Olé, Olé, Olé…RUN!!

Pamplona, Spain
The seats on the bus were too close together and getting comfortable didn’t happen. When we started to doze off, the drunken Spaniards would begin to sing their songs Olé, Olé, Olé … The trip dragged on.

As the bus slowed down we realized we were in Pamplona. People were everywhere in their white and red. It was 4:30am and it was like the middle of the day. We didn’t even know where to begin or what to do. We wandered the town against the massive current of drunken people. Our pack of essentials lacked crucial items like pants. The cold temperature was not anticipated. To get into the spirit of the festival we bought white pants and a San Fermin t-shirt and tried to blend into the crowd.

The little town was alive. There was a concert, there was a carnival, there were bars and restaurants all open to give a person what they needed to celebrate. We sat down at a café and watched as a truck with a tank of water drove by and hosed down the streets that were full of garbage and wine, while others shoveled up the refuse that had been discarded on the ground.

We wanted to get a good view of the bulls as they ran by because that was the objective for this leg of the trip. Pushing and shoving our way through the crowd, we got to where we couldn’t go any farther. Three rows back of the safety fence we stood and could hardly see a thing. The throng undulated with the passing of time until the bulls would make their way to their eventual bloody death. They would try to take anyone they could with them. It was difficult to maintain our position, but we did.

A cannon sounded twice at 8:00am. They were off. I caught glimpses of white pant legs walking, then running, then sprinting. People jumped up onto the safety fence, as the bulls grazed their legs, in an attempt to avoid being gored. One person wasn’t so quick. Ambulance sirens rang out in the early morning and a stretcher came by with the unfortunate runner. It looked like the person had got a horn in the chest or throat. The crowd took note and continued partying without much thought.

People were wall-to-wall in the narrow roads. Bands played songs as parades followed. Brad and I had a revelation and it was that we wanted out of there, NOW! It seemed many others had the same idea because the bus station was crawling with people with the same idea. Our tickets to Barcelona were for the afternoon of the 9th, but we had to get out of there as soon as possible. We waited in three separate lines before we were in the right one to buy a ticket back to Barcelona. Tickets were hard to come by and no busses left that day. The next one we could find was for the following day at 10:00am. We thought we could live with that.

I had emailed a friend, who was also traveling through Spain, and told him to meet us at noon at Hemmingway’s bar, Bar Iruna. We waited there for an hour then left. Later I found out he had gotten hung up in Nice and Barcelona and tickets were near impossible for them to get to Pamplona. The crowds were getting so irritating because we were tired. We walked as far away as we could to get some food and a nap. At a little café we bought a baguette and cheese and ate them in a little park. Several people came by and looked at us and said “meche” and we still have no idea what that means. Jokingly we thought that it meant retards or something similar.

In a grassy park we laid out our sheets and took a much needed rest. All the parks had groups of people taking naps together or more accurately they were passed out because they had partied all night. After our naps we walked around and found out that the crowds were more tolerable.

A bottle of San Miguel also chilled the mind out. We came to a square where walking through was near impossible because it was so crowded. There was a 20-foot statue in the center and everyone’s attention was fixed on it. Then we witnessed one of the most asinine drunk ideas. Those who had gained enough courage (or stupidity) would climb to the head of the statue and swan dive off into the arms of several people who had their arms interlocked. So much faith (or so much stupidity). The crowd cheered them on as they leapt. A girl got the most applause from the approving crowd. We walked off.

The town was in full swing and I rather enjoyed the festivities now that I was less irritable. A couple of guys played instruments and sang while we just took in the sights and sounds. Then we walked to another part of town where it was lined with shops that sold shirts, jewelry, sunglasses, and pretty much anything else. Slowly we found new places to explore. We wasted time because we had too much of it. The roads finally led back to a park that was abandoned for the night while everyone was partying. We set our tent up and had a decent nights sleep.