Thursday Jamie, Brette, Tiffani, Glenn and I went to Barcelona, met some Americans studying abroad for an MBA program through Kansas University in the Venice airport along the way and hung out with them. We all went to dinner as a group and accidentally ended up at a chinese restaurant that served us tapas and paella, their attempt at Spanish cuisine. Then we met up with the KU guys' friends that were studying in Barcelona at an Australian bar. At that point we insisted we do somethinggg relating to the fact that we were in Spain and went to a Spanish bar.
Then we decided to go to the discos. What was supposed to be a 20 minute walk took us literally 2 hours! One cool thing was that you could buy beers on the street from random people for a Euro, so it kept us going.
We stopped at the beach for a little bit then ended up at some crazy disco/dance clubs, danced, drank, and got back to the hostel at 4:30 in the morning, meanwhile Glenn and I had to leave for the train by 6:30. So we just hung out for a little bit, I think I fell asleep for about 15 minutes before just heading out. At 6 in the morning there were still prostitutes hanging out in Las Ramblas. So yea, we high-tailed it out of there.
Anyways, skipping to the good stuff....
Pamplona!!!!!
First off, the Spanish are super serious about their siestas. The town literally shut down from 12-1 and everyone would just pass out in the parks, on the sidewalks, wherever.
Glenn and I were starving so we immediately went out for lunch. Above is the ham that was hanging all around the food tent... hoof still attached. Sick. Below is some deliciousss paella.
I, of course, am not a huge fan of eating anything that still has a head
Then we just walked around Pamplona...
Most everyone is decked out in the full white with red scarf and belt, whether you're there to run, watch, or just party all day
This is the sign at the beginning of the bull route"The bulls run at great speed up this steep slope"
This sign is at the really dangerous curve where the bulls almost always loose control and fall into the people running or standing up against the fences
When we were walking around Glenn and I just happened to be infront of the bull arena at the perfect time...
the matadors were leaving the ring after the bullfight!
that guy won apparently..
so the doors were open and we ran right in...
Okay so here's a visual of the crowd for when I tell you all my story about being in the arena after the run
More walking around Pamplona..
I'm usually pretty unimpressed with fireworks but at 11:00 they had the greatest fireworks show I've ever seen. We were in the park with thousands of people to but we were right up front, hard to describe fireworks but trust me, it was really great
Okay, so July 11, 2009. The day to run right? Urgh. Not so much...
But here are some great pictures from the street, ready to go.
One of the most important things if you want to run is to be at the start of the bull route by 7:30 am. If you get there at 7:31 you're too late. The police blocade the streets and if you're not where they want you, you're out of luck.
The part of road that everyone has to wait in if they want to run is very very small, with lots of people packing in. In small intervals right before 8:00 when they release the bulls, the police will start opening the blocades one by one so people can move further up the street and spread out, but until then you get very close to your neighbors.
this was with about 10 minutes before they released the bulls
people starting to get rowdy
preparing to run
AND here is where the terrible part of the story comes in. I had heard right before I went to Pamplona that for women to run was considered highly disrespectful. Girls studying Spanish History in Barcelona told me that if I went somewhere to eat and the people there knew I ran, I probably wouldn't get served. The lack of women running was really noticable too. I'd say maybe one girl for every 100 guys. Even the people up in balconies would point at me to show the people with them that a girl was running.
So with maybe a minute before the bulls were released a Policia officer comes up to me and says that I have a camera, it's against the rules, I can't run. Granted there are hundreds of guys around me standing there with their cameras. I offered to put it in my pocket, that wasn't okay, FINE! take the camera, I don't want it (sorry dad [it's actually his camera, not mine]), but that wasn't okay, I went on and on that NO, I was running, so the cop grabs me and starts trying to push me under the fence, I push right back, screaming at him that I'm going to run, so another cop comes over and the two of them physically remove me from the street.
I was pissed.
After the last bull entered the arena I tried to run in after them but the police had just closed the doors to the stadium a second prior and when I was running I almost got clubbed in the face by a Policia sooooo I turned around.
Dissapointed, I hopped up on a fence, hoping to find Glenn after he left the stadium. Instead I found the American guys that we met in the airport
They didn't get to run either. Amar got "caught" with a camera too, and Bo tried to get in at 7:31. So since we were pretty bitter, we just starting slamming back beers.
Eventually we found Brent and Glenn who were all smiles and had celebratory beers.
I was bitter, bitter, bitter.
But then we decided that those of us who didn't get to run were going to just stay until we ran. We made it all the way to Pamplona there was no way we were going to leave without running with the bulls.
So we all split up, I got lost, long story short, I made a lot of Spanish friends who spoke little to no English. I really feel like I need to send my 7th grade Spanish teacher a thank-you card because I don't know how I would have made it the day without some basic Spanish. These guys were great. They gave me lots of "calimocho", which is the big San Fermin festival drink- it's part coca-cola and part cheap red wine. Sounds terrible but is actually really good.
So you'll have to forgive me but because of the Day 1 episode with the camera, I played it safe and didn't bring my camera with me to running with the bulls attempt #2.
Here is a video from the day I ran
You can actually see one of the American guys I was with in that video, he was about 5 feet from one of the guys that gets minorly gored.
Apparently this year was extremely dangerous... No one had died in about 15 years and a guy died the day we got there. When I ran, if you haven't clicked on that video yet, a guy got serrrriously injured. The video really doesn't even do it justice. We were watching it on the big screens in the arena and the guy got gored right in the chest. When we left the arena there was still blood on the ground.
But yeah so I did get to run and it was awesome!!! For a few minutes I thought I was going to miss it again because we weren't standing close enough to the beginning of the route and the police started barricading us out of the starting point. I think this was like 8-10 minutes before the 7:30 cutoff. I told the other random Americans I had to met to follow me and I ran farther and faster than I think I have ever run. I was seriously determined to run. Long story short, we made it just in time (who knows how I knew my way around the Pamplona streets at that point!)
So after the police opened up the barricades for the route I made my way towards the very end of the route, right before the last turn. I tried to stay standing against the fence for as long as I could but with so many people running, if you try to stand there you're going to get seriously trampled so started getting hurt by peopleeee running, I was like okay time to go! It's hard because you have no idea where the bulls are in relation to you. People were freaking out jumping under the fences so I assumed they were close. I actually had a good 45 seconds before the bulls made it to the arena.
Then there was a minute before the last bull got close to the arena, and then gored that poor guy for a while right outside the arena gates.
So I basically stood as close to the wall as I could when the bulls were running in. I was plentyyy close without feeling the need to run up to them like some crazy people there!
The best part in my opinion is what happens after the bulls run if you make it into the stadium. About a minute or two after the bulls are gone they release 6 baby bulls (one at a time, and they're not really baby... they're huge but their horns are shaved down and they're not quite as big as the ones that 'run'). They release the slowest one first, then once it's tired they bring it back and release a faster one, and then a faster one. These baby bulls are nuts. They just run at people trying to ram whoever they can. They change directions without any warning so it's really chaotic. People run after the bull and some people try to slap the bull or pull its tail. Yeah, I wasn't really into THAT! I did get close though, I'd move closer and closer to them until they changed directions and then I'd get out of there and quickly as I could. At a couple points I may have been the closest person to the bull just because of how it'd change directions and such. By the last bull, the thing was so fast and so frantic, and I was so tired from running around nonstop for at least half an hour, I just jumped up onto the ledge by the interior wall. That was great and felt real safe until the bull was about 4 feet away, just looking around deciding who he wanted to ram into. Oh, and they don't just ram you, once you're down they try to stomp on you too! One guy got knocked unconscious and lots of people had torn shirts and pants ripped to shreds by the end of it!
So yea it was really great! Totally worth staying and all the following travel woes just to be able to know that I actually did it!
Yayyyy I made it!!!
Ole!!!!!
this was with about 10 minutes before they released the bulls
people starting to get rowdy
preparing to run
AND here is where the terrible part of the story comes in. I had heard right before I went to Pamplona that for women to run was considered highly disrespectful. Girls studying Spanish History in Barcelona told me that if I went somewhere to eat and the people there knew I ran, I probably wouldn't get served. The lack of women running was really noticable too. I'd say maybe one girl for every 100 guys. Even the people up in balconies would point at me to show the people with them that a girl was running.
So with maybe a minute before the bulls were released a Policia officer comes up to me and says that I have a camera, it's against the rules, I can't run. Granted there are hundreds of guys around me standing there with their cameras. I offered to put it in my pocket, that wasn't okay, FINE! take the camera, I don't want it (sorry dad [it's actually his camera, not mine]), but that wasn't okay, I went on and on that NO, I was running, so the cop grabs me and starts trying to push me under the fence, I push right back, screaming at him that I'm going to run, so another cop comes over and the two of them physically remove me from the street.
I was pissed.
After the last bull entered the arena I tried to run in after them but the police had just closed the doors to the stadium a second prior and when I was running I almost got clubbed in the face by a Policia sooooo I turned around.
Dissapointed, I hopped up on a fence, hoping to find Glenn after he left the stadium. Instead I found the American guys that we met in the airport
They didn't get to run either. Amar got "caught" with a camera too, and Bo tried to get in at 7:31. So since we were pretty bitter, we just starting slamming back beers.
Eventually we found Brent and Glenn who were all smiles and had celebratory beers.
I was bitter, bitter, bitter.
But then we decided that those of us who didn't get to run were going to just stay until we ran. We made it all the way to Pamplona there was no way we were going to leave without running with the bulls.
So we all split up, I got lost, long story short, I made a lot of Spanish friends who spoke little to no English. I really feel like I need to send my 7th grade Spanish teacher a thank-you card because I don't know how I would have made it the day without some basic Spanish. These guys were great. They gave me lots of "calimocho", which is the big San Fermin festival drink- it's part coca-cola and part cheap red wine. Sounds terrible but is actually really good.
So you'll have to forgive me but because of the Day 1 episode with the camera, I played it safe and didn't bring my camera with me to running with the bulls attempt #2.
Here is a video from the day I ran
You can actually see one of the American guys I was with in that video, he was about 5 feet from one of the guys that gets minorly gored.
Apparently this year was extremely dangerous... No one had died in about 15 years and a guy died the day we got there. When I ran, if you haven't clicked on that video yet, a guy got serrrriously injured. The video really doesn't even do it justice. We were watching it on the big screens in the arena and the guy got gored right in the chest. When we left the arena there was still blood on the ground.
But yeah so I did get to run and it was awesome!!! For a few minutes I thought I was going to miss it again because we weren't standing close enough to the beginning of the route and the police started barricading us out of the starting point. I think this was like 8-10 minutes before the 7:30 cutoff. I told the other random Americans I had to met to follow me and I ran farther and faster than I think I have ever run. I was seriously determined to run. Long story short, we made it just in time (who knows how I knew my way around the Pamplona streets at that point!)
So after the police opened up the barricades for the route I made my way towards the very end of the route, right before the last turn. I tried to stay standing against the fence for as long as I could but with so many people running, if you try to stand there you're going to get seriously trampled so started getting hurt by peopleeee running, I was like okay time to go! It's hard because you have no idea where the bulls are in relation to you. People were freaking out jumping under the fences so I assumed they were close. I actually had a good 45 seconds before the bulls made it to the arena.
Then there was a minute before the last bull got close to the arena, and then gored that poor guy for a while right outside the arena gates.
So I basically stood as close to the wall as I could when the bulls were running in. I was plentyyy close without feeling the need to run up to them like some crazy people there!
The best part in my opinion is what happens after the bulls run if you make it into the stadium. About a minute or two after the bulls are gone they release 6 baby bulls (one at a time, and they're not really baby... they're huge but their horns are shaved down and they're not quite as big as the ones that 'run'). They release the slowest one first, then once it's tired they bring it back and release a faster one, and then a faster one. These baby bulls are nuts. They just run at people trying to ram whoever they can. They change directions without any warning so it's really chaotic. People run after the bull and some people try to slap the bull or pull its tail. Yeah, I wasn't really into THAT! I did get close though, I'd move closer and closer to them until they changed directions and then I'd get out of there and quickly as I could. At a couple points I may have been the closest person to the bull just because of how it'd change directions and such. By the last bull, the thing was so fast and so frantic, and I was so tired from running around nonstop for at least half an hour, I just jumped up onto the ledge by the interior wall. That was great and felt real safe until the bull was about 4 feet away, just looking around deciding who he wanted to ram into. Oh, and they don't just ram you, once you're down they try to stomp on you too! One guy got knocked unconscious and lots of people had torn shirts and pants ripped to shreds by the end of it!
So yea it was really great! Totally worth staying and all the following travel woes just to be able to know that I actually did it!
Yayyyy I made it!!!
Ole!!!!!
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