San Sebastian + Pamplona

It’s been another busy two days. I caught the bus to San Sebastian from Bilbao yesterday. Young bloke sat next to me and asked me something in Spanish and I gave my typical quizzical look back and told him I spoke English. To which he replied ‘oh right mate, well I’m from Warnambool’. Turns out he goes to Monash Uni and is over here to do an exchange in Sweden. So we chatted about all the typical travel things and then he told me there was a free Bob Dylan concert on the beach that night in San Seb. I didn’t even know! Given we both didn’t have a room in San Seb we decided to try and find something together. San Seb is difficult for accomodation at any time in the summer, let alone when Bob Dylan is playing a free concert. We had no luck finding anything so then came plan B - Leave the luggage at the internet cafe and stay awake all night to catch a bus to Pamplona at 5am for the running of the bulls. Obviously we were substantially affected by alchohol to devise this plan. It all sounded so good.

With a long night ahead of us we started drinking heavily early, adding to our demise early morning. The concert was amazing in that thousands of people piled onto the main surf beach. Bob Dylan is obviously old because his voice was buggered and we could hardly hear him, much like listening to one of his CD’s through a pillow. But it was an experience nonetheless. I met up with Candice’s boyfriend Chris on the beach, who I had never met, but recognised in the photos from Fi and Kate’s birthday. Ends up he is a St Bede’s boy who finished Year 12 the same year as me, so knew all the Beaumaris/Mentone regulars. Sam (mate from Bus) and I were by ourselves after Bob Dylan and some Spanish Hip Hop act played and were actually pretty good (better than Bob Dylan!), even if I didn’t know what they were talking about. By now it was about 2am and we spent the next 3 hours overseeing numerous bar closures, sitting in the gardens with our heads in our hands and eating crap take-away. Finally 5am arrived, we rejoiced and caught the bus to Pamplona.
The smell of urine in the streets as we departed from the bus in Pamplona set the tone of the city atmosphere. Here were thousands of filthy runners who hadn’t slept or showered for possibly many days and who were still drinking at 7am. Respect. We walked down to about 500m from the start of the bull run (Having had no sleep apart from 20 minutes on the bus, I had a great excuse not to run). We stood up on the barriers and I got a couple of movies and pictures of the festivities and angry bulls. The streets were full of runners and unsprisingly a few got hit, theres not much room there. A couple of people were stretchered away, but it wasn’t a total massacre. Apparently earlier in the week some guy was paralysed and a few people have had horns go through a few body parts although no-one has died since 1996 - comforting! From the streets, the bulls are guided into the bullring. We ran up to the stadium to get some seats and watched as one by one all the bulls came out into a crowded bull ring to be taunted by the runners. It’s not a nice spectactle, but great when the stupid tourists get smashed by the bulls and get their revenge.

By now it was about 9:30, I was destroyed and decided to bus it back to San Sebastian alone. I’ve thankfully found a dorm bed at the Pension Aussie for a few nights to relax, go to the beach and maybe even get up to the Pyrenees for the Tour de France. San Seb is a gorgeous town with a couple of beaches, great shops (although I can’t afford anything) and cool tapas bars. It’s just a pity it’s raining and 22 degrees! Found out there’s a Guns and Roses gig in Bilbao over the next few days which is very tempting for a laugh, will see how it goes. Just checked the website: Ladytron, Ben Harper, Cardigans, The Cult, Fun Lovin Criminals, Deftones, Pretenders, Tricky, Placebo. I could be tempted.