Ole, Ole, Ole - Pamplona Part 3

On Saturday, we got up at 5:30 to make it to our assigned balcony by 6:30.  That's when we realized just how crazy Pamplona was overnight.  The city was still raging at 6:30; in fact, I don't think the partying stopped until close to 9AM.  The smell was overpowering, the streets were sticky and the people were sloshed.  I've never seen anything like it - it makes King's day in Amsterdam look like a nursery school party.

The balconies are rented out by private individuals through a tourist company.  If you are a local, I can almost guarantee you get the heck out of dodge for the festival period. If you value any sleep, you would get out.

The balcony was on the 2nd floor (3rd floor US) and was closer to the bull ring than the start of the run.  Our arrival on the balcony:

We watched the clearing of the streets below, which was a real operation of moving all of the people and trash out of the street.  They clean the street pretty thoroughly with water and then blow dry it to make it a bit safer for the runners.

Once the streets are clear and clean, they start letting the 3000 runners (approximate number) down the path.  You can choose along the route where you decide to "run" with the bulls, which usually lasts max 5-20 seconds.  Some people just run the route way in advance of the bulls, which draws a lot of jeers from people, but it's a good way to say you've ran with the bulls without actually doing it.  Runners way ahead of the bulls:

The funny thing is that most of the above people kept turning around like they were actually running with them, but it was still 10 minutes before the first cannon.  Second blockade:

The anticipation of the running is thick in the air before the cannon goes off.  The requirements to run include running shoes and being mostly sober.  We saw a few people moved out of the runners who failed the last requirement.

Then the cannon went off and people started to run.  Since we were about 2/3 the way down the course, we waited about 1 minute before seeing the bulls:

 See the bulls?

 There they are, surrounded by steers.

 The white and black one are actual bulls.  It's technically illegal to touch them during the run, but most people who got close did it.

Really, the most dangerous part appeared to be the sheer mass of people running.  On Saturday, we didn't see anyone run over, but saw the ambulances by the arena where people were being treated for minor scrapes.  We also saw on the TV that a guy from Chicago who wrote a book about how to run with the bulls was gored earlier in the week (justice, irony, etc).

The steers are run with the bulls and after the bulls to make sure all of the bulls finished the route.  It's a bit of a knock on running if you just run with the sweep up steers:

Not bulls

After that, we walked up to the arena, finding that there was an event going on after the run.  We didn't have tickets, but went up to the gate to ask what was going on and the security guy gave L two tickets!

We found out that after the run, they let the runners who want to "fight" a heifer or very young bull onto the ring floor.  Essentially, there are 500+people on the ring floor and one animal running around hitting people when it gets annoyed enough, which is a lot.  Best part - no animal deaths and some minor goring to watch.  Great event!

Heifer getting ready to take out some more people

Sizing up the next victim

Girls can do it to.... #representing

After the heifer has taken out enough people, they send out a steer (largest I've ever seen) to lead the heifer out.  The steer is crazy scary, but relatively calm.

After the show, we scalped some bull fighting tickets for that night, which is the first time I've ever scalped anything.  Luckily it all worked out, but only because we had the previous tickets with us to compare.

I forgot some pictures from Friday, so I'll add them now, because the next things we did on Saturday were get breakfast and then take a siesta.

After an amazing siesta, we booked balcony spots for Sunday morning having seriously enjoyed the run on Saturday and then walked the town, seeing the cathedral and enjoying a drink overlooking the old walls

We did a bit more shopping and then headed back to the ring.  I took a lot more pictures of the crowd this time around.  We also got to see a matador who had lost an eye, who was apparently very famous.  Lots of people dressed up like pirates.

 Pirate matador

 Waiving the pirate flag

 President of the bull fight - makes the decision on the winner and when a bull has fought valiantly enough to survive or is not good enough to complete a fight.

Panoramic of the ring

Pirate matador

Area in the sun, in case you ever decide to sit in that area.  That's not the natural color of their shirts.

Basque green area

Lots of zorros in the crowd for the pirate matador


After a dinner at a local joint we stumbled on to, we watched the fireworks with the rest of Pamplona and then headed for sleep for another early morning :)