I made it to the Running of the Bulls! We found a good deal on bus tickets to Pamplona so a group of us took the 5 hour trip on Saturday. The bus ride wouldn´t have been too bad but about halfway through there was literally no air circulating and we were all roasting! It was absolutely miserable to say the least because yesterday was really hot in Spain. We met some other Americans on the bus and went together to cool off with some Sangria once we finally got to Pamplona. Of course, the FIRST thing we actually did was buy these red scarves that they were selling on the streets. I couldn´t believe how many people were in Pamplona for the festival of San Fermin, all dressed in red and white. We had some friends who ran with the bulls that morning so we were planning to meet up with them later to see how it went. Someone died the other day (the fifteenth person in the history of the run) so I definitely knew I would rather watch than participate!

We decided the best use of our time and money would be to buy stuff to make sandwiches and drinks at Corte Inglés. This place was an absolute MADHOUSE and I would say we probably spent a good hour at minimum trying to decide what we wanted to get. It was actually pretty funny to watch 7 people decide on things like how many packages of ham we would need for sandwiches. After spending about 60 euros at Corte Inglés, we picked an open spot in a grassy area to sit and eat. We made Calimocho, a signature drink that is half red wine and half Coca-Cola. The atmosphere in Pamplona was unreal. There was live music and parades, but really it was just a lot of drunk people roaming the streets! Pamplona is a really small city so there aren´t enough rooms to support the festival. It´s either pretty pricey or there aren´t any available, so everyone just goes down there without a place to sleep. It was pretty funny to see people asleep in every area of the city, but mostly the parks. We decided we were just going to stay up the whole night until the run the next morning so that we didn´t have to worry about finding a safe place to sleep. The actual run was scheduled at 8am (we only had 45 minutes from there to make it to our bus back), and my friend actually saw a man get gored a few times! I would say that this was one of my favorite experiences so far in Madrid. I felt like I got to see a really important part of Spanish culture and it is something that I doubt I will ever have the chance to do again! If you are ever in Spain over this time, you can´t miss it.