San Fermin - Pamplona, Spain

I know I´ve been a bit slack with the updates and this comes almost 3 weeks after the festival but better late than never right? Actually, I did write this about 2 weeks ago but the internet ran out just before I got to save it so I lost it all...

We left Biarritz to make our (Pete, Josh, Will & Myself) way to Pamlona for the much anticipated San Fermin festival or ¨Running of the Bulls¨. This was definately up there on the high priority list for my travelling so you can imagine how excited we all were. We hadn´t made any accomodation bookings as we were planning on sleeping in the park and ruffing it for a few nights and funnily enough by the time we got off the train we had a few other people following us to do the same thing. We then jumped on a bus into the centre of town and again by the time we had arrived we had probably 8 other people coming with us to crash in the park, a nice little happy family of bums I guess...

After dropping our bags off in the left luggage place in town we headed to the grog-shop and spent the rest of the night getting to know our new found parksleepers. As the liquor dried up we got tired and it was time to hit the flowerbed for a sleep, in the middle of the main square. A few short hours later we were woken by a sharp pain in the shin´s... It was a bunch of police smacking us in the legs with their battons, and it wasnt any lovetap either! I think we all ended up with a few lumps and bruises and my camera got a bit of dent in it, still works tho. After only about 3 hours sleep we needed longer so we packed up and moved to better hiding spot.

We awoke to the sounds of the opening ceremony of the festival so we quickly packed up our sleeping bags and made our way to the El Corte Ingles, the supermarket, for bulk quantities of Sangria! 5€ later and 5 litres heavier we were set, well at least for a few hours. We did manage to find some room in our stomachs for some food too... The Sangria was SO cheap, we had so much and it was so hot so put all those 3 together and you get everyone soaked in Sangria! So much fun!!!


The day, the people and the town became very very messy. Will managed to lose his passport until I found it about 50metres down the street, a few people spewed and I´m sure I´m missing some important points from that day... As night fell we all were pretty bugged so didnt really stay up too late, and also because we needed to get up early for the first bull run of the festival. So we grabbed our sleeping bags and off we went to our patch of grass...

The morning came and we woke a bit late so were rushing to get to the gate so that we could participate in the bullrun. Unfortunately we got there too late and missed out but I managed to get up the front of the crowd for a good view of the run. It was good to be able to see how it all works before I actually ran I think, but, it definately made me more nervous for the next day... I could see people getting trampled in the stampede of humans and bulls and you can definately see how people get so hurt every year!

After the bullrun the day was pretty relaxing... The day was blisteringly hot so Pete, Josh and I made our way down to the river just outside the town to have a siesta. The sleep didn´t work out, it was way too hot and the river was o so tempting, well if you could get the dirt and smell out of your head... Before long we were splashing about having a ball and about 20 other people wearnt too far behind us! I guess the river kind of acted as our shower for 3 days we didnt have access to one. You can imagine how dirty we were if we thought we´d be cleaner by swimming in a dirty river... Again the night fell and we again slept in our patch of grass.

Tomorrow came and it was now or never for us to run with the bulls. We managed to get up with plenty of time to spare to get to the track and after a heap of pushing and shoving Pete and I manage to get onto the track. It was so exciting and adrenaline pumping just to be standing amongst the crowd. Everyone was so pumped up and you could see the nervous looks on peoples faces, it was quite nerve racking... Then the gun went off and that was our que to start running for our lives. I took my camera with me and took a video over my shoulder as I ran. ()I took the run pretty slow at first to try and let the bulls catch up with me and damn did they catch up. One minute there wearnt anywhere in sight the next they were up my arse. I did a massive stack and quickly got back up just as the bulls were running right past me. One metre to the left and I would´ve been stomped for sure! But I got back up quick smart and ran for my life into the bull ring. Safe at last? HELL NO! After the runners were in the ring, they began to let our more crazy bulls into the ring and they pretty much just charged and charged and charged until they hit someone. You could see people getting flung into the air and there wasn´t much you could do if the bull came staight at you. Luckily enough I escaped virtually unscathed, just a few cuts and bruises on my arms and legs from the stack during the run... Definately a great experience that I´ll never ever forget!

Well now that I´d done my run and I was satisfied it was time to pack up and head off. The next destination was to be Santander on the north coast of Spain. The plan was to go with Josh and we would hire a car up there and drive our way all over Spain, ending in Barcelona...

Plenty more blogs to come so just stay tuned and I´ll do my best to type one up whenever I get the chance.

Until then...

Bordeaux, Biarritz - France

Ok, so after leaving Libourne we (Josh, Pete, Will & Myself) spent the day in Bordeaux. We didnt really get up to much, just the usual walk around and checkout the sites. Then, again, it was back to the station to jump on yet another train, to Biarritz.

The train ride was only 2hours and was made alot quicker by the fact that we had a case of beer between us and a few American women to talk to. Again, we had no accomodation booked for the night, just our tents and sleeping bags. We arrived sometime in the evening, around 9ish I think, and jumped on the bus to the city/beach where we were planning on crashing for the night.

After reaching the beach we realised that it probably wasnt the best place to pitch the tent for the night. It was still busy and very windy and cold... So we thought that sleeping in our sleeping bags on a small piece of grass in the middle of town was a good idea, not really, it was bloody freezing... Our bodies told us we needed warmth so we decided that we'd try and just get through the night with the tents up on the beach so off we went and set them up, 30 mins later we were sound asleep, and 4hrs later the police were banging on the tents... No trouble tho, just packed up and away we went, this time to the caravan park.

The caravan park was so much more relaxing and at least we had showers! After a few days of dirt I bet you can imagine what the 4 of us smelt like. The day was filled with beach, pool, shower, beer, and food and more beer. All in all a great day.

The morning came and it was again time to pack up and head to the station, this time, destination Pamplona, Spain for San Fermin (Running of the Bulls). One of my most anticipated places on my trip...

Will write about that next time...

Until then, a side note...

The general perception of the French. From almost all the people I have spoken with, they have all told me that the French people are just arrogant and very stubborn people. I didn't find that at all, actually, from my travels I could amost say that the French people (the ones I've met) have been some of the nicest people I've come across... Just my experience tho I guess...

See you again soon!

Don.

Libourne - France

Pete, Josh and I left London on a flight to Bordeaux with our final destination to be Libourne.

After arriving in Bordeaux we pretty much jumped straight on a train heading to Libourne. Not sure why we went there but I think it was something to do with the wine region... Anyway, we arrived in Libourne and met up with Will who had flew over from OZ to spend some time in Europe with us boys. It was good to catch up with him, hadnt seen each other for something like 8months!

So straight to the bottle shop and off we went walking to the campsite about 3kms out of town. After the long tiring walk we finally arrived walked in then walked out. The place was only for caravans... As you can imagine we were all pretty frustrated and dissapointed because the next campsite was 6kms away! We decided to knock on the door of a vineyard and ask if we could pitch our tents in their yard. So we did, and the first doorknock was a success. 30mins later we were set-up and heading back into town for some tucker.

Dinner was basic, a kebab. Then we went down the road a bit and bought a case of grog and sat out front and drank til the early hours of the morning. After some drunken shenanigans it was time to head all the way home...

The next day we departed Libourne and headed back to Bordeaux. (will update from here on very soon! Promise...)

Return to London...

After Helsinki I made a (kind of) surprise return to London to spend a few days in the old house with the boys until the next leg of the journey, France.

My time in London was probably most enjoyable because of the fact that I could just relax and not worry about anything for a while, eat well and again, relax.

One of the days we retraced our steps of the "Fosters Tour" that we had done many months before. This day ended with many stumbles and lost memories but was an awesome day which was reinforced by the morning feeling, "Never drinking again" ring any bells?

Another outing included heading to The Church, my first time there. This place is really on a different drinking planet. Drinks are served in 3 bottle/can lots and given over the counter in clear plastic bags. The floor is covered with sawdust, my guess is so that cleaning is much easier with all the spilt drinks and spew everywhere. A (dirty/disgusting) stripper also performed on stage and a few drinking games were held but mainly the whole day was drinking and drinking and yep, drinking!

Ok well that was that for London! (more happened but I´m so far behind my update that I´ll just put those important parts in...)

Next we left for France, destination Bordoeux.