Spain - day 6 - Pamplona / Barcelona
I am writing now from a car leaving Pamplona. I am a bit inebriated leaving the festival of San Fermin. I obviously did not die for those who are concerned because I am able to type this. I have run with the bulls. I have been in the bullfighting arena and have been chased around by the bulls of Spain. This is something I will always remember. I was in danger for a few minutes but it was all worth it. The anticipation in the hours the night before and morning before the race many thoughts went through my head. We wondered if they would even let us run if we were not Spanish or if we would possibly be one of the ones injured this day.
When the actual running happened you had to look in front of you to make sure you did not run into another runner, behind you and to the side for the bulls coming, and below you for fallen runners all at the same time. I was close to the bulls but felt more danger most times by fellow runners. The adrenaline rush when the bulls finally rounded the street coming near us was huge. The bulls ran past us and we ended up running all the way into the arena. All the while looking back over our shoulder for more bulls. It didn't seem like all the bulls has run past when we knew there should be six. Finally as we got into the arena there was another surge as the remaining bulls did actually run across the arena.
We waited for a few minutes and they released some smaller heffers into the bull running contingent. The arena was full of people and we jockeyed around as these bulls with taped up horns run around throwing people about. Being in the arena was another adrenaline rush as it was full of people in the seats cheering on the bulls and people tormenting its path. It was an unexpected end for some of us in the bull running experience. I think a total of 4-5 different bulls came in the arena to work the crowd of amateur bull fighters. I came close to the bulls a few times against my own choosing only to jump out of the way as they came too close. Others would purposefully jump in front of the bulls and choose to be thrown up in the air or intentially hurt by the bulls. One boy was running around with a bloodied face seemingly very proud of it as he wanted to show it to everyone. I didn't hear the final news but I don't think anyone really got trampled that I saw this day.
There were some English speaking people in the run, some Americans, British and Australian that I heard. Many native Spaniards of all ages of course as well as others from around Europe. I even saw a few women made it into the run without being told to leave which was cool.
After the arena cleared the 4 of us met in front of the Hemingway restaurant across the street from the arena. We returned to the hotel to regroup. Then, Brandon and I went back to celebrate the festival of of San Fermin with strong drink while TJ and Justin stayed back. TJ had a good excuse as he would be driving soon all the way back to Barcelona. Brandon and I packed our bag and went back for a few hours to enjoy the festival. We had a few large San Miguels cervezas and walked around. The buzz about the city was amazing. We walked past a foto store that had prints from the day's run. We looked for awhile and found photos of myself and TJ. I used my meager Spanish speaking skills to order prints of the 2 photos that wouldn't be ready for an hour.
We decided to join a parade going by with a brass band and started to dance behind them. We walked and danced and both felt like natives to Spain, we did not get looks as if we did not belong. We stopped and got a bottle of rojo vino a piece and continued to enjoy the festival. The city was beautiful and the energy was amazing. Brandon and I were trying to find the main town square and randomly ran across a guy from Detroit who said he'd been to the last 13 running of the bulls and could show us the way to the square so we could pick the the photos. We got the photos and we are proud to have actual photographic proof us us running in the streets with the bulls. TJ seemed really into the running of the bulls and he showed up in 4 or 5 of the photos we saw out on the middle of the pack of people with bulls behind him. Also, we were glad to have the photo for TJ because he would be less pissed off at us for being a little late and drunk as they were driving around looking for us to pick us up to leave. The photo did the job as we had hoped.
I was thinking on the way back if something like this was in the US it would totally be marketed to death. The city of Pamplona would charge money for people to get in and make them wear matching jerseys or t-shirts. The bulls would probably be all padded or something as well. There is something honorable about the fact Pamplona allows anyone with the guts to run to just get on the street. They did kick a few people out who were drunk, rightly so. It is still profitable in other ways as they are making money off of t-shirts, food, and mass quantities of vino and cerveza sales.
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I am now writing from a hotel in Barcelona on the beach just after midnight. We made it in and had a relaxing meal of Paella and vino rojo. As I have been warned, I am not totally impressed with the food in Spain. The Paella was pretty good but I would have preferred it with more spices. The city is impressive from what I've seen thus far. I've only just walked around a bit by the beach near the hotel and saw a lot while riding in the car on the way in.
I'm planning on going off on my own tomorrow to explore Barcelona. I know there are a million things to see but I mainly want to just get a feel for the city and see several museums and soak in the experience of walking around. I also want to relax at the beach the next 2 days for at least a couple hours. I'm not goig to try to kill myself seeing it all this time. I will definitely be back.
I have made a plan within the last few days to learn both Spanish and French within the next year. I feel like you can't really experience these places in the same way without knowing the language better. I enjoy overhearing people's conversation as well as talking with random people and asking questions. I can't really do that right now. Also, its frustrating to try to order some food and not get exactly what you want and not know what to say to get it corrected. I have a good idea now what its like for non-native english speaking people to come to the US and try to speak English.