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So, I finally have a bit of free time to send an update! After spending a couple uneventful days in Dublin I flew to Glasgow to meet up with Leigh Ann. Her flight was delayed for a day due to the terrosist attack on the Glagow airport (crazy being in Glasgow during that time by the way) but she eventually arrived and we went straight to Edinburgh. We saw the castle, went on a night ghost tour of the city and hiked Arthur´s Seat, a pretty popular hike up a huge mountain right in downtown Edinburgh. We then flew to Madrid for a few days. It´s such a nice change to be back to the hot weather. And I mean HOT, like 35-40 degrees. But I´m not complaining. Madrid was a great city, though not a whole lot of tourist sites if your not into art galleries, which we aren´t. We went to the Royal Palace and a flamenco show at night. We also tried out Madrid´s well known night life with a free pub crawl offered by the hostel (which only STARTED at 1am) We coulsn´t hold up to the Spanish though, who somehow stay out until 6am everynight...crazy.
On Thursday we caught a bus to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls! So we arrived in the city at around 7pm with no accomadations. Needless to say we were a little concerned since we were obviously not going to find any places in town the day before the festival. So we decided to check out a nearby campsite. After about 2 hours of struggling to find the right bus and making the 3km hike to the campsite (because we ended up catching the wrong bus in the end) we got there and waited in line for about 2 hours, hoping to get a campsite. Oh and we didn´t have a tent either, so we hoped they sold or rented those too. Very luckily there was a spot available and we were able to buy a tent for 30 Euros...so lucky!
So, the Running of the Bulls was insane. I don´t think I can really even explain it well enough, but I´ll try. The festival officially starts at noon on July 6 so we headed into town around 10 and things were well under way. There were soooo many people in the streets, pretty much the entire
downtown area was shut down. And everyone gathers into a main square throughout the morning and you can just feel the excitement of the crowd growing. Everyone on the street was spraying sangria and champagne everywhere, as you can see from the pics we were pretty much covered. It was basically like a city wide food fight but with sangria and champagne. And all the people were hanging out on the balconies throwing buckets of water on the crowds below. Then at noon the mayor came out to look over the square and said something that nobody could hear which officially started off the festival. After that the streets were literally filled with people at any time of the day or night. At night the streets would turn into a city wide street party with concerts or street dances. During the day the run would happen at 8am. And basically anyone who wants to run can (though it´s very much frowned upon it girls run) It´s an 800m stretch of road that leads into an arena. The runners get a bit of a head start and then 6 bulls are let loose and make there way through the crowd. Absolutely
crazy. Then once in the arena the bulls are rounded up and released into the arena one at a time. The bulls just run around the arena chasing all the runners that have now gathered in the arena too. This goes on for probably another half an hour. Then everyone goes back into the streets to begin the party again. I can´t even say how many people there were, or how insane it was. It was by far the craziest thing I´ve ever seen.
After 3 days of the festival were were ready for some rest. So we headed north to San Sebastian for the day, then planned on heading to Barcelona on a night train. Unfortunately once we got to San Sebastian there were no tickets to Barcelona until Tuesday, so we are stuck here until then. Not that we mind, because it´s a beatiful beach and surfing town. We couldn´t find accomadations since it was so last minute but we lucked out again with a campsite. Last night after setting up our tent we literally went to bed at 7pm and slept until 9 this morning. We were so exhausted from the festival. Then today we went
surfing at the beach and wandered the town. We´re here until tomorrow night when we take a night train to Barcelona. Our first night train! Should be interesting!
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MOM
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WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!!!
Well I was so happy to get an update and to hear about your latest adventure. You seem to luck out all the time. I very happy for that.....maybe you should buy some lottery tickets. The running of the bulls and your comentary was hilarious to say the least. I have read about this but you telling it makes it come to life. I am so happy to see Leanne's face in the pictures. You are not alone any more. (: (: (: I am so happy that everything is working and your having lots of fun and adventure. Everyone is waiting for your next update. Write soon and I luv you a bunch. Mom