Endurance

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My adrenal glands better be in top form, because I'm going to be banking on them tonight. The story starts last night really back in Barcelona.

I remember lining up at Quinze Nuits at about 9:30, and it was 10:30pm by the time we were seated. Dinner really was good, because by the time I bid adieu to my new friends, my watch read 12:30am. I still had to do laundry, and there were a few problems with that. One involved me forgetting a map of Barcelona in a pocket and having to repeat a rinse cycle. Another involved the washing machine door refusing to open at the end of a cycle. Add in my shower, drying (European dryers are painfully slow), packing and general last minute stuff, it was 5am by the time I was all done. I was fairly confident that if I took a nap in bed, I'd miss the bus. Hence, I hiked over to Gothic Point Hostel (Busabout's recommendation) and plopped myself down on a couch. The attendant on duty initially insisted that they were closed, but there's a lot you can accomplish in terms of being unreasonable with a large backpack on your back and the simple phrase "where do you want me to go?" In this manner, I got about two hours sleep before I got breakfast and cleaned up in a nearby cafe.

Even though I sorely needed it, it was agonizingly difficult to fall asleep on the bus. This was extremely frustrating, in good part because there were only 23 of us on the bus, which meant that we each got two seats. To be clear, I won't be getting any sleep tonight since I'm heading right into Pamploma later.

The running of the bulls happens at 8am sharp, and the first bus leaves from San Sebastian to Pamplona at 7am. That's no where near early enough, so the usual sequence (for people under 30) goes something like this. Take the 8pm or 9pm bus in the day before, stay up (and party) all night, and either get into the course or find a good place to watch at around 6-7am. It's 5pm right now (the bus having gotten in blissfully way ahead of schedule), and I'm off to buy the bus tickets shortly (€5.60 return). Hence, in summary, I'm going to be up all night celebrating San Fermin with the locals. This arrangement actually works well for me (unexpected lack of sleep notwithstanding) because I couldn't book accomodation for tonight, and if I didn't go to Pamplona, I'd pretty much be sleeping on the beach.

No pictures for this entry because I've checked all of my valuables save whatever is in my moneybelt (the internet place here actually provides a multitude of services). It gets crazy in Pamplona, and I have no intention of having either a daypack or digital camera on me. Purchasing a disposable camera is on the todo list before leaving tonight.

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