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Published: July 17th 2006
Entrance
Where I would run into the stadium the next dayI am probably going to use this word a lot to describe the week in Pamplona, but truthfully I can only think of one word to describe it -- Crazy!!!!
On the 4th I travelled down to Shepherd's Bush early in the morning to join up with our tour group and catch the 22 hour coach ride to Pamplona. We were given Fanatics specially designed 'Running with the Bulls' shirts and headed off, with our bus driver Jon Stevens from Noiseworks. After a few introductions and what not, we were at Dover and catching the ferry across to Calais. A couple of drinks on there and then into France, where things got a bit crazy on the coach and drinks were already flowing. Many of you will find this amazing I actually got some sleep on this coach!!!! Good for me. As we travelled down the west of France, through the Pyrenees and towards Spain.
We arrived in the town of Pamplona, in an area known as the Basque Country (the locals, don't consider themselves Spanish, rather Basque and have been fighting to become their own separate state away from Spain). We were ready for the week long fiesta,
with the big draw card the ''encierro'', the famous Running of the Bulls.
Once we got to campsite, Ezcaba, there were already tents set up and eventually all Fanatics tour groups were there, all 500 of us!!! A trip into Pamplona later that night to walk the course and look around town, before evetually ending up at an Australian Bar there. Probably not the best night of the tour, as to be honest some of the yobbo behaviour of our groups was just a bit much for me to take. I actually wouldn't have minded going around town, mixing in with the locals and checking things out, but ah well. Some people on our tours were really good to chat to, some were not good at all!
So after the first night's sleep we were up early in all our white and red clothes (that were ready for anything). An early morning trip into town, to stock up on sangria and champagne, eggs and flour. Once we got all this we headed into the main square, where the opening ceremony of the fiesta of San Fermin to honour the patron saint of Pamplona, would be officially opened at
Midday
Midday outside the Town Hall. I am down there somewhere! Courtesy of backpackers.co.uk noon (we were there well before noon). Immediately it started off with a bang, with lots of champagne and sangria flowing everywhere. I was soaked and red all over before I knew it. It was all rather cool, as we danced and sang with the locals and in fact anyone nearby. Ole, ole, ole!
I saw some of the most crazy things I have seen, many of which I cannot mention, due to those who may read this. One thing I did see was 4 New Zealanders who grabbed empty bottles and smashed them over each other's heads! As it got closer to the official opening, the crowd in the main square was jam packed (in fact from photos I saw later it was jam packed everywhere, even down side streets over a mile away). We couldn't move, and then with the heat and the fact that there was a push of people back and forth for ages, I thought if I were to fall over, I would have been trampled to death. I found out later I wasn't the only who thought this, and it has happened before!
The red bandanas were out in force as the
Mussell Bar
Where the diving takes place. Courtesy of backpackers.co.uk fiesta was officially opened at noon. Everyone was going nuts, it was debauchery at its finest. From here we made our way to outside Mussle bar, where a new tradition, developed by Australians and Kiwis has developed over the last few years, whereby they dive off a 15-20 metre tall monument hoping to be caught by the crowd below. Again crazy! We made our way back to the campsite for some rest and relaxation. As we got chatting to new friends and having a general good time. I spent the rest of the night there at the campsite in preparation for the next morning, 7th of July, and the first running of the bulls.
Its going to be hard to fully explain the adrenaline rush of the bull run, but I will try. The day before, when the party was hitting its peak and sangria was flowing ever so well, the thought of the bull run seemed to be a walk in the park, basically a sangria-induced bravado! Oh how things would change once on the course.
After squeezing through the barriers onto the course an hour before the start, there were thousands already there. How were we
Walking the course
Familiarising ourselves with the layout the day before all going to get out of the way of each other, if we could hardly move now? This question was answered by the police, who began ushering out many 'runners' to clear the course, and I was one of them, so I headed to the main square to watch the run from there. However after resigning myself to the thought I wouldn't be running, I noticed a few people squeezing below a few barriers and watching the police allow them to get on the course. So I thought ''bugger it'', lets go!
As I squeezed through and realised I was on course the butterflies hit, but not for long.
Boom! The canon sounded to signify the bulls have been let out! I then realise where I am close to ... ''dead man's corner''... named after the fact that its a sharp corner and when bulls come hurtling around many take out the people to the left hand side (along with the entrance to the stadium, this is where most deaths have occurred).
So my heart is literally jumping out of my body, as the adrenaline rush pushes me to sprint passed dead man's corner before a bull arrives.
Me at Bullfight
Waiting for the bullfight. After this photo was taken I was pelted with food and sangria! I do so, and begin to slow down as we are await the bulls to reach us. Many run by like men possessed, yelling and hollering, pushing people out of the way (its everyone for themself). All of a sudden the crowd parts and I see a bull, from here I turn around and break into a full-out sprint. I turn back and realise they are going to be far too quick for me, so as they get closer I see a wall that has nobody beside it and lean up against it, before I know it a girl is hugging me on the left and a guy hiding behind me on the right. We hold that position as almost in slow motion the bulls pass by, until almost as one we lose our balance and fall into the street and brush the rump of the last bull to continue on its journey. Truly terrifying, yet exhilirating!
We then watch them continue up the street, as they trample over unlucky people, before they are out of sight as the other runners clamber around. Utter relief then hits as I continue to make my way up the street towards the
Matador and bull
A matador finsihing off a bull Plaza de Toros, or bullring. Its useless trying to stick with anyone as its everyone for themself and not much chance of keeping together with anyone.
As we get towards the corner to enter the bullring, all of a sudden, like a wave, the people turn and start running the other way, this could only mean one thing, that a bull has turned around at the entrance and is heading back towards us!
This isn't uncommon and like dead man's corner is where most deaths and gorings have occurred! But not long after, the realisation is that the bull has retunred into the arena, and we jog towards the ring ourselves. As I am about to enter, the second canon goes off, to let us know more bulls have been let out and are coming our way, but they won't arrive for 2-3 minutes and I enter the bullring arms raised!
Once all bulls have gone through the run, they let out a mid-size bull for us to dodge and weave from. With so many people blocking the view, you have to watch the movement of the crowd to determine where the bulls actually are. I run around
Spanish locals
Lisa, Megs and myself with some cool Spanish people behind us at the Bullfight with the rest for a while, trying to keep a clear distance. You are not supposed to try and touch the bull just dodge it, some idiots try and tackle them pull their tails, one American who had been doing it the whole time, is belted up by some locals in the ring at the end and actually taken away by police!
After a while of running around. I moved to the wall that surrounds the ring and held a position there for a while, before I decided to jump out of harms way. While I was in the ring I saw many people get cleaned up, and a guy who was literally only 10 metres away from me was cleaned up and a few people picked him up and put him over the edge. You could hear him saying he couldn't feel anything from the waist down, and later I would read in newspapers one person was paralysed from the waist down, so I assume it was him, just showing how close we could come to serious damage, poor guy!
That evening we headed back into town to find scalpers to buy bullfight tickets from. After careful
Into the stadium
Bulls coming from the streets to the stadium negotiation (bless the girl who could speak Spanish) we grabbed our tickets. Tour friends from Hamilton Island, Lisa, Dobes and myself sat in the top section in the sun, naively in decent clothes. After a few photos we are pelted with food and sangria from so many directions. We were a little peeved at this, especially the girls, who were being targetted more than myself. We decided to move sections where it wasn't as bad, but we still got hit. It was another crazy atmosphere in there. We later found most of our friends were over in the other side (the calm side), we were basically in the middle of Bay 13! But after a while it was the better place to be and the cool Spanish girls behind us were great and gave us drinks. Oh the bullfight! Yeah that was weird.
They let a bull in and the matador does his whole ''ole'' thing. There are other less experienced matadors around to help him out if he gets in danger. Then two guys on horses come out and spear the back of the bull. You can see the blood gushing out, its quite sick. A few matadors
Does this require a title?
This is not me!!!!!
Courtesy of daily-picture.net also spear the back of the bull, before the head matador plays with the bull and finally kills it off with a sword through the top of the back, it stumbles for a bit before falling over dead and then dragged off. Even though you hear about it, to watch it was actually pretty sick! The matadors had player profiles in the record and are given marks for how well they kill off the bull.
The girls were impressed with Eduardo. I thought he was a bit of a pansy. At one stage tossing away his sheet and just put his hand in front of the bull. This drew great praise from the crowd, but during all the clapping etc. I thought it was weird to clap a person for outsmarting an animal that is basically dying ... so yes well done congratulations. In the end I was barracking for a bull to get a matador, I think the last matador was cut up the arm. So after a while we stopped watching and just enjoyed the crowd atmosphere. After this we continued partying for the rest of the night. Definetly had a hakeem!
The next day up
Stand off
Urging the bullls to charge them early once more (about 5:00) for another bull run. This time I wouldn't be running but got some tickets to the bullring to watch it all unfold and see the runners and bulls come into the stadium. The streets were still full of revellers from the previous night, either partying or passed out on the grass. It was full of rubbish and stunk!
We sat with the masses across from where the runners would enter. More party type atmosphere was enjoyed for an hour or so before the first runners would enter. Then as the first canon went off they began to enter, those who entered before the bulls were getting booed and chants showing the crowds disdain were common. The number of people entering got bigger and bigger until the bulls arrived and ran through. The crowd was bussing as were the runners. It was amazing to watch in the stands the bulls being let out and seeing people trying to dodge them and everynow and again see a bull clean someone up. One managed to half way make it over the barrier as it attempted to clear it. Once more I ended up barracking for the bulls.
Bull jumping over
When they let out the bull, some nutters let it jump over them! So after the early morning in town to watch the bull run we headed back to camp early in the morning to clean up and relax before heading back to London on the coach at 7:30pm. After waiting all day, the coach never showed at 7:30 and we were told we were going to have to wait for another bus company to take us to a town in Spain to meet our coach. This happened at 10:30 and after a 2 hour drive to ''a town'' (don't ask me where) in Spain we arrived at a train station to find no bus waiting. People were starting to get a bit annoyed, but full credit, no one really complained too much. We decided to camp on the dirty cobblestoned pavement and wait. Most of us drifted off to sleep (probably due to having hardly any sleep nights previously) and we awoke at 6:30 in the morning to find the coach pulling up (I feel sorry for those who got no sleep that night).
We got on the coach and after a few more detours and the fact we were all sure we were going to wrong way, we actually
had a fun coach trip that was blended with sleep (thanks mum for that ''comfort and reassurance'' thing, it knocked many of us off to sleep straight away). So I probably got to know some people a lot better on the coach that last day and had a good laugh. One girl there was so impressed I had been on ''Deal or No Deal'' she wanted my photo, autograph and rang her friend back home to tell them!
We missed the World Cup Final which was annoying, and it was weird driving through France while the game was going on, with streets normally packed were absolutely deserted and we hardly saw a living soul out and about. We finally arrived into London at 2:30 in the morning on Monday. As a few people pointed out, we got a 7 day tour for the price of a 6 day tour! Kipped in London for the night and returned to Chelmsford the next day.
It was a crazy week!!!!
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Natalia
non-member comment
Holiday in Espania
Dan, What can I say, you are phenomenal, ran with the bulls in Spain, seen Wimbeldon, trecked up to Machu Pichu, hung out in LA, seen Europe all in a year, so when are you coming to good old Canada eh? I just wanted to say hope you keep having the best days of your life. And just to be a bit mushy I do miss those Dan commentaries on the Contiki bus. Hugz Talia