G’day again trendsetters!
For those of you who may be unaware, I am still alive and safe and sound from all the recent dramas in old London town. Thankyou for your concerns…if any. Oh and no, the recent events haven’t changed any of my plans and I am still staying in London for the time being.
Anyway on a brighter note Running of the Bulls in Pamplona (Pamps), Spain was sen bloody sational! Had a great old time and those Spaniards sure do know how to throw a party! I have uploaded piccies from my adventure too for you all to have a gander at.
So yea, anyone who has ever thought about going for the festival of San Fermin, I highly recommend it. It is actually three different events rolled into one, the bull fights, celebrating the life of San Fermin, the regions patron saint and also markets as Pamplona has its own tax system and is a great place for the Spanish to sell their wares.
We rocked up at out campsite at about 10 pm on the eve of the opening celebrations after a day of travelling which involved a train, two planes and 3 buses. Had a few too many drinks with all the people who had arrived by coach earlier in the day. There was 3 tour groups at our campsite most, most of the people there were Australian followed by the usual Kiwis and Saffas.
Headed into town at about 10 on the 6th for the champagne opening ceremony at 12 so we had time to buy some cheap traditional dress and stock up on the Sangria (Spanish red wine with fruit juice basically) and Champagne. Tour leaders advised us on the coach ride into town that Town Square is not recommended for the opening ceremony as thousands of people try and cram into this tiny square. So we went straight to Town Square and it was madness as soon as we got there. My first impression was that it is a lot like a b&s, but the Sangria had replaced the food dye and the crowd was a hell of a lot more rowdy with Champagne flying around everyone along with flour, eggs and Sangria…awesome. The opening ceremony was definitely the highlight of the trip.
So anyway I ran with the bulls on the second day after a hard nights drinking, we had to be on the bus at 5:30 to make it into town on time for good position on the track. We ran from town square which is about 300m into the 800m course. The majority of the bulls overtook me about 100m before the arena at the end, most of which narrowly missed me, talking like a half a metre away from me if that. It was a good rush but not as crazy as the people who ran on the first day cracked it up to be. But yea, made it through the whole 5 days alive, only injuries sustained was a cramping liver from excessive sangria intake.
I went to St Paul’s Cathedral the other day which was alright, not really a church sort of man. It’s the one Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married in, quite impressive but the highlight was the view from the roof which was a 530 stair climb to reach. It was the first time I have seen London from above which was cool, couldn’t see massive distances due to pollution though.
Next trip is a short one up north to Manchester to watch the Aussies crush the English hopes of re-claiming the ashes. That’s on 11-12 August. After that I will be off to Oktoberfest in Munich which turns out to be the biggest party in the world, something like 5.9 million people attended last year. That will be in September. After that I don’t have anything planned as yet, I would like to go to Edinburgh for Hogmanay which seems like the biggest NYE celebration in the UK. That still leaves 2 months or so of free time though so I might go and see a bit of the UK while the weather is still reasonable.
They are on water restrictions in parts of England as well now, maybe I have brought the drought with me. All the parks which are normally nice and green are dying after something like 2 weeks without rain and probably an average of 28 degrees over that 2 weeks. The weather is really strange so I have been told, normally they only get 3 days of good weather straight if they are lucky but yea, I even have a tan in England of all places.
I think that is all I wanted to say. I think I am slowly putting the 10kg I have lost back on through consuming large quantities of amber nectar…aka Fosters. Haha
Anywho that’s it for now I think. Hope everyone is enjoying lovely winter at home, today it is raining here for once but it’s still about 24 degrees haha
Hooroo!
Robbo: Cheers for letting Mum know I was in Spain at the time of the bombings mate, much appreciated.
|
