Magpie's Flight: I got a fever!!

but forget the cow and it's bell- it's time for the bulls!!! Or more specifically, my long over due blog on the Running of the Bulls:

(Yup, that's the ridiculous shit that you blog at 5am. I traveled crazy ridiculous whacked out hours on a plane yesterday- er, past two days, and passed out at my hostel in Auckland at 6pm, hence waking up at 5am today. My body is so confused)

Anyhoo, testosterone and red and fiesta...We rented a car in Madrid to drive to Pamplona (northern Spain) to watch the infamous Running of the Bulls! We loaded our homemade costumes into Marco (the car's name, as it was a VW Polo), turned our map right side up, and took off (forever since I drove a stick). We spent approximately one hour making a giant circle around Madrid, gettting a nice scenic tour of the city, and trying with all of our might not to start bickering like an old married couple, BUT we eventually made it onto the intended freeway, and were on our way. I'm so happy that we decided to drive, as roadtrips are also tons of fun with good friends, and we saw so many cute little towns along the way. We stopped and took photos, wondered, got a bite to eat at some adorable places.

Since Pamplona is INSANE during this event, we decided to camp in nearby San Sebastian- fantastico decision! It's on the coast and soooo gorgeous there. When we checked into our tent, Anna asked if everyone there was Australian (no beef with Australia, we just happened to have met a lot of obnoxious men from there-mind you the guy she's talking to has an Australian accent), and the guy said no, that there were a handful of others. Then he said 'Have ya had a lot a crepes?' (Australian speak for 'why, have you ran into a lot of creeps'), and Anna responds, 'Tons! Chocolate, nutella, banana, you name it!' Cue extremely confused look on campground guy's face. Ahahahaha! Our campground was up on a cliff overlooking the main beach, wow! The campsite itself was not quite as peaceful, but what's to be expected from a group of young people pumping up to run with animals that have giant horns? We had a huge BBQ and several beers, and passed out just in time to have a little nap before our 4am departure to Pamplona....Yeah, oy! We made it though, and in our awesome outfits that we made. We painted our faces on the bus ride in the morning, and Anna stood up and yelled, asking if anyone else would like face paint- she was confused why no one responded, and then I reminded her that it's 4am!! ha.

When we got into Pamplona, I was shocked- I had an idea of what was coming, but no clue as to the magnitude! There were people passed out everywhere!! All along the street side, parks loaded with bodies, and the bus stop contained several dudes that I was certain were dead. There was also massive amounts of trash EVERYWHERE- glass, paper, food, and the stench of urine was nauseating! So gross. We made our way through crowds and crowds of people, trying to find a spot that had visibility to the alley way that the bulls run up (really small blocked off street). A huge percentage of the people were drunk, either from the night before, or just getting an early start. This led to some way to aggressive males, a horrible funk odor in the air, and difficulty navigating through the mass. BUT, now for the good parts- there were amazing costumes (some really creative and fun ones, and if nothing else, TONS of red everywhere), we were able to find a pretty good spot up on a step so we could see the alley, and no one died this year (though an Aussie-shocker- was skewered really bad). You only see the bulls for such a short amount of time, as they run by so fast, but it was more entertaining to see all of the people running anyway- their looks, and stretching to prepare, and you could just feel their adreneline. It was such a strange experience, but I'm really happy that we were able to do it.