We arrived in Pamplona at 10:30am. We walked around Pamplona aimlessly until we found a Tourist Information office. They showed us where our hotel for the night was… way the hell out of town. It could only be located on the metropolitan map. Accommodations become crazy expensive during San Fermin and people often book rooms a year in advance. This is why we ended up with a cheap hotel way outside of town.
I originally booked this hotel on April 11th, but never wrote it down (or forgot where I did). After checking previous credit card statements I couldn’t find a trace of any booking in Pamplona so I searched out a new place to book while we were in Seville in a couple days before. I happened to find the same hotel, but I didn’t realize it at the time. Luckily I happen to love this dump, because when I got there they presented me with both of my reservations. When I saw this I was able to talk them down to paying only 50% of the bill for the extra room, otherwise I was getting charged 140 euro on my credit card (70 for each room). After checking in we went up to our room and took a 4 hour nap.
When we woke up it was 6:00pm. We wanted to head back into downtown Pamplona to buy our San Fermin outfit and walk the track that might claim our lives in a couple days. We bought pants, sashes, and white t-shirts. We got a Nestle bandana for free when we bought ice cream earlier. Technically, we were sponsored by Nestle when we ran it seems. The total for my outfit was 11 euro. Brandon’s was 14 euro because he got a little flossy with his outfit and bought the official festival t-shirt. We then walked the track 3 times. By now it was 9:00pm and we boarded the bus to shuttle us back to our hotel. We worked on our blog and cleaned up for tomorrow before trying to fall asleep a little after midnight.
Our outfits. This was just before entering the plaza to kick off the festival. Riot gear? Check!
Our room was real small and had ‘air conditioning’ that was definitely blowing out air, but not making the room any cooler. It was also complete with two twin beds, but the room was so small you couldn’t walk between them. I’d say 8 inches of space between the two beds. We also had the privilege of meeting the Pamplona police and fire department later that night.
The room next to ours was packed with roughly 6 Aussies (you’ll run into Aussies all across Europe, but in Pamplona they made up about 50% of the population). One of them apparently left a towel on a lamp. I know this because I sat next to him as he gave his testimony to the police. So the towel caught fire and they tried to cover it up. Since the front desk didn’t know where the smoke was coming from they called the police and fire department and gave us a wake-up call at 1:45am to tell us, “Something is happening on your floor. We don’t know what, but you need to leave.” After waking up and rolling over to answer the phone I looked up and saw smoke filling our room. I told Brandon to open the hallway door to get some ventilation in. I think he thought the hallway was on fire because he was worried if we opened it the room would fill with smoke. Luckily, I remembered my elemertary school fire safety classes and felt the door handle. It wasn’t hot so the hallway was likely clear. I opened the door and it was. Thank you Miami Elementary Fire Safety Day. Brandon figured it wasn't an emergency and left all his stuff in the room. I didn't know what the hell was going on and grabbed everything I had in 2 minutes, including my two 1-liter boxes of 83 cent sangria. It took the police and fire departments a half-hour to figure out what happened and then clear the hotel of smoke. Awesome, considering we got shit-sleep yesterday in order to make our 7:30am train and tomorrow night we would be sleeping in a park b/c hostels and hotels are too expensive during the festival, which started tomorrow. For example, our hotel shot up from 70 euro to 270 euro in one night.
We woke up the next day at 9:15am. We decided to sleep a little later to catch up on lost sleep from the fire last night. Our goal was to make it to the plaza where the San Fermin festival kicks off by 10-10:30am. The festival starts at 12 and people celebrate a couple hours before in anticipation.
By the time we dropped our backpacks off at the 24-hour luggage storage and got to the square it was about 10:20am. The square was crazy! We stayed on the outs of this rowdy mosh pit. Without a room tonight that meant no shower. We didn’t feel like being covered in sangria for 2 days. At noon the firework was lit signaling the beginning of San Fermin.
We left the square and started scattering around the city. So did everyone else. By this time we were working on our 2nd box of 1-Liter (83cents) sangria. We walked around and all you could see was streets packed with people wearing white with red sashes and red bandanas. We went back to the grocery store where we bought our cheap sangria and I purchased a 1 euro baguette. The cheap sangria was doing work on Brandon’s stomach so he just picked up some 50 cent cookies.
Band
People everywhere
Brandon found the next-best-thing to a shower
We then continued to walk around town after our 1.50 euro meal for the two of us. It looked like people were having a great time inside bars and everywhere, but we couldn’t afford to have fun. After Brandon lost his wallet I was the sole provider and since Chase charged me $3 I refused to let them swindle another $3 out of me. We would starve in the streets before that happened. So we each had $45 to make it through the next 3 days of our trip. I would pay for accommodations with my credit card. Stupid? Yes. What’s $3? Probably a shot of Jager on a cheap night. But it’s the principal! So this is why we lived like the homeless.
Exhaustion was setting in as the cheap buzz from earlier wore off. We took our first nap around 2:00pm. We scored a great location near an abandoned building way off the beaten path. The abandon building was clearly being used as part of a Hobo Village. They also had things in the backyard that they had garbage-picked. Looking back, we probably should have slept in a more visible location in case we had a shank pulled on us. Brandon laid on some random gravel that had been poured against the hillside while I took the unfertile ground. We weren’t here long I think. I fell asleep for maybe 15 minutes until Brandon woke me up and said this wasn’t working for him. And so on we walked.
We realized that after we ran tomorrow we probably wanted to get the hell out of Pamplona and get to our air-conditioned (we paid extra to ensure this) private room at our hostel in Madrid. We went to see if seats were available for the 11:30am train tomorrow so we could leave before our 8:00pm train we had previously booked for the same day. Also, this festival was rowdy, but it’s almost too much. The streets get covered in broken glass and used cups and people are drunk everywhere. It’s nice to go to a bar and live it up, but then you can escape from it if you want. Here it was all day and everywhere. It seemed to be that the 2nd day was much calmer so maybe it was just the first day that was this wild. I could have handled that, but I was worried tomorrow was going to be just as crazy as the first. Anyway, it turned out there were open seats for the 11:30am train. We would have to come back tomorrow to get tickets with our eurail passes, which were locked up at the time.
We walked back from the train station and into a park on top of a hill where people were partying. As we ascended the stairs we walked past a couple of guys doing lines of coke. The park had a bar where people were drinking and hanging out, as well. We walked a little farther into it and found a food court. Here, Brandon felt strong-armed into purchasing a 5 euro sandwich that wasn’t worth it. I saw baguettes standing 3 ft tall across the way and went to pick one up. 1 euro. Sold!
I had been wanting to see the bulls we were going to run with all day, so after eating we made our way to where they were being held. It was across town and a 20 minute walk. On our way there we walked the course again. I felt like I couldn’t walk it enough and took every opportunity to do just that. When we arrived at the corral where the bulls were being held they told us it was 3 euro to go see them. Are you kidding me? This isn’t a zoo lady, so why do I have to pay to observe my enemy. Obviously we weren’t paying, being on one of the best ‘tight-ass’ streaks of our lives. We weren’t going to let it end this way. So we went to the side of the building and Brandon tried to hoist me over the side of the corral where I could look down and see them. After a few failed attempts and a lot of dirty looks from people around us we gave up.
The corral was located adjacent to a small park. And this park was replete with benches. Benches were a hot commodity in a city where drunk people were passing out everywhere. So we laid on the benches that were a couple feet off from the main path. Here we slept about an hour. Brandon slept a little longer, but my spine had enough of the hard wood after an hour and woke me up to tell me it was hurting.
After this nap it was around 6pm. We continued to walk around town. After stopping briefly at one of the many concert venues, we went back to our favorite grocery store and splurged! I spent 3 euro on a Dannon yogurt drink, some ham, and another baguette. This would be the last money we would spend all day. My total spent for the day, including bus ticket from our hotel, was 6 euro. Trip record for money spent in a day! It was previously held by Brandon at 7-8 euro for the day. After that we headed back to the track to see the fire-bull at 10pm.
The fire-bull would be outlawed in the States. This thing showered the crowds on the bull-run path with burning embers as it shot fireworks out of it’s sides. I am typing this post 4 days later and still have a burn on my skin from one of the embers. One guy’s bandana caught on fire. It was a lot of fun, though. After that finished crowds headed over to the large park in the center of the city to catch the fireworks at 11pm.
The fireworks were some of the best we have seen. I don’t feel so bad about missing the 4th of July fireworks back in the U.S. now. It was during this show that we realized how cold it was getting out. Once the show concluded we scanned around for other people that looked to be sleeping in this big park tonight. We saw two guys near us who sounded North American and had a backpack with them. By this time we realized we were going to freeze our asses off tonight if we didn’t find someone with a tent. I decided I would walk up to them and try to lead the conversation in that direction.
We approached them and discovered they were from Washington D.C. They were planning on sleeping in the park that night, also. So after bullshitting long enough to make it not seem like this was the reason I came over, I asked if they had a tent. They did not. Either way we figured safety in numbers while we slept in some random park was a good idea. So we all went out to look for the plushest patch of grass to sleep upon.
Everyone we had talked to leading up to Pamplona, and even people from earlier that day, said we would see a bunch of tents and people passed out everywhere. This was definitely not the case. We saw a couple of tents on the other end of the park and a couple small groups sleeping, but it was a little more desolate than we had hoped. We set up shop near a tree and prepped for bed. The temperature continued to drop.
As soon as I get some free time I am going to nominate these two guys, Matt and Matt from D.C., for sainthood because they saved us from hypothermia that night. Matt found a sleep sack in his bag and offered it up to us because both of them, being much smarter than us, were wearing thermals and had sleeping bags. Brandon allowed me to have it because he can deal with being cold better than me. I wasn't arguing. 20 minutes later the same Matt was complaining about it being too warm in his sleeping bag (must be nice Matt), so he offered Brandon his thermal. It wasn’t enough to keep us warm, but it was enough to keep us alive.
My sleep-sack was paper-thin. It was practically see-through and I felt every breeze blow through it, but it slightly trapped my body heat in and that helped. Temperatures continued to drop. I shivered most of the night and curled up in the fetal position as long as possible to keep warm until my should hurt from digging into the hard ground and I would have to adjust positions. Brandon seemed to have just as much fun battling the elements. He had the ingenious idea of doing push-ups to generate body heat and a few times got up to walk around (no surprise from Brandon the Wanderer). On one such walk he went hunting for food because his stomach ached from hunger. He showed up at a fry stand with 4.40 euro, which was all the money he had left. The problem was the fries cost 4.50 and these people weren’t gonna cut a deal. He returned to our homeless group cold and hungry. It was bad. At one point Matt overheard a French girl say, in French, “Those poor people have no friends and no home.”
The temperature seemed to drop portionately with how shady/seedy our situation became. Rolling gypsy groups huddled around us. There was a park bench 4 feet from where we were sleeping and this was not the only bench in the park. However, this is the one a gypsy grouped decide to sit at. One of the gypsies came up and offered sex. That was kind of her, but we were more worried about survival at this point so we said we’d catch her next time. The group of 5 women and 2 men had a heated conversation 4 feet from us as Brandon and I stared at them and laughed in disbelief. Finally they left after attempting to sell us stupid shit at 2:00am in the morning.
Then another group of gypsies approached. I was still up but acted asleep in case this group was also offering some gypsy loving. Well it turns out if they think you’re asleep they will try to steal shit. I heard one shush the group as they approached. As they bent down over us I looked up at them. Immediately they acted like they were selling something to cover up. We told them to get the hell away. We then saw them sit down at a tree 40 feet away. When they got up we realized two guys were sleeping there. These guys just got taken and we didn’t realize they were there to warn them. I decided then I would be lookout the rest of the night since I likely wasn’t going to sleep being as uncomfortable as I was anyway.
We weren’t the only ones that slept in ridiculous locations, however. That day we say people sleeping on the river bank, in every park, at the train station, underground subway stops, on basketball courts, near statues in the center of plazas… and these people weren’t homeless. They were like us; unwilling to pay The Man 270 euro for a shitty hotel.
People sleeping in front of the train station
Brandon and I were both able to get just under an hour of shitty sleep before the Running of The Bulls. It was just over 50 degrees (12 degrees Celsius) when we woke up from the wet ground at 6:00am. The four of us headed to wear the two Matt’s were storing their luggage. Here, we ended up losing track of them and headed to the track by ourselves.
This is the park we slept in on the following morning
We arrived at the track right at 7:00am. This was an hour before the bulls were going to run, but you have to show up at least 30 minutes early if you want to run. We chatted up some Aussie who was with his girlfriend and doing the run by himself. Suddenly, around 7:45, the police began pushing us forward on the track. I had heard they do this to create space between groups of people. However, it turned out we were being pushed off the track.
In the corral and waiting to run
Suddenly we were off the track and the 200-300 hundred of us that were pushed off were not sure if we could get back on. Everyone started running down side streets to try to get back on the track. I was a little relieved because I proved I had the guts to do it, but it was not the smartest thing I had ever done so maybe it was good that I wasn’t going to be able to. We were half excited, half disappointed when we found a way back onto the track. We were going to run with the bulls this morning.
As the minutes ticked by our fight or flight senses took over. I think everyone was on edge and the locals were kind enough to light off fireworks to confuse us with the true firework that signaled the release of the bulls. One of these fireworks triggered hysteria within the group and about 200 people came running at us. Brandon and I followed the herd down the course and immediately lost each other.
Brandon followed the crowd almost to the stadium before realizing the bulls weren’t released yet. I jogged skeptically with the crowd because I saw people on the sides watching us run by them like we were idiots. Otherwise, I would have been in the stadium waiting for the bulls. I saw a middle-aged man (maybe late 40s?) who was running with his teenage son. He gave his kid a smile and wink as if to say, “Not yet. Just wait. We’ll be fine.” This guy was too cool-headed not to follow so I kept my eye on what he did as people rushed past. A few seconds later people came around the corner behind us at full sprint! It was clear these people had a 1200lb horned animal on their tail. The father and son started to run and I followed.
Brandon and I were separated and so had slightly different experiences during the run. I was caught in a massive crowd on the right side of the track and saw the bulls closing incredibly quick. Luckily this was a good run and most of the bulls were all together in a herd. They ran down the middle of the track and didn’t take a swipe at our group as they ran right by. I could see their backs and horns as they ran by. These animals were so much bigger than us! And I will never forget the sound they made as they stampeded by. After the herd went by I couldn’t be sure if there was a stray bull still behind us. Stray bulls are the dangerous ones because they become disoriented without the herd and start hitting people. So I kept running and there were rumors that there was still one behind us. I ran over people in the fetal position on the ground who I can only assume were trampled by the herd earlier.
Brandon got much closer to the bulls. I believe he was on the left side of the street when the went by. he said he was almost in arms reach and actually tried to touch one of them until someone bumped his arm out of the way at the last minute.
Finally, the stadium! We made it.
Brandon and I both made it into the stadium, but neither of us saw each other while we were in there. Once in the stadium, after all the running bulls were put in their pens, little bulls with corked horns were released to go wild on the runners who had just tempted death. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for some people and so they released a hyper youth of about 300 lbs. Since it was the only bull out there it was very disoriented and started charging at the hundreds of people running around the bull ring. When Brandon and I saw the first one sprint out and start lighting people up we both headed over the stadium wall where half of our fellow runners hid in safety.
After watching the first youth run amuck I decided to go out there and run with the next few. I did this for the next two little bulls, but I didn’t let the bull get too close to me and eventually I became tired of running from bulls all day and decided to reclaim a spot on the sidelines. Some of the guys in the ring would pull on the tail, challenge the little bulls, and one guy even put an empty solo cup on one of their horns. There were 7 little bulls released I believe. When one started to tire a giant ox bull came out to gather up the youth. This ox bull wasn’t aggressive, but if you got in its way it would hit you. This thing must have weighed almost a ton, but it was slow. When the two bulls found each other they would both walk back into their pens and out of the stadium. Then another little bull would be released and the process would start over again.
The ox bull looking for the young'in
Alive and well!
The festivities ended around 8:45am. I went to Brandon and I’s pre-arranged meeting spot. I was the first to arrive and every minute that went by I though about how I would have to go get him from the hospital or be asked to identify his body at the morgue. After what seemed like hours Brandon came around the corner with all his appendages in working order. We did it! And I’m never doing it again.
We checked-out our bags and headed for the train station, hoping they still had seats available on the 11:30am train. Luckily they did, because we could not wait to shower and eat. I felt so relieved that it was over and we were okay. The rest of our trip was going to be cake. Board the train and get off in Madrid, the city we were flying out from. Our hostel was already booked. We didn’t have to plan anything else on our trip. We were halfway across the finish line.
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