Craziest weekend of my life

So I just had the craziest experience of my entire life this past weekend. I will try to give you a quick run through but I am tired and have early class tomorrow so I will go into a little more detail in a future blog.

We saw the tour de france on thursday, I camped out in the rain for 2 hours to get a good spot on the inside corner of one of the biggest turns on the stage through barcelona that was actually walking distance from our apartment. It was pretty incredible, I was close enough to touch them as they screamed by and I actually freaked out a little bit when the pentalon came through because I held my camera out to far over the side and the first person had to swerve a little bit. But it was really cool to be that close to one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

Later that night we went to a concert put on by the biggest DJ in the world right now, DJ Tiesto (he's from Sweeden I believe) he plays this crazy electronic techno dance music and builds the crowd into a frenzy it was pretty wild. There were probably 4000 people in one of the biggest clubs in Barca but it was so packed you had a tough time moving.

Then we caught the early train to san sebastian and hung out there for basically 2 days. It is a cool little beachy town that reminds me a lot of Santa Barbara. The whole town has a really laid back vibe and everything is slow moving. The food there was awesome, I forgot off the top of my head what there famous dish is, something with an x in it oh well. I got to see my buddy from school there, hung out in a cool hostel and then caught a bus to Pamplona, adorned in the traditional white pants white shirt red belt and red bandanna around your neck.

San Fermin (running of the bulls) was the craziest 24 hrs of my life. There is a gigantic party where everyone is dressed all the same run around crowding the street hanging on balconies bar hopping and just having a blast. The popular drink there is red wine mixed with coca cola and you put it in this wine satchel and spray people in the streets with it, it was pretty wild.

After a quick nap in the park with tons of other people, I proceeded to make my way down to the street where the running of the bulls takes place. the street were absurdly crowded and very narrow, and I had no idea what to expect. we started our run right after dead mans corner and waited a little bit letting people run past in order to be able to actually run besides the bulls. Suddenly you heard thundering hooves on concrete and everyone sprinting towards us and knew that was the time to take off. soon enough 5 of the 6 bulls went sprinting by me about 4 feet to my right. we then followed them into the sold out 15000 person stadium where everyone is cheering and chanting. The last bull finally made it into the stadium (after mauling and goring 5 people, one very badly) and then they have a festivity.

They release one bull at a time (he jumps over a group of people sitting on the ground in front of the release gatte), with corked horns, and let him run around the stadium attempting to buck people. Everyone tries to run by and touch the bull (except if you grab his tail the crowd starts booing and chanting puto because it is really disrespectful to the bull) I was able to slap one of the bulls on the butt a few times, but then one of our friends got bucked pretty hard and so we jumped out of the stadium to take care of him. after a 9 hour train ride i am back home, alive, with no gorings, and ready to chill in barca after a wild weekend. talk to everyone soon.