Running of the Bulls

The second stop on the family vacation was to see the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

For whatever reason, I expected Pamplona to be a small, remote town but it was much larger and more populated than I thought it would be. Of course, the city was super crowded for the festival. During the evening, the city reminded me of Bourbon Street - wall to wall people, most of them pretty intoxicated, and cheap alcohol being sold out of store windows (ie. a 1.5 liter bottle of sangria was 3 euro). There were spontaneous parades popping up and blocking off streets. There was even a fake bull with fireworks shooting off of it that pushed through the crowd at one point. Every place was crowded with people dressed in white with red bandannas and sashes.

Mom and Dad in the spirit.

(Both realized what I was capturing on film just as I snapped the picture.)

We actually watched the running of the bulls on the morning of the 12th. My mom had secured us balcony spots. Basically, those that live on the street the bulls run down get their rent money for the year by charging tourists to watch from their balconies. However, it's the only way to get a good view. Runners (including my uncle) started lining the streets a bit before the run. The cops came through and pulled the intoxicated, shoe-less, bag or camera carrying, and women off the course. We were watching near the beginning so we saw the bulls go by (my picture above) pretty quickly and then watched the rest on television. They held nothing back on the video footage. Seven people got gored and several others were injured that day. The problem was that one of the bulls got separated from the pack. That was the bull that caused the trouble.

Uncle John getting gored the night before he ran.

We left Pamplona that afternoon for Barcelona. My suitcase arrived to Pamplona (from Stockholm) just in time for me to check it in for my Barcelona flight. (I did get to use my Spanish immediately on arrival in Pamplona - mi maleta no esta aqui!)

Anyway, I found the video of the Running of the Bulls from the day we were there on You Tube. Here it is, if you are interested......