Pamplona - Fesival of San Fermin - Running with the Bulls

SO! I'm still alive. And the running of the bulls was pretty crazy. Here's the scoop:

We hopped on a bus from Barcelona the night before last at 11pm. Slept on the ride and arrived at 6am in Pamplona. The Festival of San Fermin is the festival that the running of the bulls is couched in. It runs for a full week, so we had one guy with us who had gone the weekend before, but ended up not getting to run. He knew the way around, and we wandered towards the track and bought our outfits along the way. White pants, white shirts, red scarf belt, and a red bandana tied around the neck. Only 30€ for the whole getup. Once we were dressed and looked like everyone else in the city, we headed towards the track. There was some question as to where to start, because you want to be able to make it to the arena at the end of the run before they close the gates after the last bull. So we started right after Dead Man's Turn -- so named because it is a sharp right turn where the bulls frequently slip and slam into the far wall of the turn. Hooves apparantly don't get good traction on cobblestone.

Well as it turns out, you have to be at the very beginning while you're waiting, else they shepherd you off the track. So we got kicked off the track about 15 minutes before the start of the run. That made the second time of not getting to run for Dave, and he wasn't going to have any of that. So we ran back around to the front of the track and hopped back in. Turns out they cram everyone together into the very front of the track, then about 5 min before the start, they open the gates and let people migrate down the track a ways to spread out for the actual run. As they started letting us spread out along the track, I was taking pictures. Apparantly you're not allowed to run with anything on your person at all except your clothes. A cop saw me, and quickly threw me off the course, which really sucked, cause now I was by myself and not getting to run.

So I backtracked along the course, trying to find a way back in. I eventually made it almost back to the beginning, and watched the first wave of bulls run by. Everyone was crammed together at a railing that was maybe 6ft above the course. Then I heard some random guy talking to his friend say, "Dude, we just need to jump the rail and get in there." So I turned around and said "Yeah, we do."

Instant friends, we pushed the inactive spectators out of the way and jumped down onto the course. About a minute later the last gunshot went off. Last wave of bulls coming. Unfortunately the last wave is the larger, older bulls. Its the wave that is designed to pick up any stragglers if a bull got separated from its herd. At the sound of the gunshot, my heart leapt and I started sprinting. Then I slowed down, wanting to catch a glimpse of the bulls. I waited for them, then was able to keep pace about 20 ft in front of them for the entire course. It was pretty crazy. We made it to the end of the course, and ran into the stadium, which was already full of people from the first two waves. Luckily, my friends had worn bright green bandanas on their heads, so it was easy for me to find them in the crowd of people in the arena.

The game in the arena is this: release a younger bull, teenage to young adult, with pads covering the tips of his horns, and let him play with the crowd. And by play I mean charge. Let me assure you that young does not mean small in this case. These bulls were big, and scary, and throwing people around. They only let out one at a time, and for the first one me and my friends just hugged the wall the entire time. Then when they let the second one out we decided to get out into the middle of the ring with all of the crowd. Part of the game is to touch the bull -- its supposed to be good luck. But you're not thinking much about touching a bull when the crowd suddenly dives to either side, parting in front of you, and revealing a bulls that is charging in your direction. That's a memory you don't quickly forget. Lol.

The second bull got Kabir and tossed him. Pretty funny. No injuries. Some people did get hit and then fall under the bulls feet, so they got some nasty hoofprints, but no one got seriously injured. One guy got an uppercut from a padded horn, one got flipped completely upside down and fell on his head, and quite a few fell under foot.

With the third bull, I was getting a lot closer, dancing up next to him as people scattered. There was a moment when I ended up about 10 ft away from the bull, and he turned and stared straight at me. We faced off for about 3 seconds before someone else caught his attention and he charged them. Later I was able to get right in front of him. I squared myself up between the horns, waiting for the hit. He got up next to me, and I put both hands on his horns, right where they met his head. Then he just turned around and ran for some other guy. It was pretty sweet.

It was about this time that we realized what people were doing when they brought each bull into the ring. The guys would get right where the entrance hall opened into the ring, and form a tight little mash of people, squatting as low as they could. Then when the bull would run down the corridor and into the ring, he would jump over the small crowd, flying over their heads and into the ring.

So of course I had to go get in that crowd.

It was sometimes as deep as 7 people or more, but I did it twice and managed to be pretty squarely in the middle, so I wouldn't get clipped as the bull came down. It was pretty crazy. I think Kabir has a video of it on his camera. If he posts it, I'll be sure to put a link in here.

Then somewhere around the 4th bull I let him charge me. I squared up in the middle of his horns again, and then he came in and picked me up with his head. I held onto his horns for dear life. He tossed his head a couple of times, then set me back down. For some reason, this wasn't acceptable behavior, and a crowd of 5 guys started yelling at me and hitting me and telling me to get out of the ring. Which I didn't understand at all, cause there were other people trying to climb onto his back, and no one got pissed at them. I think maybe it was the fact that I held on to his horns. Dunno. Either way, it was pretty awesome.

After the ring, we got some food and then passed out on a patch of grass for a couple hours. Then we just wandered around the city, waiting for the bullfight during the late afternoon. The running is at 8am, so you end up having a long day after you run. Pamplona is a really pretty city. I thought it would end up being one of those small towns that didn't have much going for it except its one main event, but I was definitely wrong. What I saw of it was beautiful, and it looked like there's quite a bit going on. And the entire city is dressed in white and red outfits, which is pretty cool to walk through.

So bullfight at 6:30. Bullfights are really just gruesome. I mean, I guess its worth seeing one once in your life, but its certainly not my type of entertainment. I'm not big on watching bulls get speared, then tagged, then stabbed. And apparantly our day was the worst of the week. The way the whole killing is set up is like this: first a guy on a horse uses a spear and stabs the shoulders of the bull. The spear has a perpendicular bar, so that it can't go to deep. He does this twice. Then some other guys come in and run past and stab some kind of something into his shoulders, and they stick onto the bull. I'm guessing its just some kind of hooked blade. It has a long shaft to it though, which is always decorated in three colors. After the bull has about 5 or 6 of these things hanging on to him, then the matador comes out. And of course throughout this whole process the typical wave the blanket thing is going on, making the bull charge over and over again to tire himself out. The matador continues this process for a while, then gets his sword out and goes for a kill. The purpose of this whole process is to loosen up the muscles on the back of the bull, as this is where the matador will stab him, and even a sword won't go through them unless they are first softened up. The matador stabs through the shoulders, aiming for the heart. If he's good, the bull goes down immediately. If he's not, then the sword goes in and three guys make the bull spin in circles, the blad still in him, until he falls over. Then they give him a quick knife to the base of the skull, severing the spinal column and killing him instantly. The whole thing is really just gory. And they do this like 6 times or so.

So after we got our dose of blood and death we just went out into the street of Pamplona, and the Festival of San Fermin was kickin like crazy. The streets were packed, everybody having a great time, and there were constantly little mini parades of bands marching down the streets. They had come from the bullfight. Someone compared the festival to Mardi Gras, but I wouldn't know, cause I ain't never been thar. So we just chilled in a square, drinking, and met some girls from Canada who were living in France working on a vineyard. They had just graduated college from Western, in Ontario, and were taking a year to do manual labor. Lol. Which actually sounds like a great idea. We hung out with them the rest of the night, going bar hopping. Which is ridiculously easy in Pamplona on certain streets. You just walk out the door of one, walk 10 steps, and walk into the next one. And the drinks were all pretty reasonable.

We were supposed to catch a bus back at 1 am, but we decided to miss it in favor of partying. So we're currently still sitting in Pamplona, waiting for the 5pm bus instead. We just slept on the grass, which appears to be what everyone does during the festival. No hotel needed. Lol.

So that pretty much brings me up to date for this little trip. Only one full day, but we packed it full, certainly. Got more homework waiting for me back in Barcelona. I'm booking my trip to Hallstatt soon too. Ok, I'm out for now.

Love you guys. Hope things are going well across the pond.

Oh, and I lost my camera while I was running. It was crammed into the pocket of my white pants, and it must have jostled loose while I was running. Which really sucks, cause if I'm going to Hallstatt, I'm gonna have to have a camera. So I may just have to buy another one. I guess mine was starting to get a little archaic anyways. Still it worked great, so I'm pretty disappointed. Luckily there weren't any pictures from any other trips on there, just a few from earlier that morning. Still, all in all, a great weekend trip.

-K3