12th-17th july

ok well left madrid in the morning at 0800 and on our way to beautiful san sebastian, only when we arrived to this gorgous beach town, it was bloody raining!!!! couldnt belive it, we were sweating buckets in madrid and i threw out my trackies in barcelona not thinkin i would need them again for a long time, but i needed them here, of all places, got into this little town around 4pmish had a look around town, dodging the rain then got ready to head out to a local bar to meet the other people meeting us for our pamploma tour, free tapas and a free welcome drink on arrival then we met nearly 50 other people who will be spending the next 4 whirl wind nights with us, sangria after sangria and lots of dancing later, i called it a night at 11pm while everone else stayed out drinking, i went to bedm only because our first day started at 3,30 in the morning

4 hours sleep later it was awake time ready to be on the bus to pamploma 4, it was an hour bus ridem after 15 mins of excitement from our fellow travellers, then everyone else fell asleep, includint those who had stayed out all night, crazy cats, arrived in pamploma just after 5am to fine absolute carnage throughout the town, people everywhere. were dropped off at the bus port and people sleeping on top of each other to keep warmm sleeping in stairwells throughout the busport and up and down the main streets, i have never seen so many people crammed into public areas trying to sleep after what must of been a massive night for everyone, we walked as a group through the town finding people in more bizzar places and we found ourselves where the running of the bulls happens, the nerves build up when the group seperates into those who want to watch the bulls enter the arena and those who want to come into the arena with the bulls, stacey had made up her mind a week or so ago and everyone else in my hair askingme if i was gonna run or not, i made the split decision to follow those who were gonna run, not knowing if it was the riht decision or not. i could of landed a horn up my arse for all i know, we arrive in town square at 6am and the bulid up of nerves keep growing with the size of the crowd joining us to run with the bulls. within the crowd there were spanians looking at us girls saying that we are crazy for running with them and showing us the local newspapers where they had the pictures and the size of each bulls that are running each morning, psych psych psych oh my god. by the time just before 8am arrived when they released the bulls i was litterally s***ting my pants, they open the gates to release the crowd of people so you can start anywhere in the race so people are pushing to get to their chosen starting position, people screaming to go faster and with an almighty force they pushed past us all while i was freaking out thinkin the bulls are comming already. they let out a mighty cannon BOOM and then that means the bulls have been let out, by now i was already half way through the race, i had lost stacey, left her behind cause the freak wanted to stay behind to watch the carnage. people pushing and tripping over infront of me and having to leap over bodies on the ground. got into the arena without seeing the bull and without breathing finally turned around and saw these massive humungous bulls comming through the gate holy crap i freaked the hell out, the bulls wouldnt of been more then 10 meters away from me so i sprinted to the side lines, threw myself over the barrier into the arms of a local spaniard and got the hell out of there. searching for the other people in the tour who were crazy enough to run with me, 2 mins which felt like eternity i finally found stacey and the excitment between us was amazing, then we found the rest of our group, cheered whistled and high fived eachother.

wow after the race had ended there was another part, all the crazy people who had ran got to go into the arena and stir up a smaller more psycho younger bull that just went nuts headbutting people and ramming them while the people took pride in slapping it on its arse and tormenting it, this wasnt as fun to us as it was the spanians but of corse there were some stupid aussies in the arena tormenting it, there was one busabout tour guy that got bashed by the spaniards for holding the bull by the horns because you apparently cant disrespect the bulls like that. weird i know since they kill it later that night with the bull fights. 30 mins of this happening the group remet, including the people who were up in the stands, exchanged exciting stories to those poor souls that did not run and then made our way back to the bus. knackered from the morning i was glad to get back for a few hours sleep, hour bus ride back and straight into bed for 4 hours sleep,

up again for another hour bus ride to celebrate the night away in pamploma with the locals. people everywhere paradeing themselves around the town in big music groups. and huge signs representing the festival week. my got the spanians know how to party. sangira for 3 euro 50 bring spilt all over the place and every instument being played the loudest it can. what an amazing experience. stacey buying me a balloon hat and looking like a fool, loving it and loving the cheapest sangria ever danced the night away. also must of danced away from the group because i lost them all for alittle while but then sure enough found them just enough time to catch the bus back to san seb. got back around midnight then another 3 hour sleep.

up again at 3.30 for yet another morning celebration, same sort of thing again but no where near as many people hanging around the streets of pamploma. arrived in town for yet another run with the bulls, this time stacey made me stick behind and actually watch the bulls run past me. oh my god once again the scariest thing i have ever done. watching these 650kg bulls run past me while dodging the crowd and watching where i am running, i thought i was gonna die. die from over stimulation that is. holy crap. running through the arena and listening to the crowd cheering and whistling to those who had finished. i of course ran straight to the fence and threw myself over again and got out of the way of the smaller crazy bull running people over.

back to san sebastion for a longer needed sleep this time, feeling exhausted and actually getting 6 hours sleep, up again for the quickest plainest pasta meal ever and back into pamploma to help celebrate the closing of the festival. the people were everywhere oh my god. once again sangria everywhere, of course got into the spirit of things and threw it all over each other and painted out white shrits red. the sun was setting and the crowd grew bigger and drunker.. the crowd then moved into town square where they were chanting traditional songs and sceaming chants. we all then held up our neck scafs and candles and offically closed the festtival, staning next to italians, canadians, australians spanians americans and realised this festivl does bring everyone from around the world to it. we blew out our candles still singing and drinking and then wrapping our neck bands around our arms to close the ceremony, just because the ceremony was closed doesnt mean we stop the celebrations. we partied on, unfortunatly my camera was taken by some other festival goer but not to worry, enough people have taken enough photos of the weekend. ontl the weekend was lost not the whole trip. partied till 2am then it was time to callit a night and go back to san seb

the next day was spent recovering, sleeping and going to the police station to file a poilice report for having my camera pinched, then off to the closest camera shop to buy pretty much the first camera i could see and afford, not a waterproof one but that was the least of my worries at the moment, walked around san seb town towards the beach, too cold for me to swim, but didnt look like that for everyone else in the town, the beach was jammed packed with every different sized body i have ever seen, you could not fit another person on the sand. yes sandy beaches, havent seen that for a long time. that night we had more drinking, good bye drinking this time for everyone on our tour to wrapp everything up. i guess once again we didnt really wrap things up until early in the morning, met some amazing people on this tour and hopefully long time friend. facebook friends for sure. couldnt of asked for a better group of people.

the last day in san seb was recovering from another boozy night, we hired bikes well stacey and i of course hired the tandom bike because we wanted to look like idiots of course. but in the long run we saved money, cheaper but definatly harder of course, rode up to the highest point or san seb, well i guess we pushed our broken bike up the hill to see the biggest statue of jesus i have ever seen. having to cut our hired bike short to return the stupid broken bike back, did some food shopping for the next couple of days then met some of the same bike crew for a cheap dinner, one final strole around town to see some of the sights, the town was having a crab and seafood fest for some unknown reason with massive puppet dolls, over 10foot tall bizzar local tradition i put it down too, enough celebrations for a while i recon, packed our bag and then early to bed.

what a whirl wind experience and something i will take with me forever, i cant believe i ran with the bulls, TWICE as well what a rush, what a thrill, what a sensory overload, i will never be able to explain in word what goes through your body before you run with these giant creatures, the butterflies in your stomach and the jelly in your legs. including the nugget that you find in your undies after the race has finished. thinkin of all my loved ones and wanting to share these experiences with you. off to paris tomorrow xoxoxox