The carnage that is the opening cereomy
I have been feeling a little unfit recently seeing as I haven't done any exercise since leaving Australia in the beginning of March. I needed some motivation to get running again and decided the best way to get back into it would be by getting chased by eight 800kg bulls down the streets of Spain.
I took a week off work and headed to Spain on a tour for the San Fermines Festival. The main attraction of the festival is the daily running of the bulls. The first day of the festival is the opening ceremony. It was the biggest party I have ever experienced. Everyone fills the town square and and sparys each other with Champaign and San Gria while cramming the centre of town for the mayor to speak and let off a cannon for the start of the festival. The middle of the square was absolutely chaotic. Think of the biggest moshpit you have ever been in then times that by 100. The only way I was able to stay up and not fall over and get trampled was by becoming a little too close to several over excited Spanish men.
I met my friend Chrys from the Club Maq Basketball team and his girlfriend Kylie who were on holidays in Spain at the time. We toured the town joining in the party with all the locals. We decided the best way to tackle the festival was to stay out the whole night partying before running with the bulls the next day. The locals celebrate 24hrs a day during the festival and everyone was going strong the whole night. The major problem with the festival is some of the organisation. For instance over 5000 people were there for the opening ceremony but organisers only felt it necessary to put up 4 public toilets. There are also no extra bins put out so the town pretty much turns into a giant urinal and rubbish bin for everyone.
After a cold night and very slow morning with no sleep Chrys and I went down to the town square early to get ready for the bull run. Everyone gathers in the town squre where the opening ceremony took place the day before to ready for the run. The run starts at 8 am but the square is normally full at about 7:30. In the lead up to the start you will never find a larger group of men in the one place all entirely shitting themsleves. You can look around and apart from a few really drunk people who the police soon remove everyone else is packing it.
At 7:55 everyone leaves the town square to try and find a place on the course to start from. You can start anywhere on the course and its actually possible to walk the whole thing without getting close to a bull. At 8 the first cannon goes off to let everyone know the bulls have been released and then a second cannon goes off when all the bulls have been released fron the pen. The whole race apparently only goes fo 2-3 minutes but it is without doubt the longest 2 minutes of your life waiting for the bulls to come. You run into a giant arena at the end where specators are waiting. When the bulls arrive in the arena they are ushered out by handlers and then smallet bulls with there horns padded are released one at a time to try an gore and trample as many people as possible. You are able to get out of the arena as soon as you enter it but if you wait for the smaller bulls to be released you can't leave. If you try and climb over the fence after that the Spanish just push you back in.
I decided after getting some sleep I would do the run again the next day for a bit more fun. Its alot better doing it a secong time after you know exactly whats going on. Its tradition in Spain to prove your masculinity by hitting the bulls on the bum with a rolled up newspaper. I decided against this idea, they already seemed pretty unhappy to begin with.
Later that night I went to see a proper bull fight. Everynight they have bull fights and kill the bulls that ran the race that day. The fights are pretty brutal and a bit unfair. The Bulls are drugged and bled before they come out. They then chase 7 bull fighters around the ring but if it gets too close the bull fighters just hide behind a barrier. After a while two men with horses come out with big spears and spear the bull twice. After that three of the bull fighter pick up two dagger like things and each one stabs the bull with it. After that when the bull's 90% dead anyway the matador comes out and plays with it for a while before stabbing it through the heart. Sometimes the matadors miss and to finish the bulls off they have to stab them in the head. One bull was a real fighter and after all this was still alive and had to be stabbed 6 or 7 times in the head before it died. Of course I took heaps of photos of it and have put them up as well as some video of each stage of the bull getting killed.
The next day I decided to have a break from the running and take photos from inside the arena. It was really good to watch and I'm glad I saw the smaller bulls running around smashing people after I had done it myself, it looks way more crazy from the outside.
I had been looking all week for Dennis Rodman. He comes to Pamplona every year and runs with the bulls everyday. Other people in my tour group had seen him but I never did. Don't ask me why its so hard to spot a 6'10' black man with yellow hair but it was. They showed footage of him running on the news one night and it was good to see he was shitting himself way more than I was and was staying heaps further away from any of the bulls.