Northern Lights: Pamplona & the Pyrenees

The second holiday I was to experience while in Spain was San Fermin, celebrated in Pamplona in northern Spain. This week-long celebration honors Saint Fermin, the patron saint of the Navarre which the province of Pamplona. This holiday was also made famous in Pamplona by Ernest Hemingway although it was not the original location of the festival, but nonetheless, San Fermin is the biggest internationally known celebration in Spain. Each day at 8am there is an encierro or "running of the bulls" for which the holiday is most commonly known, and this tradition begins July 7th of every year. My group and I booked a bus trip through a European travel agency to experience 12 hours of the madness, which was quite enough. In order to be properly prepared, any one who attends San Fermin must be clad in all white and expect to get very dirty and sleep very little while there. We left around 2pm on Saturday, July 9th and arrived in Pamplona around 8pm. It was a sight to see as our large coach bus entered the city. It was like the biggest themed-party I had ever seen! Everyone was all matching, and also adorned red scarfs and sashs which we were to buy for a few euros from street vendors. Throughout the city, the streets were packed with San Ferminians drinking and enjoying the massive party. There was also free concerts and other festivities going on everywhere you looked. After snagging a red scarf and a Doner kebab, we entered the fiesta. Thousands of people were doused in red wine, which is a common occurance at this time, and drinking merrily with friends and acquaintances. The entire night was a trip, and included an awesome display of fireworks that were reminiscent of the 4th, especially since America´s independence day had only been a week prior.

Red and white clad party people filling the streets

Friends at a pretty fountain

During the wee hours of the night, a few of us attempted to take a brief nap in the park but figured out that was impossible. The swarms of people and partying prohibited any down time, on top of the fact that about 50 yards from us was a live band blasting "Celebraaaate good times come on!" Needless to say, the bus ride a few hours later was a snooze-fest for us all. Also, a necessary sidenote, one major thing I could have gone without was the overwhelming smell of urine on all the streets. Like typical college kids, many drunk men decided that the outdoors was equivalent to a bathroom and took care of business essentially where ever they happened to be standing. I feel bad for the street cleaners the next morning. Anyways, we forced ourselves to stay awake and enjoy the atmosphere since the running of the bulls was only an hour or two from starting and definitely a must-see. I had wanted to run originally (a girl in my group had done it before and said it was the most exhilarating experience of her life and said it was not that dangerous if you did the right way) but noticing the slippery streets and how tired my legs were, I decided to watch from the sidelines instead. A few of my friends though did run, and said their adrenaline was rushing like crazy. All in all, Pamplona was definitely one for the books and was the craziest, most spiritied open parties I have ever been to. The Spanish truly know how to have a good time, that´s for certain.

Shawn and Ziev ride the bulls! Fake of course

Fireworks !!

The following weekend, I finally made plans to visit Cranbrook friends Jarrett Abraham and Felix Pastor. Felix was only at CK for one year as a study abroad type of deal, but is originally from Zaragoza, Spain which is about an hour from Pamplona in proximity. Jarrett has been living with Felix since June and working at a finance firm in the city for the summer. That Friday I took an afternoon bus ride and met the boys at the train station around 4:30pm. We went back to Felix´s house where we relaxed for a little and he told us of the plans for the evening. It was his friend Chechu´s birthday that night and we were going to a BBQ and swim to celebrate and then hit up a discotequa later on. At the pool, I met all of Felix´s friends and they are awesome and very friendly. I was so happy I could communicate with them too, seeing as I was one of two Americans amongst about twenty Spaniards. The cuisine at the barbacua (spanish word, very similar) was typical Spanish cuisine and much more authentic than what I have experienced in Madrid. There was two large skillets of paella (for those that don´t know, paella is a rice dish with seafood- delectable!), ensalada rusa a.k.a. potato salad, ham, bread, salsa pimienta, and mucho cerveza. For hours we enjoyed Chechu´s day and chatted as the sky became dark. We finally made our way to the club and boogied til dawn. Literally. Felix, Jarrett, and I crashed at Emilio´s house to sleep. When we woke up it was the afternoon, and we grabbed some carryout from a nearby cafe and watched the Tour de France back at Emilio´s. Our plan that evening was to go to a small beach town on the northern coast of Spain for the night, but since it was a 3 hour drive and was supposed to rain all evening Felix asked if we´d rather go to a concert in the Pyrenees mountains instead. Oh the possibilities while in Europe!!! We were stoked for our change of plans, although the beach town of Zarautz sounded awesome, and got ready to go. We went back to Felix´s to shower and pack his car, and there I met Mr. Pastor and his sister Irene. They were very warm and welcoming, and Mr. Pastor made us some homemade food to take with us and showed me his bodega/wine cellar in their basement. Mr. Pastor is very fond of cooking and fine dining, and gave me two bottles of wine to take back home with me. I was especially appreciative of this because I had been wanting to bring back some Spanish wine to the states and it couldn´t be more perfect that I got some from an authentic Spanish wine connoiseur. Finally we headed out, picked up Emilio on the way, and headed out to the mountains. Felix told us that the concert was that of Andres Calamaro, who is an Argentinian rock star and very famous in Spain. As we entered the mountain range Jarrett and I were in awe of the endless peaks and ridges jutting from the ground. Many of Felix and Emilio´s friends had houses in the mountains and they were fortunate to be able to frequent this amazing terrain quite often.

Chechu's birthday spread

Spanish amigos!

Jarrett, Emilio, Felix

The whole crew on the bluff

Andres Calamaro on stage!

Once we got there, we ate the delish food Mr. Pastor made us and made our way down to the stage area. This stage was down by a lake about 20 minutes from where we had parked. And not only was the stage near the lake, it was FLOATING on it. To avoid the 20 euro cover, we watched the concert from the nearby bluff which actually was a great view. Later, after Calamaro bid us farewell, we headed into the venue for the after party and sipped on some colimocho (red wine and coke, suprisingly tasty combo). Eventually we made it back to Felix´s condo which was nearby to catch some Zzzs. The area surrounding the condos was part of a ski resort called Formigal, one of the best in the Pyrenees. It reminded me a lot of Utah out west. The next day we were to make a pit stop in France since the Pyrenees are the border between Spain and France, and the country was literally 15 minutes away. During the short drive, we gawked at the mountains in the sunlight. They are amazing. So beautiful and beyond comparable. Finally, after crossing a basically un-patrolled "border" we were in France! The land was basically the same since we were still in the Pyrenees a this point, but something interesting was that as soon as we were officially out of Spain the sun turned into clouds. Since we were on a bit of a time crunch as my bus back to Madrid was later the evening (which I changed for a later time since I did not expect to go to France!) we stopped at the closest village which was another ski resort. We almost snuck onto a cable car that went up the mountain side but the conductor saw us at the last minute. We said au revoir to France and headed back to Epaña retracing our way we had taken the night before and this time stopping alongside the road for pictures. We got lunch in the city of Huesca, which is right outside the mountain range, at Emilio´s parents´ casita. There I met his family and their friends whom they were golfing with, and had some scrumpcious steak & potatoes. After we left, we stopped by one of the only hockey rinks in Spain which was in the next city called Jaca and also explored the center and old, ruined castle in Jaca as well. As it became late afternoon, we were finally on our way back to Zaragoza where Felix showed me the old town and Roman ruins amongst the modern city. We stopped quickly back at his house where I met his mom, and she briefly showed me their house before Mr. & Mrs. Pastor drove me, Felix, and Jarrett to the bus station to see me off. I had a wonderful time in this city since it was nice to see familiar faces and also experience a smaller-town (although Zaragoza is still a roughly "big" city, it is nothing compared to Madrid, the capital of Spain) atmosphere that I was used to.

France!

Crew on the French side of the Pyrenees

Felix and I

Beautiful lake, the concert was there at night

Chicos

Zaragoza was the last of my trips for two weekends before Ireland, which I will fly out to on August 1st for 2 days. This week is the penultimate week of my internship and this weekend is my friend Lena´s twenty first birthday, so we are enjoying Madrid and taking a travelling break for now. For the last weekend in July we plan to go hiking up in the sierra outside Madrid. It´s insane to think I only have 18 days left in España!! Summer is almost over as well as my European adventure. I definitely have learned a lot so far, and am going to make the most out of my 2 1/2 weeks left before I return to the States. For now, hasta ahora!