Spain - day 5 - Pamplona
I'm now riding in a car north across Spain. We landed in Barcelona this morning and went directly into the car and started driving. TJ got GPS with the rental car which is a huge help and makes it a lost easier getting to Pamplona in as short of time as possible. There wasn't much time to see Barcelona yet, I plan on doing as much of that as possible on Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday. I even considered not going to Pamplona so I would get a full 4 days in Barcelona. However, I was thinking this is a unique opportunity to go to the San Fermin festival in Pamplona and actually run with the bulls with 3 other guys. I will definitely be visiting Spain again and will spend more time in Barcelona.
We've talked to several people so far about the running of the bulls. The thing I know so far is that it is encouraged that the participants wear white pants and a white shirt with a red sash. Normally young males run, but any male is allowed to run. There is no sign up. People just line up in the morning. There is no chance to out run a bull no matter no how fast you are. You cannot run the entire stretch between where they release the bulls and when they go into the arena. You choose a certain part to run in. There are several things you can do to be silly and improve your chances of getting hurt. I will try not to get hurt, but I must run in it now that I've come this far.
At 6:45 AM a brass band plays and wakes up the entire town. Its interesting because its a mix of people who have been awake all night and people who are waking up for the morning festival. I saw the same thing this morning as we were leaving Ibiza when we went to the bus station at 6:30. People walking around coming home from the night before.
The bulls are released about 8AM. The run only lasts a few minutes. We'll see how it goes in the morning. I still don't have white pants but supposedly I can get some early in the morning in Pamplona.
The ride up Spain has been beautiful. Blue skies and big clouds. I've been thinking about the landscape in movies such as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as what we are seeing looks familar to that. I've seen many large hills and sandy colored mountains. Luscious green fields of grains and different crops. Vast fields of huge wind turbines. As well as a few bull farms.
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We got into Pamplona this afternoon in great time. The weather is noticeably colder, the air more crisp. The city is much bigger than I had imagined. I wish I had a full week to explore it. However, we did have time to walk the city and get our outfits for tomorrow and walk the course for the bull run. The city had so much energy, so exciting. It is a little scary but fun at the thought of running with the bulls and we will all be glad we did it. We saw on the new 4 people were hurt today, one man gored.
We are really in Spain now. We can't rely on English to get us through. We have to use what little Spanish we know to order food and ask people questions. The other 3 guys are asleep now and I'm about to go to sleep myself.
We will wake up early in the morning and put on white pants, white shirt, red sash and red scarves to go run with the bulls at 8AM. It will be over in a few minutes. We walked the narrow streets from the gates where the bulls are let out and the arena where they run to. The street windows along the route are lined with boards and wooden fences.
This will be an exciting day tomorrow.
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I'm sitting in the lobby of the hotel listening to Imagine by John Lennon waiting for the other guys to wake up. I realized there are probably many misspellings and ramblings in this journal. Keep in mind its a virtually unedited travelogue and I haven't had time to check spelling or edit for consistency. Maybe someone will find it interesting.