Running of the Bulls

In short, the Running of the Bulls/Festival of San Fermin/Pamplona is not something that I would ever return to. It would take an incredible set of circumstances for me to do so.

We arrived Saturday around 5 PM after a 5 hour bus ride. The country side was beautiful and full of fields of sunflowers- it reminded me of the movie "Everything Is Illuminated" Immediately upon arriving, it was obvious that I was not wearing the appropriate colors. Almost everyone (and I mean all but 5 or 6 people) were wearing traditional white and red colors- Me? I was wearing navy blue. I refused to buy a white shirt because I knew it would get dirty, but did buy a red scarf to stand out less.

After everybody in our group got what clothes they wanted from a market in the middle of town, we went in search of a bar to get coffee. The bar we walked into was full of guys who tried to talk to us/hit on us as we walked in. After we got coffee and sat down in the back, this guy came up and laid down on the table so he could get a picture on his phone of him and a big group of girls. Ugh- and that was just the beginning. As we were leaving, all the guys of front made a "sandwich bridge" which we had to walk under as we were leaving.



The streets were packed full of people. I realized once again just how much I hate crowds, and especially drunken ones. Our group found the main plaza and sat down for some food. I was eating when a man's shoe landed in my lap- he came and took his shoe, but then reached back down into my purse. He didn't grab anything but I hit his leg so he would leave us alone.




A few of us left to meet up with a couple of our housemates and their friends who had also come to Pamplona. We spent the rest of the night with them. We ran into a couple of parades going down the streets.

I swear that most people spent the night drinking and dancing.

We ran into a jazz concert, and I've heard that the rest of our Seattle group saw a concert of Celtic music. I was excited for the two flutists in the ensemble, but of course I was...


We went a park to rest for a while and ended up catching a fireworks show. Some of us went to a bar to get warm (I,of course, forgot to bring my jacket) and had some snacks there. Later we went to a discoteca to dance a bit and get warm again.

Early in the morning, we went to grab our spots for the running of the bulls. I was bothered by a creepy old man until the running of the bulls started- I don't care to get into details but it was not ok. The Running of the Bulls was far from exciting. The ten seconds of excitement with an ok view was not worth the trouble of staying up all night and being hit on by drunken men. My advice to anybody who wants to go to this silly festival is to get a seat in the stadium where the real action is.


After grabbing a wonderful breakfast of churros in a park, we got on the bus at 10 AM for the bus ride back to Salamanca which took us until 4:30 PM to get back.

I immediately showered and slept. Ugh..... Pamplona was the dirtiest city I've ever seen. I was definitely happy to return "home" to Salamanca.