san fermin!

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so basically pamplona made halloween in isla vista seem like a cakewalk. there were an ungodly amount of people there, but drunken europeans are far less belligerent and obnoxious than drunken americans. for the most part, people were pretty friendly and courteous, save for the random "hola china!" comments we would get every now and then.

fast forward to a few hours and two whole bottles of sangria later. our group had hit a good number of bars and clubs, meeting up with some other kids from our program and ditching them later. we stayed out on the streets, napping on the bench for a while. some random guy came up to me and gave me my camera that had apparently fallen out of my pocket. what luck!! i was sleeping when he approached me, so snatching the camera would have been all too easy, but this guy made sure i got it back. wow, i was really blown away by that :D

soon after, we decided to make our way to the bull run fences so we could get a good view, but with people pushing and shoving and the police occupying the first fence, it was nearly impossible.

in short, the running of the bulls seemed a little overrated. it was about a minute of people running and/or walking halfheartedly away from a group of bulls that just seemed to be set on heading straight toward the arena. while i didn´t see anyone get seriously injured, there were a few ambulances wailing by the time we left. apparently 4 people had died the day before on the streets, but these are probably just rumors. the last person died about 10 years ago.

what really made pamplona an experience to remember was the revelry, the intense and cacophonous spirit of the people, and the pure joy to be there. let's not forget the good samaritan with the camera! from dancing in the streets to watching fireworks to singing at the top of our lungs, grinning at everyone we saw... it was amazing.

...okay, so maybe everyone was just drunk.

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Photos

hello, pamplona
we were greeted by this sea of red and white

real sangria
getting in the festival spirit, that's for sure

joie de vivre
nothing but friendly faces here in pamplona! these people were from bordeaux, i believe. marie and i used our inadequate french to communicate with them. hah!

table dancing
the crowds were packed. uh, i'm surprised i didn't fall off the bar :/

the main event
we barely saw the real bulls run by. it happened so fast! by the end of it we were thinking we really should have run. another year, another festival, i suppose.