of live music and people dancing. Then at 11pm each night there was a fireworks competition. It was nothing short of spectacular, and seeing as how we missed 4th of July fireworks over Lake Arbutus, we loved seeing these not one, but 2 nights in Pamplona!

On Saturday morning we met Sarah and her friends and watched the running of the bulls from inside the bull ring. This is where the bulls run to and end. The ring was packed with thousands of spectators and there was great anticipation building up to the release. Once the gun sounds, it took only a minute or so before masses of people running came pouring into the ring, followed shortly after by the 6 bulls. After all the bulls had been corraled, we thought it was over. Wrong. One by one, they released 6 smaller bulls into the ring of people for "play time." The bull would basically run around and people would literally play with it. Dangerous play as we saw 3 people get bucked pretty bad that they were knocked out cold. This part we couldn´t believe, but it´s a part of the festival and people seemed to love the thrill of it!

Saturday after the running our group from Madrid escaped the maddness of Pamplona and instead hit the beaches of San Sebastian in Northern Spain and Bearitz, France. It was very refreshing to smell and breathe the fresh air and relax on beautiful beaches for the day. We would love to go back and spend more time in both these places as they were very tranquilo.

After beaching it up, it was back to Pamplona for the night/morning! Sunday morning we got a different perspective on the running of the bulls as we watched it from the streets. By 5AM we had our spot scoped out and took our places. The three hour wait went really fast as there were plenty of people to talk to and lots of entertainment on the streets. People will do anything for a good spot, so we saw people climbing sides of buildings, fences, poles, whatever, just to get a view. Also saw runners stretching and getting ready to run, measuring up their escape routes, and "casually" talking with other runners. We didn´t feel there was anything "casual" about this! It was an adreneline rushed specatator event to hear the gun sound, see people start running, followed seconds later by the bulls running by. Literally if you blinked you would miss it. After the bulls passed, it was over!

What we experienced here we certainly will never forget. It definitely made an impression on us and we are so glad we were able to be a part of this festival. It has been one of the highlights of our time here for sure!

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