Pamplona/Iruña, Spain (Encierro de San Fermín. Día 14 Julio)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Pamplona was a great time and definitely an experience we won't soon forget.  Jolene has fallen in love with the way the Spanish celebrate.  There for the moment, dancing in the street, playing music, singing and chanting things with their friends and strangers.

"A San Fermin pedimos, por ser nuestro patron, nos guie en el encierro dandonos su bendicion." (We ask San Fermin, being our patron saint, to guide us in the bull run and give us his blessing).



It didn't take us long before we changed into the red and white outfits that the entire city was wearing.  We wandered the crowded streets and Plaza del Castillo with the food, bands, street performers, and of course many Spaniards and tourists spilling their beer and sangria as they partied.  As we wandered through our main goal was to trace the path that the Running of the Bulls take during the festival.  The festival would be ending the next day and that would be the final run so we didn't want to mess it up.  As we traced the route from the beginning to end there was also a constant parade of people and bands going down it.  Jolene's favorite part was being in the midst of this band with blue bandannas as they played down the street.  A couple times their slow paced music turned into a fast pace tune where the entire street full of people would run with the band to the upbeat music until it quickly slowed down again.


Our final day in Pamplona we got up at 6 am to trek across town for the 8 am run.  Jolene headed to the arena where the bulls would end up.  I obviously went down the street where the bulls should be running.  After waiting nearly an hour we were escorted off the street by the police and I had to run through the back streets to get back on the path even close to where they bulls would start.  The streets were packed and eventually they set off a firework and released the bulls.  In an effort to not get gored, I jumped into a doorway on the street and let a group of bulls run past me.  Assuming that was all of them, I immediately ran after the group of bulls, jumping over the bodies of people that had fallen in front of me.  Very soon I realized there were still bulls to come from the panicked looks back from those people in front of me.  I made it around the last turn and started to book into the tunnel of the arena when I heard cursing in multiple directions and jumped towards the wall as an unexpected two bull ran right past us.  It was definitely an interesting experience.



After the run we were able to stick around in the arena to watch those who had run with the bulls pretend to be matadors with bull calves that were let in one at a time.  I chose to jump out of the ring and join Jolene to watch this part having had enough fun for one day.





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