So the normal Spanish schedule during the party season/weekends is to literally party all night and then sleep in the morning and early afternoon - then wake up early afternoon, have lunch (the largest meal of the day.. it's like an early dinner), go out party, have dinner at 10-11pm which is usually a small snack a boccata or something, and then party all night.
Every morning the newspaper of Navarra has extensive coverage of the bull running of the previous day and the pictures are quick graphic but entertaining nevertheless!
So today the schedule is to try to get some last minute tickets for the bull fight, party with the penas all night and then watch the bull running of the next day at 8am.
the caption above is a lie.. this was actually like at about 4:30 pm so just the normal hot temperatures in pamplona...I thought it was morning in the picture but realized we probably slept until 2 to 3pm from the night before - but it was pretty damn hot for this canadian!
Cheap, and excellent cocktail that can be prepared in large volumes and served from a bucket is the good ol' spanish Sangria... and these
penas make lots of it! We went to Pena Donibane where Maria's sister had many friends and basically asked members to see if there were extra tickets to be scored.. but none. We also met up with one of her friends from Balboa, Antonio as well as Vani and Naiara - the latter two girls went off to the centre to see if they could score some cheap tickets from scalpers!
left to right: Naiara, Antonio, Maria, Vanessa
After almost giving up after an hour of asking around... we were able to score some pretty cheap tickets - oh the benefits of hangin' with the locals! Score right in the
sol!
Heat is still searing at 6pm.
Once it is time to enter the building, everyone goes in and fills up the stands with random seating. The sol side is where there is no shade and people here roast in the blazing sun.. but it is also where you will find the penas and the partiers! Where as in the shade side, there are more well behaved spectators that are actually there to watch the fight.
Unfortunately we were late so when I walked in.. I don't know if it's because I'm asian.. or if it's because I had on a red shirt but everyone one above was throwing shit at me (well actually all of us in general but I got extra pelting)! i think I had 5 oranges and one unidentifiable slop of mush smack me in the head - this is also why we are wearing hats to help shelter our eyes from the barrage of fruit, garbage, sangria coming our way.
bull fight was neat but sort of what was expected. The bull does various charing at the fighter but there's other stuff you don't usually see like the taunting and then the aftermath of the dragging of the body outside of the ring by the horses. And people can really get into the fight.. supposedly during san fermin in pamplona... the insane behaviour for the crowd in the sol at the festival is not the normal atmosphere. I can also see how some people might be disgusted by the event such as seeing a live animal killed for sport but at the same time it is a long lived tradition in spain and it all comes down to personal opinion! When you go on the main website, you can look at the program and they even schedule in the official protests in the festival program.
this is what you look like when your friends start to randomly sing happy birthday to gather the surrounding attention to fire away at the victims when the song is over. :P
At Intermission we all had a picnic, sat around and had some interesting conversations.
the crew at lunch
Maria's cousin that kept calling me "Kung Fu!" Good name... good name.
The stadium was completely packed and was quite the sight of everyone in red and white.
When the bull fight is over.. the crowd goes down and storms the ring to get ready to parade out of the stadium with the penas. You basically have the majority of the city's attention the next few hours as the penas party and head back to their club quarters in the center.
This is me on a losing bet... so my pants paid for it.
Afterwards, in the main square there was some traditional basque dancing and since I was already full of sangria i was like - why not! Vani is the professional.
After the dancing, decided to rest and then meet up with Maria's sister at the Pena and find some fellow clubbers.
So hot that evening that Vani had to douse herself in the local water fountain.
Later in the night we went for a quick spin at Pena Donibane and here there were LOTs of ana's friends. When then headed to various clubs around town and danced the whole night. The music is quite different as they like to play a lot of local music... but also what I hear is music that you would probably hear at the festival.. like cheesy, but easy-to-dance-to sing-a-long kind of music.
Inside the san fermin pena where i swear it was 15 degrees hotter than what it was outside.
it's amazing that even at 5-6 am in the morning.. these places are still so packed! and considering it was the second last night of the festival out of ten days - these locals must have a secret reserve of energy!
Craaazy even at 6am the place is packed.
By seven most of the places close and people can go home.. or linup for the encierro!
I tried to find a good place to set up station to record the run. But of course about 2 minutes before they release the bulls.. the police tell me to get off where I was and automatically I become a runner.
Next thing I hear is them yelling "vamos! vamos!" and a stampede of dudes are running around you as the bulls where coming.. so I basically started a jog at first and then when you can hear the cow bells coming and masses of people sprinting around you - then all you can do is all out sprint... or be trampled. However, the whole time I was looking for an exit, but next thing I know I see four of the bulls in front of me and two behindish and I realized.. oh... that's it. Damn those animals are fast.
After a long tiring day.. it was 9am before we headed home as it was time for bed!!!! yeah sleep!
