The bus dropped us right in front of the plaza de toros, and right at the heart of all the action. We made our way through the crowd, everyone wearing essentially the same outfit. Grabbing some beers, we walked along the route that the bulls would be running first thing the next morning.
There were people everywhere, having a great time, and so were we. As the sun set, we grabbed some tapas for dinner, and then saw a sparkling bull run through the crowd to entertain the kids (unfortunately, a spark hit Travers' shirt and burned a tiny hole in the back of it). We continued to make our way around the town, seeing all sorts of people and characters and festivities. By 2am we were getting a bit tired and knew that if we were going to see the bulls run at 8am the next morning, we had to get a few hours sleep at least. So we headed back to the hotel to literally sleep for 2 hours.
Waking up at 4:30am, we headed back out to the streets to get a spot along the guardrail that they would set up before the bulls run at 8am every day. By 5am we had chosen our spot, and proceeded to stand in the same place for the next 3 hours! Crazy you say? Well, we weren't the first ones there either, so it was good we showed up when we did. As the hours passed and the sun rose, more and more people gathered around us. We held firm and didn't let anyone get between us and our spot. After they built the rails we were able to stand on them to get a higher up position. As you can see, there is the path the bulls run, then an empty pen where runners can dive into to get out of the way, and then the wall that we and other spectators got to stand behind.
As 8am approached, people crowded everywhere they could get. Little by little, we saw people coming out onto their balconies. And by 8am they were all filled with people everywhere. If we were to do it again, we would definitely get a spot on one of the balconies, because those people probably had the best view of all.
At 8am, the starting gun was fired and we slowly saw people running down the street in front of us. Some hopped over the railing immediately, the police and paramedics helping them, and some kept on running past and a few seconds later, we saw the bulls come running up behind them, followed by more people, and finally the steers which guide the bulls to the finish line, the plaza de toros. Here are a few pics, but it all happened so fast that I wasn't able to get a great shot of the actual bulls.
After the run ended, we made our way to the plaza de toros with the rest of the crowd, and wiggled our way to view the show that was going on in the center. Hundreds of people that had run with the bulls, gathered inside the ring, and one by one a bull would be released into the ring (horns wrapped up so as not to do too much damage), and the goal would be to stand in front of the bull as it charges and grab hold of the horns for as long as possible. It was an entertaining 'show' and some people were somewhat successful, and others not so much. There was definitely some internal damage that must have been done to a few people, but they all got up and walked away afterwards.
After a few minutes, a huge steer would be brought in to corral the bull and lead it back into the stadium. It was amazing to see how the bull instinctively knew to follow the steer away from the people and into the stadium below.
After less than 24 hours in Pamplona, we took a few last looks, gave a few more cheers, and bought a few more souvenirs. We headed back to the hotel for a few extra hours of sleep before hopping on another train to the largest city in Spain, Madrid!
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