Destiny in Espana

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July 13th 2012

Published: July 13th 2012

Alright baby birds, I can hear you chirping for more feeding all the away across the pond. So I am here to silence you for a bit. First off, I want to say I hope my buddies, one Joshua Raymond McNamara, wedding tomorrow goes well and she says I do, if she says I don´t meet us in Barcelona. I will say this post is occurring in the wonderful streets of Pamplona where the sangria flows like Niagra Falls, if you could drink all of the falls in Niagra. But before I speak of the wonders of this morning, I must talk about our "One night in Madrid". You might want to actually grab a glass, or better yet, bottle of Spanish vino because this blog may be somewhat long winded, "but I will make it worth your while" (a quote from Doug Duffey talking to Aussie women).

We flew to Madrid, landing in the evening and went to Parque de Retiro, a 300 acres park with what ever one could dream of. Bryce went around taking pictures of people making out while Mack Haisten tried to make out with every rollerblader so that Bryce could get a picture of it. I only managed to climb a statue but was so ninja quick no Policia could catch me (prefacing for my tale of Pamplona i.e. I am fast (thats not what she said)). We were supposed to take it easy that night but Mack in his efforts to soak up time away from work convinced us to do the Cat´s Hostel Pub Crawl. We kept it tame and only went to two out of the three bars. Doug subsequently got us lost on the way back so we naturally did the only thing Americans do in this situation: pick up large concrete umbrella holders to show off our brute strength. We finally made it back sometime in the early hours of the morning without having to headbutt anyone. The next day three best friends (Triple D, Bryce "el gato nino" Stirton, and myself) went on a walking tour while Mack "question master" Haisten split from the group and went on a bike tour. Saw amazing sights, naturally had two Australian women want to eat with us (you´re welcome Doug and Bryce) and subsequently explored Madrid before our train to Pamplona. When we met up with Mack at the train station we could tell something was different. I think it was due to the fact that he had a Mark Gasol Memphis Grizzly jersey on with his fedora purchase from Lisboa. Needless to say, One Night in Madrid treated us well.

Now onto the mecca of our trip: Pamplona. Wait, no there is one story I must document: Bryce, "el gato nino", feeling really good about life in Pamplona told us he was going to get a piercing and that the three amigos (Mack, Triple D and myself) could pick where he got it. So instinctively we thought of workaholics and I believe in tandem said ¨belly button". However, everytime we find a piercing place, they are either closed or it is not the horas to do piercings. Please comment and send messages of encouragement to our brethen. Now, finally onto the mecca of our trip: Pamplona.

I told you this would be a long winded blog entry but I do what I can. You would be impressed that I am taking the time to write this while I am literally sitting in all white clothes and a red bandanna that are soaked in sangria turning my clothes red. So you are welcome. Anyways, we arrived late on Wednesday evening having no map and no idea how to get to our hostel, well actually discount Hotel. We must be doing something right because we are slowly moving up in the world ladies and gentlemen because not only are we in a discount hotel, we took a taxi there. Our plan was to take it easy and get up to watch the running of the bulls before we attempted our run today, Friday the 13th. Well, it is difficult to not drink in Pamplona at night. People, when they are not throwing sangria at you, will gladly share a glass out of their buckets. I feel like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, "I don´t know what to say really..."(look it up if you don´t get that reference). We walked the streets with the saying in mind of, you cannot get lost if you don´t know where you are going. We avoided the bars, not because we were scared but because no one was in them. Everyone was singing, playing instruments and parading down the streets. I did the only thing I knew to do: drank some more and joined them, speaking a broking Spanglish with everyone going to Triple D speaking Basque and pouring Sangria down his throat. We did not make the running of the bulls that morning but went back downtown for some more that evening.

The three amigos (Mack, Triple D and I) went on a reconnaisance mission to walk the encierro (running of the bulls) path. As it ends in a bull fighting arena, it was obvious we needed to go to a bullfight. After, Mack Haisten failed to negotiate and was taken advantage of, by children nonetheless, we had four tickets for our group to that nights bullfight. I hope you are more than half way finished with the bottle I told you to start drinking and if not, pour some on yourself to know what its like. The group had no expectations of the experience we were about to encounter. I would describe it as a blind mouse trying to navigate throught the wondeful board game, Mouse Trap. (You know the one with the cage that falls when the mouse steals the cheese? If you don´t you were deprived as a child). Anyways, the experience is simply indescribable. We take our seats and everyone in our section had either an apron on backwards with hats and goggles or ponchos. We are purely white in my newly purchased 3/4 white pants (very European) and within minutes, it literally starts raining sangria. (People will shoot sangria on the ceiling so it drips down and pour it on you if they start singing happy birthday). Luckily, Mack (I will give him credit for this since I know some of his co workers are reading this but really I found the tickets) got tickets in the party half of the arena. Songs and instruments were being played the entire time with dancing, buckets full of wine, liquor, beer, ice and food surrounded us, very similar to when Bryce and Mack used to grocery shop together. The bull fight was an experience, epic and legendary are two adjectives the question master used to describe it. Luckily we decided to take it easy after that for our chance at the encierro (running) today. As I see this post is now 1170 words I will wait to tell you about what happened today. All I know is we no longer have Mack in our group and Doug may or may not have Tebowed during the running and I may or may not have done some pull ups to avoid bulls or headbutt them and Bryce is fine.

Pictures are to come Cory. We would just rather buy sangria then a cord.

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