Pamplona, Spain and the Running of the Bulls

After Barcelona, we hopped back in the car and drove up to Pamplona for the Fiesta de San Fermin. AKA the Running of the Bulls!  Robbie and I decided we wanted to see this back in November and we decided if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right. I booked us a hotel room, balcony spots to watch the bull run on Monday and Tuesday mornings, and tickets for a bullfight on Monday evening.  Between November and July, I'll admit to having some second thoughts about this one.  It seemed like such a good idea sitting on the couch, but when I actually thought about the crazy crowds and non-stop partying and loud hotel room all night with a 11 year old and a 1.5 year old, I started getting a little anxious about it.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, just as the opening ceremonies were kicking off.  We didn't plan to attend the opening ceremonies, which turned out to be a wise choice after seeing the videos and all the people walking back to their hotel rooms with their white clothes doused in red wine! There was a kind of market area set up with a big Ferris wheel, a bunch of food vendors, and souvenir stands.  We had brought our white clothes (which I insisted on despite Robbie saying we would look like such tourists in them... Turns out, everyone wears the white and red and we would have really stuck out without them) and had planned on buying our red scarves and sashes there.

We were pleasantly surprised to see the market, people selling toys, and lots of other kids around.  Maybe all my anxiety was for nothing and this was really a family friendly event! 

We stopped to get some food--Spanish churros for everyone! They were pretty good, they only give you sugar to dip them in instead of cinnamon and sugar and most of them were pre-cooked and then reheated in the microwave so I think we could have found better ones not in the middle of a giant festival, but they were still good. And we ate a lot of them.

After eating we walked though the market and got our "reds" for the next day. Just as we were finishing up, we got caught in a downpour that lasted pretty much the entire 2 km walk back to our hotel.  Thankfully, it passed pretty quickly and we had nice weather the rest of the time we were there.

Our hotel was a little ways away from where all the action was happening, so we had to do some walking every time we wanted to go out there.  But it ended up being a really good thing because it was right next to a beautiful, big park, it was very quiet, and removed enough from the fiesta that we didn't have any problems with noise or crazy people. It also gave us something else to do to kind of relax and let the boys run around.

We walked around the park, got some dinner, and played a little more before heading back to the hotel to hang out and make sure we got to bed early enough to walk across town to our balcony for the first bull run in the morning!

We all woke up at around 5:15 am to get ready to go.  The actual run started at 8:00 am, but they close the streets near the course at 7:00, so we needed to be to our balcony building by about 6:30. Michael was a trooper and got up to get ready--but wasn't quite ready to give up the blankie that early in the morning

As we got into town at around 5:45, the party was still in swing.  And it was nuts.  The sun was coming up, the bars were still packed, the streets were covered with cups and bottles and cans.  Most people were still in their wine-stained clothes from the opening ceremonies the day before (and several of them ran, which just seemed like a bad idea).

The people who didn't make it through the night were passed out in breezeways, benches, or just on the grass.  We're not that old, but I felt like I was at least 10 years too old to be out there.  I will say though, although it wasn't the best crowd to be pushing your baby in a stroller through at 6 am, it was actually a pretty good crowd. People were out just having a good time, and weren't trying to scare or hassle anyone.  It definitely wasn't dangerous, and there were already city workers out literally powerwashing the city--concrete and grass, and shoveling all the garbage into big trucks.   They were pretty efficient!

We made it to our balcony with plenty of time to spare so we hung out and had some snacks before they let us up.

 Our first day was actually a pretty nice set-up. The owners of the house were out of town, so a representative from the company we booked though came to meet us outside of the building and let us up at around 7:00 when they started closing the streets.  There were about five other people with us in the apartment, and we had juice, coffee, and muffins in the living room while we watched the pre-run programming on the news before the bull run.

After a little while the runners started lining up.  There were hundreds of people of all ages, shapes, and sizes.  It hummed with excitement as everyone waited, some people stretching and jumping up and down to warm up.  There was so much energy on that street, we could feel the nervousness and adrenaline up on our balcony too.

We, of course, were three stories above all the action so we didn't have to worry about being trampled in the next few minutes. So we took some pictures instead.

Before the bull run starts, a couple of things happen.  Some priests come through and bless the course and pray to Saint Fermin for protection for the runners.  Then the Pastores in their green shirts walk backwards through the course back to the bull pen.  The Pastores run after the bulls from behind and swat them with sticks if necessary to make sure they don't turn around and run backwards.  Then they get all the people lined up in the streets.  They were pretty strict about pulling people out (not very nicely) who were obviously drunk or breaking course rules like taking pictures.  Several people had Go-Pros, but we heard people were getting kicked out for that as well.

Then there are three guns that go off--the first signifies the start for the runners.  Most people start running at this point.  A few seconds later, a second gun goes off, which means the bulls have been let out of the pen and have started running.  In this picture you can see all the really crazy people waiting at the most dangerous point in the course, the Estefeta curve, for the bulls.

Then came the bulls!  It was so loud. Like, total mayhem. Some of the runners waited for the bulls to catch up with them to touch them or hit them with newspapers.  Some people just couldn't run fast enough and were knocked out of the way by other runners.  Some people just stuck to the edge and let it all go by, which was probably the smartest option.

Lots of people tripped and fell. A couple people fell right in front of the bulls and got stepped on, but as soon as the bulls were past they got back up and kept running.

From the time they came into our view to when they turned the corner towards the bull ring, was just a few seconds.  The bulls are probably only on the course for 3-4 minutes. Then the gun sounds again to let the runners know that the last bull entered the ring.

We had talked about the possibility of Robbie maybe running the next morning, given that we will probably never be back to Pamplona again and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. But after seeing it, I told him I didn't think it was a good idea.  I guess it would be cool just to say you've done it, and there are definitely ways to not get hurt, but the whole thing seemed pretty nightmarish to me. You're completely closed in by buildings, running in a mob of people, with thousand-pound beasts with horns barreling down on you... Based on what we saw, you have a much higher chance of getting hurt or put in a potentially dangerous situation from the other people around you, not the bulls.  One person loses their balance and causes 20 people to fall, or a guy would actually be doing a good job keeping up with the bulls until someone slower gets in his way and he gets nudged off. After, we kept saying how the biggest danger isn't getting gored by a bull, it's getting trampled or knocked over by the crowd.

After the run, we went outside and walked around a little bit to go get our tickets for the bullfight and see more of the festival.  The adrenaline was still running high from the bull run and people were roaming around getting ready for the other parades and events of the festival.

Robbie found a bull to run from:

Posing by one of the barricades used in the run:

After we were done downtown, we got some breakfast and walked back to the hotel and played at the park for a little while.  There were some beautiful fountains and little ponds, and it was a nice, peaceful break from the morning.

After we played in the park a little bit, we went back to the hotel for naps/relax time before the bullfight that evening.  Once everyone woke up, we went back out to the plaza, got some ice cream, and wandered around a little bit.

Little Robbie got a picture with a pretty convincing-looking bull.

Then Michael got to practice running from the bulls too.

Just outside the bull ring was a little playground, so we stopped and had some hot dogs for dinner and let Michael play for a little while.  There lots of bigger kids, but he didn't care.  He thought it was great to have all these parks on our vacation!

We were some of the first ones in to the bull ring and found our seats quickly.  We ran into some other Americans who we talked to for awhile and took a picture for us.  None of us had ever been to a bull fight before and we talked about how we were a little nervous about watching the bulls die, but how they use every part of the bull afterward.  Even though I eat meat, I was still a little unsettled at the idea of watching animals get killed--even if it wasn't "wasteful". But, we were in Spain, we are experiencing new things that aren't normal for us, so I thought I'd wait to judge until after I had seen it.

Here's the empty ring, with the arena starting to fill up. There were six bulls and three matadors, so each matador fought two bulls.  In Madrid just a couple weeks earlier, the fight was called off after three bulls because the matadors were all hurt!

First started a little procession. The horses came out first with their riders.

Then the matadors and toreros came out and all kindly defered to one another.

They did a little lap around the arena, waving to the crowd.

Then the toreros got warmed up and the bullfight began.

First, the toreros placed at three areas around the arena wave the flags at the bulls to make them run.  When they get close, they duck behind the walls.  This goes on for several minutes to wear the bull down. They come into the ring bucking, angry, and fast.

In the second part, the horses come out.  The bull is already worn out from running around the arena, but still strong.  He charges the horses (who are wearing thick, protective covers so they aren't hurt), and is speared by the rider.  This happened a few times until the bull was more tired.

In the third part, one of the toreros comes out with these harpoon-type things, gets the bull to charge him, and plunges them into his back.  They do two sets of this, so if it's done right, the bull will have four harpoons stuck in his back between the shoulder blades

Finally, when the bull is good and tired, the matador comes out.  They do their little dance with the blanket for awhile. (Clearly, I know a lot about bullfighting, right)?

Then after, the matador takes his sword and plunges it into the bull's neck, killing it. Theoretically.  The matador actually killed the bull in one strike one time during this bull fight.  If the bull doesn't die, they either pull out the sword and try again, or if the bull is too badly injured, one of the toreros comes out and stabs it quickly with a smaller knife.

It was an interesting experience, but not something I ever need to do again.  Bullfighting has strong cultural roots in Spain, where the matadors are seen as artists and are supposed to help the audience connect emotionally with the bull though the moves. It's supposed to show the bravery and courage of the matador, while also having respect for the bull as a worthy adversary, not as something to be conquered.  However, there are parts of Spain (like the Catalonia region) that have outlawed bullfighting.  Detractors say it's cruel, sadistic, and tortures the animal.  If I had to pick a side, I would have to go with the latter.  Admittedly, I didn't have any idea what to look for, so I didn't really see the artistry in the bull fight. It seemed like an unfair fight, since by the time anyone got close to the bull he was already tired and bleeding.  Not that I would rather see the matador hurt either--I guess I'm in the camp that I don't really see the point of it, and would rather that animals used for meat are slaughtered in a more humane way.  As a dietitian, I think it was a good experience for us to open up a dialogue about where our food comes from and make that connection between the animal and what you get at the grocery store.

I should note that Robbie appreciated the artistry behind it more than I did, so maybe it's there and I just couldn't get past my animal cruelty hang-ups to see it. And as a completely unrelated side, the matadors do actually throw their hats into the ring!

After the bullfight there was a parade with the big-heads, which I guess is a famous part of the festival too but this is the only one we saw.

We got up a little bit later the next morning since we had the walking route down in preparation for the second bull run.  It was a little lighter outside, but they were still power-washing the sidewalks.

For the second day, we got a balcony right at the Estefeta curve.  It is the most dangerous spot in the race because it curves at 90 degrees and the bulls frequently fall and slip.

Here are the Pastores walking towards the bull pen.

These are all the crazies, who, after the guns go off wait at the curve for the bulls to come.

And there they come...

Here's a guy checking out his knee after falling. We (thankfully) didn't see anything too gruesome.  Apparently the first guy to get gored in the festival was gored on Wednesday after we had already left. And ironically, it was a guy who wrote a book about how to survive the Running of the Bulls!

In the end, none of my worst-case-scenarios played out and I'm glad we decided to go.  It was something we'll probably never get to do again and a very exciting brand of cultural experience.  We were probably the only ones in Pamplona taking naps, going to bed at 9:00, and playing at the park, but we got to have this great experience and just had to modify it a little to fit our needs.  While crowded and definitely lots of partiers, everyone was just out to have a good time and were pretty respectful and helpful to one another. I think my only regret in Spain is that we didn't get to see more.

Barcelona, Spain

This is going to be a really long, picture heavy post because I think this is my favorite city we've visited so far.  We started planning a trip to Spain last October--I had read a book, The Paris Wife, about Ernest Hemingway's first wife and their years living in Paris, and one of the things they did was see the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.  It inspired his novel The Sun Also Rises.  We decided that sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime experience and booked everything for that trip months and months in advance.

About a week before, I started thinking that it was silly of us to drive all the way to Spain for only two nights in Pamplona and I had seen some pictures of Barcelona and adjusted our schedule for three nights there as well, before the Running of the Bulls.  I'm so glad I did--Barcelona (the capital of Spain's Catalan region) was amazing. To try to make the 10 hour drive as painless as possible for the boys, we decided to drive overnight.  We arrived in Barcelona at about 7 am, found both a McDonalds and a parking garage (parking was horrible), changed diapers, clothes, got some breakfast, then headed straight for the beach.  It was cloudy and completely deserted, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and could just relax and stretch out after the long drive.

After some time at the beach, we went and found our hotel--it was probably the tiniest little room for three people I have ever seen. Though, oddly, the bathroom was nearly as big as the room itself. It was a little cramped, but we figured we shouldn't be spending too much time in the hotel room anyway.

Our little hotel room--with Michael running around with a blanket on his head

We dropped off our stuff and set off for a walk, where we ran across one of the main things to do on my list: Casa Batllo!  So many of Barcelona's most famous sites were designed by one modernist architect, Antoni Gaudi, who lived from 1852-1926. It was all of Gaudi's works that I was most excited to see.  They are all so colorful and unique and all his designs are inspired by nature.  I would have loved to go inside too, but the boys (especially Michael) weren't really up to more structured activities than we already had planned.  So we did lots of admiring from the outside.

The front is decorated with mosaics of broken ceramic tiles.

The roof is theorized to be that of a dragon or dinosaur, with the lance of Saint George (the patron saint of Catalonia) stabbed into its back.

This one, right next door, was designed by a different architect and was beautiful too, but I think just about everything gets overshadowed by Gaudi!

We continued our walk and saw lots of cool looking buildings and fountains.

We wandered into Plaza Catalan in the middle of Barcelona, which had a few fountains and more importantly, a huge open space full of pigeons for Michael to chase!  There were also guys out there selling birdseed, so  we got some and spent a few minutes feeding the birds,

Just at the opposite end of the plaza was another fountain.  It was pretty hot so we went and sat by it and let Michael splash in it a little bit.

Then this guy started wading through and picking all of the money out of it while yelling about how wonderful the tourists are and how everyone is welcome in Spain. It was a little funny. Maybe he thought if he attracted as much attention to himself as possible nobody would stop him from taking all the money out?

From here, we could have taken several streets and we picked a lucky one because it took us right into the gothic quarter and to Barcelona's cathedral.

Visiting the churches is kind of my thing, and it was 5 euros each to get inside, so I went in by myself while the boys stayed outside and ran around the plaza.  It was beautiful, as all the cathedrals are.  It was very ornate and had a little outdoor courtyard with a fountain and some ducks which was unique.  The architecture was similar to most of the other cathedrals we've seen in Italy and it was lovely.

After that, we went and got some lunch at Burger King (because when you're traveling with a toddler and an 11 year old you can't always sit down at local restaurants and try the local cusine, as much as we would have enjoyed that).  But this was definitely the best view I've ever seen from a Burger King:

We kept walking and saw more interesting artwork and unique buildings.

Poor Michael was just spent at this point.  And Robbie too, as he hadn't slept the night before since he did all the driving.  We went back to the hotel room so everyone could get a little sleep.

Once we all woke up, I had read about a water show at the Font de Montjuic that was supposed to be really cool as well.  We somehow found another parking garage and found a huge crowd all waiting for the show to start.

It was pretty neat--the fountain was synchronized to music and there were lights as well. We hung out and watched the show, then walked around a little bit. It repeated every 30 minutes so we got to see if from a few different angles.

After all that, we were all pretty tired and went back to the hotel to try to get some sleep--I had booked more Gaudi awesomeness for the next day!

First thing in the morning we got up, grabbed some breakfast quick, and headed down to what may be my favorite place ever: the Sagrada Familia Basilica. This church was designed by Gaudi and it was his magnum opus. He dedicated the final years of his life to the project and it was less than 1/4 of the way completed when he died.  It is still under construction, with completion anticipated in 2026 to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death. I don't think words or pictures could convey how beautiful and spectacular this church is.  It is, even though incomplete, the most amazing combination of building and art.  The detail is like nothing I've ever seen on a building before, the colors from the stained glass windows make you feel like you're in a fantasy land and the ceilings seem impossibly high.

Outside was a model of what the outside of the church will look like when it is completed.  When doing my research for the trip, I also found this video, which shows what it looks like now, then a computer progression of what is still left to be built that gives you an idea of the scale of this thing.

 From far enough away, the outside of the church just looks textured.  When you get a little closer, it almost looks like it's melting.  Only when you're standing right underneath it can you see how each one of the bumps is some kind of design or face or animal that fits into the larger picture.

The interior of the church is completed, and like the rest of it, completely spectacular.  Gaudi took a lot of his designs from nature, and the columns in the church are meant to look like trees.

There are stained glass windows along the sides of the church and while they're all multi-colored, the light they give off in the sanctuary goes by colors of the rainbow so you walk through sections glowing green, blue, yellow, orange, and red. This picture gives you some idea for the scale--how tiny the people look, and this wasn't even the highest part of the ceiling.

Detail on the columns. they look like bug eyes to me.

The ceiling.

The massive iron doors have, I think, the Lord's Prayer written in them in the Catalan languge in the big letters down the middle, then in several other languages in smaller letters on the rest of the door.

Here's a close-up of the words on the iron doors. There are 2 or 3 sets of these doors in the church at the different entrances.

Spiral staircase.  Looks like it would make you dizzy!

More of the interior of the church:

We paid a few euros extra to take the elevators up several stories to one of the spires, which gave us really good views of the city, and some of the outside details and construction work.  We took the stairs back down, and this was the view down the loooooooong spiral staircase.

A view of Barcelona from the top of the spire.

 One of the spires. They all had mosaic fruit on them. This one looks like it was oranges. Another was bananas, one was tomatoes, and one looked like beans. This is detail that you can't even really see from the ground, so it's pretty amazing that Gaudi's design considered all parts of the building, even those that are less visible.

This was on one of the exterior doors--it looked like a very complicated schematic drawing of something with all sorts of different symbology.  This was only a small part of it I took a picture of to try to see the detail.

Some sculpure on the outside of the church.

After being dazzled at the basilica, we finally found a local restaurant that had what we wanted to try for a reasonable price, sangria and paella!

Both were great!

After lunch we had to make it back to the hotel for nap time... Saw some more cool buildings (everything in Barcelona was cool!)

After naps I had made reservations to see Park Guell, a whole park designed by Gaudi.  I think the original idea was that this area would be for really expensive houses for the Barcelona big-wigs back in the early 1900s, and Park Guell was to be the common area for those living there. But only a couple of the houses sold and the whole idea was kind of a bust, so there's just this awesome park full of Gaudi's artwork and mosaics that everyone can enjoy.

I think one of the things I liked most about Spain, and about Gaudi's designs was how colorful everything was. Park Guell was covered in mosaics, and all the structures had very interesting shapes to them. Gaudi didn't like straight lines, so everything was curved and colorful.

This salamander at Park Guell is one of the most well known pieces of Gaudi's work and you could find it all over gift shops as a symbol of his designs. We waited in line and shoved past several other tourists to get this picture. It's brutal out there!

These houses reminded me of gingerbread houses, or like what Hansel and Gretel found when they came upon the witch's house.

The benches were all tiled and different sections had different color patterns.  The seat part was tiled in white, and there were park staff milling about making sure that nobody stood on them.

We walked along through this weird, slanted tunnel. Very Alice in Wonderland.

The cross, like at the top of this building is another of Gaudi's signature designs, it's on Casa Batllo and all over the Sagrada Familia as well.

Panoramic view of Park Guell, with the city and ocean in the background:

After the park we were hot and the boys needed something with a little less structure, so we went back to the beach for the late afternoon.  It was sunny and beautiful, and also completely packed.  It was hard to find a place to put our towels!  Barcelona also has a reputation for pick-pocketing, so I was really paranoid about our bags and Robbie's fancy camera just sitting there on the beach in the big crowd.  Michael wasn't too interested in swimming, even though the water was gorgeous, so it worked that one of us could swim while the other sat back and built sand castles and watched our stuff.

He did go in the water a little bit--he thought it was fun to get his toes wet, but that was about it.  Robbie was in spashing around, jumping waves, and body surfing back in the whole time we were there.  He even made an American friend from the East Coast.

It was a really beautiful day for swimming!

We had dinner at one of the seaside restaurants that evening, then went back to the hotel for bed.

The next day, I wanted to see Gaudi's other famous house, Casa Mila, but unfortunately it was all covered up and under renovation for all of 2014.  There was a Starbucks right across the street and we really miss Starbucks, so we got breakfast and drinks (to go!) there before heading back down to Plaza Catalan.

Robbie got really brave with the pigeons this time and had quite a crowd gathered. He would put the birdseed in his hands, let the birds climb on, then raise his arms up and at one point had four of five pigeons on his arms!  It was fun, and both boys thought it was pretty great.

The last thing I had in mind for our trip was to walk down La Rambla street, which started right at Plaza Catalan. La Rambla is the famous tree-lined street full of shops and restaurants.  I mostly just wanted to experience it, but we popped into a couple stores here and there, then ate lunch at one of the restaurants.

There were some pretty good performance artists towards the end of the street that were fun to watch.

I thought her costume was really cute. When you gave her money she pretended like she was losing her balance.

This statue is at the end of La Rambla street, and it's hard to see, but at the top is Christopher Columbus pointing the way to the New World.

And to close it out, another panoramic view of the inside of the Sagrada Familia.

Barcelona was so beautiful and there was so much to do there. I feel like we saw and did a lot, but barely scratched the surface in three days of all the city had to offer.  It was one city where I felt like there was a little bit of everything-- a beach, a gothic quarter, art, great food and shopping, parks, city life, and some very unique architecture. I would love to go back. We probably won't have the chance before we leave Europe this time, but maybe in 15 years we'll travel back to see the finished Sagrada Familia Basilica and take a road trip around Spain to visit other cities like Madrid and Seville.

On another note, a couple of weeks ago the Catalan region of Spain held a non-binding vote (Madrid called it illegal) for independence from Spain and nearly 81% of the voters in Catalonia voted in favor of independence with about 40% of those who were eligible casting votes.  It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in the future and if Catalonia does become its own state apart from Spain.

I think Barcelona bumped Spain up to my favorite country we've visited so far.  I highly recommend putting it on your European travel bucket list!