España la Tercera Parte

Madness.  Controlled chaos.  Wild beyond belief.  Fun. Pure enjoyment.  These are some of the words I can think of to describe the opening ceremony of San Fermin 2013.  After grabbing some breakfast and a few large glasses of Sangria we headed towards the town square by following the other hundreds of thousands of people.  As you get closer to the square the pace of the crowd slows and the side streets are full of people standing around drinking and listening to music outside of the bars, supermarkets, and restaurants.  Our first priority was to find seating, preferably shaded seating since it was already getting hot.  We lucked out and got a table outside one of the most popular bars. One of the few, we later found out, that actually had a restroom.  My friends secured the table and chairs while I went inside to get drinks.

The bar with the white awning was our spot

 House music mixed with salsa was at the volume just below ear splitting where it reverberates through your body and envelops.  You couldn't help but dance to it uncontrollably.  Here was where I learned another lesson in Spanish women.  As I was semi-dancing and waiting for my Sangria pitcher and lemon beer a beautiful girl came up and started dancing with me.  I had figured out earlier that in Europe you can smile at any girl and they will smile back without the toxic or perplexed look that American women are so found of.  They accept the smile/ nod and complement it with a return smile.  It doesn't mean anything and they and you go back to what you all were doing.  It's a non-verbal way to compliment them and neither party over analyzes it.  I did this as I was waiting in line dancing and this time she came up and danced next to me and then spoke no less than 7,000 words in Spanish at a Bugatti's pace.  Freezing up I said one of the few Spanish phrases I was comfortable saying "No habla Espanol".  At this she motioned her head like sorry and then walked off.  Gentleman.... If this occurs to do not say "I don't speak (insert language)".  Just smile and figure your way through it or drag her off to one of your friends that speaks that language fluently and won't set you up for failure with some line about you being a murder or someone with horrible gas, otherwise known as a female friend.

Average side street

After this defeat I made my way back to our table.  Thankfully the lemon beer, sangria, and drum beats of the Spanish taking over The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' quelled this quickly.

We were all sitting there people watching when we met an amazing group of people; Emily, Marina, and Jeff.  They walked by our table and as I was about to say something I heard Jeff speaking English.  We had come to find the majority of people didn't speak or understand English so it was surprising to hear English in an American Accent.  I talked to Jeff and Marina a little and then we eventually all pooled our resources (tables and chairs were in high demand) to hang out.  Jeff and Emily were in the Marines stationed in Germany and Scotland while Marina was from Australia (somewhere near Sydney if I recall correctly) on a three month traveling excursion before heading to the UK for a job.  As the opening ceremonies neared the square was filled with at least 100,000 people with each side street packed to the brim.  It was more people crammed into one small place than I've ever seen.

We all held our bandanas up in the air.  Chants of "ole, ole, ole" and the drum beat of Seven Nation army was playing.  The energy was electrifying.  As far as you could see people had christmas morning smiles in anticipation of the rocket being fired signifying the start of San Fermin.  Once the rocket was off we were pulled into a local drum section as we waited for the girls to use the bathroom.  Then, it was on.

Our group of four was now seven, ready to experience all that San Fermin had to offer.  Quick to notice carrying outside beer and alcohol to the bars was acceptable and the norm we started with purchasing a gallon of Sangria and a bag of ice then turned down a random street and into the first.

Maily, Emily, Felicia, and Marina

The first song we heard was a dance/techno song we had all heard before (if anyone can remember the name I'd be grateful  My google attempts and then calling Crazy Amy to use her as a personal Shazam app went unfounded).  It fit the mood to a T.  The atmosphere was fantastic, everyone in the bar was dancing and cheering.  We all knew the song by the beat- then the voice came on and it was in Spanish.  Pretty obvious to everyone else, but we were all caught by surprise.  The tempo and tone matched what we felt and we flowed with the music.  After a few songs and non-stop dancing we were off again to see what else the city of Pamplona had to offer.

Jeff, Mario, and Maily

"Maaaaaaaaido".  Standing near a park Mario and Luigi were all too ready to have their picture taken for a euro or two.  We hung out with some guys from the Spanish military and then Emily, Marina, and I went off to find some more fun while Jeff took Mikee, Feli, and Maily to the stadium to purchase seats for the bull entrance the following day.

The girls and I found a large statue in the middle of an office complex that was dedicated to the San Fermin festival and took some pictures.  After that a local drum line showed up.  They played for what seems like forever.  We watched some local girls sprint up and proceed to dance for eternity; their heads moving organically while lost in the beat of the drums with their hips moving methodically to the taps.  As the crowd grew their sound grew.  This eventually led to Jeff and the rest of the crew finding us locked in a trance of happiness.

Drum line

Random, Marina, Emily, me

After coming down from euphoria, we kept walking to see what else was out there.  Each alleyway was more packed than the last.  Numerous bars and people continued to line the streets.  Drenched in sweat and starving we all decided we needed food.

There was an area of town that we had become pretty familiar with away from the city square.  We all figured this would be our best chance of finding some sustenance.  Our first stop was a local bistro that was packed with a two hour plus wait.  Next door to it lay a chinese restaurant.

Marina, a local, and Emily

Wearily I followed my friends inside and we were sat without a wait.  In a city that has one million plus imports for the festival something was wrong with this picture (besides eating chinese fast food in Pamplona).  Once we sat down we understood why. Somehow they managed to keep the temperature inside about 15 degrees warmer than the 85 degree outside temperature.  The group, less Emily and I, chose to order their food to-go.  "I looked at the menu and I didn't see General Tso's chicken or Orange Chicken or anything I liked".  Her words were the most beautiful thing I could hear at that exact moment in time.  With that Emily and I were off to find something, anything, else to eat.  We left the rest, using the bus station as our rally point.  After some mis-steps and a slight detour or two we ran into a fair (I'm still sad we didn't go on the ferris wheel).  There we found food.  Good food.  We each had a beer and some chorizo links on a fresh baguette with mustard.  This was way better than whatever Chinese/ Spanish food our friends settled for.  The only failure was on the french fries that Emily tried.  I think they might have been for decoration or made that moring and then used as decoriation since we didn't order them and they kind of looked like a center piece to a ham sculpture but overall it was exactly what we were looking for.  We took our time eating and talking about life and then made our way back to the RP and in route found Jeff and Mikee heading our way looking for us.

Our group made its way back to the square to see the route Mikee, Jeff, and I would run the following day from the bulls.  We hung out for a little bit longer and then figured out where we would meet Jeff in the morning before parting ways for the night.

It was a perfect end to a wonderful day.  A random occurrence, which- to be honest is usually the best, turned into one of the best days I'd had in a long time.  The music varied by the hour and the neighborhoods leading each of us to our own soundtrack of the day.  Each turn lead to more people and masterpieces of architecture from a city founded in the 1500s.  At some point I'll mix all the video I took and upload it to YouTube, but that won't capture our day.  With each of us having separate yet joined experiences we have so many stories to tell.  There are some days you can't re-create no matter how hard you try.  We have pictures and video to show our friends and family but it's the emotional connection each of us has that makes that memory so special.

*Side note- I just found one of the videos I shot while in the club and the song is 'Play Hard' by David Guetta featuring Ne-yo and Akon.  So.... It wasn't Spanish they were singing and I might have had a little too much to drink at that point.  The beat was originally in the song 'Better off Alone' by Alice DeeJay so I think I was kind of right in my mind, but who am I to judge my memories???  Here's the actual song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dbEhBKGOtY