Let me just start off by saying our time in Pamplona was one for the books. I don't know whether it's a good book or a bad book, but a book nonetheless.
Like I mentioned before, we missed our original train to Pamplona and had to wait an hour and a half for the next one and deal with the annoyingness of the Barcelona train station again. This train didn't leave until 6:40 PM, so we didn't arrive in Pamplona until almost 11:00 PM. Well, everyone else seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going, so we followed the crowd - bad idea. They all got on a bus. On this bus was a very kind man from Australia that was kind enough to let us use his phone to call the hotel and see if the bus was our best option because the instructions they gave us weren't clear - it wasn't. She said we should have taken a taxi, woops! So while we wait for the bus to get to the city center, we chat with this man and learn that there is such an overcrowding of people at this festival that there aren't accommodations for everyone, so the city installed public bathrooms, showers, and luggage check so people can sleep in the park and still come to Pamplona without arrangements. Keep this in mind - this detail is important later. So we arrive at city center just as the fireworks at the festival are going off, find a police officer to ask for directions to a taxi stand, and go on merrily to our hotel. It was quite nice, we were very pleasantly surprised by it. It had one inconvenience though - we had to take a bus to where the festival was, we couldn't walk. At least the bus picked up right outside the hotel. We knew the Running of the Bulls starts at 8AM every morning of the festival, so we asked the concierge what time we should leave to get a good spot. Her response: 5AM. FML. So, we went to bed sometime after midnight/ one o'clock once we showered and unpacked/ settled in etc. then were up at 4 to start our next day!
After waiting for the bus and travel time we got to city center at about 5:45. We had no idea what we were doing so we just followed the mass of people. Luckily from our train ride we learned that everyone wears all white with little red neck scarves, so we dressed as appropriately as we could, but it was a bit chilly! We followed the people to the main square where all the tents and restaurants and jumbo trona etc. were, and we stopped in the first little shop we saw to equip ourselves with scarves. We wandered around to find ourselves some seats, but all we found were people standing next to each other in lines in front of unformed fences. We learned from the one person we found speaking English that apparently you're supposed to sit on top of the fences so you can see, and all these people had scoped out spots before the fence was put together for that day. Well, we wandered until we could find a fence with some space, and found some in the middle of the run. We ended up sitting next to some boys from Barcelona who were eager to chat with us and work on their English, teaching us a bit of Catalan (language spoke in Barcelona) and passing the few hours we had to kill before the run started. The run starts with a cannon meaning the bull pen is open. The second means all bulls are on the path. The third means the first bull has reached the bull pen at the end, and the fourth means all bulls are contained and it is all clear. Well the run is only about 3km and lasts about 3 minutes, and the glimpse of bulls we caught was even shorter than that - maybe 30 seconds. It was a long time to wait for a 30 second glimpse, but it was way worth it! I mean come on, we are watching the San Fermin Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain! Well, the third cannon didn't go off for a while, which means the bulls got site acted aka were hurting someone, which we later heard someone died that day. We can't confirm or deny from any official sources, but that's still crazy! That solidified for us that we would not actually be running and just watch. When the run ended and the final cannon sounded, we made our way back to the plaza to watch on the jumbotron and TVs where we got to see the whole thing which was nice. We then found somewhere to eat because at this point we had been up for 4 hours and were starving. The restaurant we found had an array of food. What we ordered said it was a tortilla with potatoes, ham, and cheese. Well, I don't know the Spanish definition of tortilla, or potatoes, but this was not it. It was a loaf of French bread with a slice of ham and cheese on it, and then an unknown item that was seemingly a mix of a hash brown and an omelette. It was quite curious. We then attempted to go back to our hotel on the bus - the same bus we arrived on, note. Well, we got on at a different stop to a bus with the same number. And after riding the loop for over an hour, the bus arrives at the very stop we got on at without ever passing ours. We were really confused and I tried asking the driver for an explanation but he brushed me off. So we got off at the next stop which was in the suburb area, and wandered around looking for a taxi. I managed to flag one down that had just dropped people off, and he brought us back to our hotel. We found out that there are apparently two different routes of the same route, and we got on the wrong one. And they weren't clarified so that was really annoying. But live and learn we knew to then get on at the stop we get dropped off at in the morning and no other. Our driver was nice, his wife is in America and we chatted about that a while, him trying to use English and us Spanish. We got back to our hotel and took a much needed siesta after the early morning and late night before, then we're ready to take on the festival. When we got there, everything was just getting started (I guess everyone had the same idea as us). We enjoyed some sangria as we wandered the streets seeing different street performers and artists and booths and sights. We found a cute place for dinner where we had another sandwich, this one more normal with chicken and veggies. We then continued to wander for a whole but were quickly work out from the sun and walking and awkward sleep pattern from before. We called it a relatively early night, went back and prepared for our next stop and went to bed early. We got up at the same time the next morning but left slightly earlier to be on the first bus and beat everyone down town. We were successful and got seats right at the end of the run before the enter the bull ring (super sought after!). We again chatted with the people next to us to pass the time, this time it was boys studying in Madrid that we're staying at one of the boys house in Pamplona for the festival. We tried to grab a little breakfast while we waited; Megan had another bocadilla (those sandwiches) and I had some prepackaged donuts because it was all that was available - really nutritious meals at 6AM. This run was even better because we got to see both directions of the run and our view was larger. We began to get concerned though when right before the run started, medics all set up right in front of us, and one of the police guarding made us switch our stances on the fence to allow for an easy jump off... We ended up being completely safe but one guy did get quite hurt right in front of us. I didn't see any blood or broken bones though so I think he will be okay. After the run we headed straight back to the hotel to pack up and get on our way because our train was leaving at noon. We got to the train station with plenty of time. We got lunch, chatted with people and shared travel plans and experiences, then got in line to board when it was our time. Well, they go to scan our tickets, but there was a little problem - they were for the wrong day. Back in Barcelona when we waited in that horrible mess forever and ever for our reservations, the guy booked them for the wrong day! And worse we didn't even notice! So that was just great. We tried explaining that we had to go and we already had arrangements made etc etc but the train attendants wouldn't let us on, so we go to the ticket booth and he basically informs us that we are SOL because there are no more reservations on our first train back to Barcelona and no train to marseille from Barcelona til the next day. I'm really glad the man told us that when making our reservation instead of just assuming the next day would do without asking. So remember when I said there aren't enough hotels for everyone? Well yes, this now put us on a predicament. We were stuck in Pamplona for another night with no arrangements made. So we go back to the hotel we had been staying at and ask if the have any openings available. They do, in fact, have one room available, but it will cost us €70 each. No way are you crazy!! So we grab the iPad and go to our handy hostelworld.com that we've been using, and see if there is anything else in the area. We find one place, called the Hemingway Hostel, which was right next to the bull pen. Not only was this closer, and cheaper, but we also didn't have to pay for a bus trip every time we wanted to go in and out of town! It was such a blessing! So with all our things on we take the bus into town and go to the hostel (the bus driver wouldn't let us on at first, how frustrating) and see if they can help us. They in fact have 2 beds left in a private room, so we snatch it up real quick and settle back in. Now we were faced with the hostel we already had booked for that night in Marseille. The cancelation policy is 24 hours in advance, and this is obviously not an option, so we email them right away and see what our options are. Luckily, demand is high there too so they were able to fill our beds and cancel our reservation, but we were super super lucky with that. And of course we couldn't just shift our reservation to the next night, because they were all booked up then too. So we find a new hostel and adjust accordingly to this new timeline - looks like we're going to have to take Paris out of the equation. Once all the bumps in the road have been smoothed out, we decide to make the most of it - after all there are much worse places to be stuck, and spend all afternoon and evening out enjoying the festival. We were so sick of bocadillas by this point (we had like 5 in two days) we jumped on the first non-bocadilla thing we can find. Which was empanadas and pizza. Interesting combination, I know. I attempted to order what was on the menu as "sausage pizza" but when she grabbed it, it was a piece of pizza with a HOT DOG on it! What a joke! So I ixnayed that and went for the most normal looking piece, which turned out to be ham and cheese - what a shocker, I feel like their only meat is ham. But it was actually yummy and a change so we weren't complaining. We stumbled upon a few concerts, one of which was Spanish screamo, pretty cool, and the other was more family oriented, I think it was maybe a disabilities benefit because they had a bunch of kids go onto the strange and sing and dance, and I believe they all had autism or mild Down's syndrome. They played music that must be common in Spanish households because everyone knew it, and then a few of today's pop hits that they were surprisingly good at replicating (even American music like Ke$ha's "Timber"). We went back to the square and were just etching street performers and the updates on the jumbotron until a guy came up to us and asked "are you from Gainesville?!" We were really confused, until I realized I was wearing my anorak - an orange and blue rain jacket from my sorority, and he recognized it. We got to chatting, he and his mom come every year and he has run 31 times! They knew the city well so they showed us around and led us to the fireworks, and were super super kind. They invited us to join a private party after the race the next day but unfortunately we had to ACTUALLY leave Pamplona this time so we couldn't go. We were wiped after the long day with no siesta so after the fireworks (which were super awesome and over the top, by the way!) we headed back to the hostel and just crashed. This morning we decided not to do the super early thing, instead we did what the nice people from last night suggested, sit in the bull ring! She said sitting in the lower levels is free and you get to see everyone run in and then play with the baby bulls. And we didn't have to leave until 7! Yay sleep! Well it ended up being €3 for the lower deck but still super worth it. We were right above the opening they come through at the end of the run so we had a great view. There were also screens to watch the run while it was happening so that was great. They take away the running bulls right away, and then when all the runners file in, release one young one at a time whose horns are taped at the end to be dull, and let it attack people as they tease it. It was actually quite entertaining, they threw people around and in the air and into the dirt, no one was hurt though. I guess not all the runners know this happens, the first bull scared this one group of girls so much they hopped over the wall in desperation. It was quite the site, the looks on their faces. They also brought out this HUGE bull to round up some of the babies, and I mean huge, this thing looked more like an ox than a bull. There were about 6 babies and then the run was officially over for the day. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up, then headed to the train station. On the bus there we met some guys who went to USF (small world!) who were going to make reservations, and one was such a gentleman he bought my bus fare for me because the driver didn't want to break a €20 bill for €1.60 fare. We got to the station, sat down, and waited for our train. A man must have heard us speaking English because he asked if we were going to Barcelona too, we said yes, and got to chatting about every such thing. We weren't in the same car of the train so we went our separate ways then. We have met so many nice people and made some cool connections so far, I hope it continues! The train to Barcelona was about 4 hours long, we say across from a girl from New York and chatted with her a lot, her and Megan hit it off and chatted basically the whole ride, while I got engrossed in the end of my book. We then had an hour and a half wait at that wretched train station (last time ever!) so we got lunch and shopped around, Megan wanted a neck pillow for the trains. While on the first train we basically planned out the reminder of our trip on paper, and we will be doing a lot of overnighters which is good. We don't have to waste any days traveling and get to save on places to stay, woo! We are currently in transit to Marseille, France, which will take about 4 1/2 hours, and are so excited to be in another new place. So I guess it's a delayed Adios to Spain and Bon Jour, France! Yay for surviving the running of the bulls!