Europe Trip Recap: Running of the Bulls

After our Paris fun we went to Bayonne, France. We were going there to spend time with the French dance group Ero Bat. But more on that tomorrow.

When we got to Bayonne we basically ate dinner and got on a bus that took us to Pamplona, Spain for the Running of the Bulls. We arrived at 8:30 pm and the bus was coming to pick us back up at 9:00 am the next morning.

All night in Pamplona couldn't be so bad could it?

The first thing we did was get some food. It was nice to see spanish and be able to somewhat communicate with people after being in France for 5 days. Around 10:00 we decided to check out the shopping and find the bull arena.

This was my initial reaction.

(I don't know who captured this moment but it is spot on.)
As we started wandering through the city we found this...

It was amazing how absolutely disgusting the streets were already. It was only 11:00 pm. Littered with bottles, garbage, and all sorts of bodily fluids (I'm sorry... TMI). Made me wonder what the city looked like 1) in the day time and 2) without it all. I think it would be a cool city to visit.

We made our way to the carnival around midnight.

This is what we called the "family area" because it was not as much of a party place and, well, there were families there. Little kids (2, 5, 7, whatever age) with their parents enjoying the concerts and sitting in the park. At 2 am!

The bull pen where the bulls were kept all night.

This is at the bull fighting arena around 3:00 am. We were going to wait here the rest of the night but the partying was progressively getting worse and we just didn't want to stay there and witness it.

We found a quiet spot on some stairs by the starting line at 5:00 am and waited. The streets started to fill up with runners and excitement started to build.

We didn't coordinate with each other very well because everyone took video of the bulls running, but NO ONE took pictures. Oops. It was pretty awesome but really only took about 10 seconds and it was over.

I was so exhausted after the night's events I fell asleep
in the middle of telling a story. Who does that???

All in all we are glad we went to the Running of the Bulls.
It will be an interesting experience we'll always get to share
and be able to tell our kids of our crazy adventures.

Would we do it the same way?
NEVER.
And you shouldn't either.