San Fermin Festival
It’s like playing a game of ‘Can You Spot the Difference?’ The first picture was when we got there at 10:30 (as evidenced by the clock) and the second is after the mayor appeared at 12 to open the festival of San Fermin. In the time between, the town square had turned into a mosh pit. If your clothes were too white, then you had sangria poured on you. If you went up on some shoulders, everyone would cheer and throw sangria at you until you flashed your boobs. If you didn’t deliver, then everyone booed; if you did then you got a great big cheer. I don’t think I’d ever heard Seven Nation Army chanted so much in my life and I’m from Baltimore. Cries of “Viva San Fermin” rang out as the president brought the opening of the festival to a close.
After the sangria splashfest, people on the balconies would throw buckets of water onto the crowd to wash them off. It felt like when you get out of a sauna and dump cold water on yourself. Shocking, refreshing, reborn. Ready to enjoy the festival!
Once the craziness died down, we made our way to the Plaza de Castillos. For everyone who didn’t go to the town square, you could have met in this plaza where they showed what was happening on big screens. Mustard was also on the menu at the plaza and some people’s shirts looked like my uncle’s after a night out at a hot dog stand.
Opening Festivities
There’s no running on the first day, instead everyone gets to enjoy the festivities with good food, street performers, dancing in clubs, and fireworks at the end of the night. Even if you don’t condone the actual running, the rest of the city sure knows how to put on a party.
We ended up not going back to camp that night and got a little shut eye thanks to a friend putting us up at her AirBnB. After about two hours of sleep, we headed to the location for the big run. As it turned out, we were too far ahead so we got pushed out before the run even started. We did get tricked into running a little though, because everyone behind us started running and you can’t leave something like that to chance. We felt that little adrenaline rush and that was enough for the day. They do a run each day of the week until the closing, so we had one more shot the next day.
The Running of the Bulls
The next day, with a lot more rest, I tried again to run with the bulls. My friend was happy enough to have attempted it the first day, so she watched our bags and tried to record some of the running. I got a firsthand account of the bulls. I was running and getting closer to the stadium and then as soon as the path started getting narrower, I looked behind me and the first bull ran past. I saw two more behind it and they were on my side. In the time it took me to turn my head around and decide to try to cut across, one bull managed to put its horn between my legs and flip me completely over it. I landed on the ground and barely avoided the four more bulls behind it. Then I ducked under the fence because I didn’t know how many more were coming and I already had my story.
