We flew in very late at night, and tried to get a taxi to our hostel. The particular taxi driver we got got really angry because we could not speak Spanish, and instead asked him if he could speak English. We couldn´t tell what he was trying to say, so decided to wait at the taxi stand until he left, and then we would try another cab driver, but he walked down the line of cabs and warned the others! So we had to wait for the whole bunch of them to leave, and then we found another cab - This time I had my Spanish phrase book out, so tried to speak to him in Spanish - he seemed to understand me :-D
We soon realised that they really don´t speak English in Spain, you need to be able to speak to them in Spanish. We learnt a few key phrases which got us along. Thank god we had the phrase book! And we each had a giggle when someone in our group had to deal with a spanish person!
After our frist night, we went to stay with a friend of a friend - Caldo, who lives in Pamplona, who we had already organised to stay with. Catching a bus to his house was a nightmare, we knew what number bus to catch - but we didnt know what stop to get off at. I told the driver in Spanish the address we wanted to go to, and he replied with this big explanation in Spanish, which I obviously didn´t understand! So we sat on the bus, and then when he made some noise, we got off. But we still didnt know where we were, and the locals were not able to tell us which way to go. We gave Caldo a text, and he eventually found us and picked us up.
His apartment was really nice, it was good to stay in someone´s home for a change, to let your guard down, instead of staying in hostels. In Pamplona the weather was really hot. I can see why the locals siesta every afternoon (most shops and places are closed between 1 and 3pm in Spain) because it is just too hot to do anything else. Instead they work later into the night.
The first night we caught the bus into town to get amongst the celebrations of San Fermin. This ran for two weeks, but we just went along to see what it was like, for a few nights. The night always started at 11pm, with a massive fireworks display. It was bigger than any display we have in NZ, and it was every night of the week - for two weeks!! We took along some beers and bottles of Sangria (which was only a euro! Alcohol is so cheap over here!). You are allowed to drink in public here. So we were not sure how an evening of San Fermin went, so we just wandered around with the crowd, drinking our Sangria, and came accross a concert happening. We joined and watched and danced. And then got talking to a Spanish family who were there. We ended up spending the whole night with them. They were lots of fun, and included us in all the things they were doing -dancing along to certain spanish songs, and they gave us all drinks from their bota bag!! We had such a fun night!
The next night we decided we would stay up the whole night partying, and then watch the bulls run through the town at 8am the next day. We all got dressed up in white, and each had a red scarf and red belt. There were heaps of celebrations happening on the streets, so we just drank our drinks and wandered around, joining in here and there. Then at 5am, we lined up to get a good view for the bull running. We waited 3 hours, I think we were all quite tired by then, and finally at 8am, the crowds came running past, chasing a couple of bulls. We didn´t actually run with the bulls, I heard it´s too dangerous. But it was an experience watching the whole thing, as well as simply being there for all they celebrations they have for this festival.
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