Pamplona, Spain

Thursday 12 July

For the first time, I (Michelle) did my share of the driving on the wrong side of the road. On the way Johny almost had several heart attacks as  I drove a little close to parked cars in very narrow streets, when we were driving through the Pyrenees on the way to Pamplona from Bordeaux.

when they were too cruel to the bull, someone else inthe ring would give them a wack over the head, quite bizarre really.

We arrived in Pamplona around 1.30 and after a bit of mucking around, we ended up finding out the right address for the campsite which was actually 25kms out of town in the middle of nowhere.  But when we got there it was 30 degrees, clear blue sky... something we haven´t seen for at least 4 or 5 weeks. So we got straight into the Sangria and then jumped into the pool at the campsite... finally we got to relax and unwind.

Friday 13 July

Got woken at 4am (1 hour earlier than we needed to get up in order to see the bulls) by some unruly kids screaming outside our room, so it was a pretty sleepless night for us, but we managed to drag ourselves into the middle of the city (with some Aussie friends we met the day before beside the pool).

The absolute stench of the city was truly atrocious. It smelt like everything vile you could imagine a city that parties non'stop for a whole week. There were people everywhere dressed in white with red belts and scarves (whether they were running or not it seems the whole town got dressed up) which was pretty cool. Some of them appeared to be out from the night before. We weren´t about to get a spot along the track where they run, but ended up getting a spot in the stadium where they all end up at the end of the track. The stadium was packed and it was certainly amazing to see the crowds so pumped up at 7.30am. We witnessed the bulls running into the ring tramping people along the way, as well as people in teh crowds having a biff... some of the people who ranwho in the middle with the bulls were tormenting the bull which wasn´t really nice. But when they were too cruel to the bull, someone else inthe ring would give them a wack over the head,  quite bizarre really. Got some great pictures we´ll put on gmail.

After that we sat in the city somewhere and had brunch with our Aussie friends from country Victoria and watched some of those who were hungover fall asleep in the middle of the walkway in the town square... people with big video cameras (probably professionals) were taping the people who had fallen asleep most likely to show on the evening news.

Around 2pm we headed back to the Campsite and did more lazing by the pool.