Luckly, Michael who was in my roon in San Sebastian was going to Pamplona as well. After a quick breakie and last tour of San Seb, we headed up to the Bus terminal. Because of the lack of taxi's and Spain's routine siesta's we had to get the later bus, which made me late meeting up with Matt and Loz. Sorry guys! We found a litlle crew who were all trying to find the shuttle that would take us to our campsite. Finally we found the crowd of Yellow and Green fanatics shirts. It was only a short 10 minute bus ride back to the camp, where we checked in and got to meet our little 3 person tent. They were selling lilos to sleep on, but Loz and I thought we would tought it out for our first camping experience. We set ourselves up with a could possy, with our sangria that later turned into a bottle of vodka. We watched 400 fanatics arrive which would elvolve into 1200 by the next day. Which added to the total of 4000 crazy people, and that was just at our camp site. So after many drinks, Loz, Matt and I retreated back to our tent.
We did wake up with a small hangover, which was made worse by the conditions we were living in. As the camp was not full yet, we decided to hang by the pool for most of the day, then did a walk of the bull run in the afternoon. It was actually longer than we thought, about 800 metres I think. Matt's face turned a little green, as he was doing the run the day after tomorrow. We made our way back to the camp for yet another night of drinking. This time I made the mistake of calling on international roaming.. Not a good idea. Also we got to experience a lightning storm, which was great when laying in a small thin tent. Luckly it held up though.
So this day would have to be the most crazist of my life so far! It was the opening ceremoney of the San Fermin festival. It started at 11 am, which meant sangria before midday. We started to head towards the Town Hall as that is where all the chaos happens. But because of the mass amounts of people, we only got half way. It was ridiculous! There was sngria, champagne, flower, mustard and buskets of water being thrown at us. It started getting really crowded, and then the pushing began! People were trying to get in and some were trying to get out, therfore little Loz and Tish were getting trampled in the middle. I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life. I saw the headlines 'Stupied Aussie girls die before the bulls are realeased!' I was lucky that Brendan Wall was in our group and was able to drag me to a safer area. Which I found a large rubbish bin to stand on, and got some of the best photos yet. For the rest of the afternoon we drank and wondered the streets of Pamplona, which had parties and people everywhere. We did go and check out the crazy fountain that all the Aussie's and Kiwi's jump off, and let the Spaniards catch them, which has proved to be a bad idea in the past. As it is where more people have dies than the actual bull race. I have never seen anything like it! Men and women diving into a sea of people, hoping that someone catches them. Luckly this year no-one did die. So it was back to the camp site for more drinking and a well needed shower, as we were covered in Sangria.
As it was the firat bull race, we were up at 5 am to catch the bus into town to watch and partake in the race. The boys made their way to the start and we headed to that arena to watch. It was remarkable to watch the men and women being chased around the areana by the bulls, something i'll never forget. Matt survived but didn't make it into the arena unfortunately. We just chilled at the camp all day and started our daily drinks in the afternooon. Loz and Matt went to watch a real bull fight, while I headed to the street party with my old gymnastics coach's daughter, who I run into at all large events. The street party was mainly fanatics and the odd Spanish who was crazy enough to party with us. I enjoyed my 2.69euro champagne, and loved being loose with Rachel. We miossed out on the fireworks as we couldn't understand where to go. So we got to see some shot up over the massive buildings that were blocking them. But it was such a good night it didn't matter anyway. We all squished into a tent for the night as the temps were freezing through the night.
Once again, our alarms all went off at 5 am but we were definately too hung over this time to get up. I slept it off for a while, before finding a spot by the pool all day. I got to eat another crap lunch, as the camp site didn't provide any nutritional food for the week. In the afternoon, the boys got to togerther and played a football match which resulted in a few injuries. But was great for the spectators. We finished up our week with a few drinks and a game of cards and all had an early night.
The next morning Loz, Matt and I got up early to watch our last bull race. This time Rach and I stood by the track just near the arena to get close to the action. It was even more crazy, espically when the bulls turn around and start running the other way. After the race we got another spanich omlette on a bagette, which are beautiful. Then we got back to camp and packed up our shit and got on another bus into town, changing for another bus to San Seb. It was such a memorable week, full of highs and lows but definately something i'll never forget!
