NH Agustinos Pamplona

... en cuenta para aceptar la beca. Así que bueno después de hablar con ella me tocaba enfrentarme a lo más difícil de la beca: Convencer a mi padre para que me apoyara.<br><br><br><br><br>Cogí el teléfono y se lo dije. Claro que él puso todos los impedimentos que estaban a su alcance, en plan&#8230; - la familia, lejos de los amigos, es un país peligroso (aunque en mi vida me he sentido más seguro que allí),tu abuela esta mayor ...

... I could only really see a few spanards whom were actually running, the coolest of which was some guy in what seemed like his late 60&#8217;s. It makes you think that the Spanish just have the event to watch tourists get run over by bulls for their entertainment&#8230;. But that wasn&#8217;t going to stop us. We waited for 2 hours, which seemed to take an eternity when we had to think of what we were about to do, until they finally let us run to our starting positions. The ...

... reason we both elected to wear thongs (flip-flops for any non-Aussies reading) for the day. The concern started to set in when it was apparent that noone else in Pamplona was wearing thongs. It grew considerably when we arrived in the crowded but still relatively roomy square at about 11am and people started pointing at our feet and saying "no, very bad! shoes, shoes!" But of course as it got closer to midday the entrance points to ...

... about Spanish dining habits as well. Dinner is not served before 8 pm but you can buy small pinchos - which are little dishes. Tonight we had some dishes with salmon, small salad, cheese and ham.<br><br>You then stroll the streets watching everyone, greeting friends and enjoying the evening. On the main square ten or so bookstores have set up open air stalls and there are dozens and dozens of people browsing and buying books.

This stage has no difficulties, the landscapes begin to change, we left the woods behind us and we begin to see beatiful fields til we reach our destination.<br><br>In Los Arcos I don't recommend the main refuge... when we were there we saw lots of bugs, an unpleasant smell, a small kitchen... the village is not very impressive but the main church (worth to see)<br>

We'll remember this stage for the amount of mud we accumulated in our legs. It was an awkward day, at least this stage was pretty easy but the beginning (a huge climb with a lot of mud).<br><br>We founded the main refuge in Estella newly renovated, clean, with all the facilities... a nice place where we met people from Italy, Germany and New Zealand , we decided to cook together a huge tipical spanish omelet!!! We also took a walk around beatiful Estella despite of the pain in our legs!<br>

... that was about the highlight of the trek. Pamplona is quite a quaint little place compared to Barcelona or Madrid, or at least the old town is. There are the usual assortment of Cathedrals and other fairly nice buildings I took photos of while wandering round but the real highlight has to be the bull fighting arena. I didn't actually get to see a bullfight, it turns out the season only runs through Spring and Summer really and I'd come in Winter, but ...

... when I went to dinner in Donostia with my teammates. I was excited to go out on the town with peers but you can imagine my disappointment when we ate at Foster's, an American restaurant. I'm in the Basque Country dang it! I want Basque food! It was a good time though and I enjoyed their company.   Back at the family's house the weather was bad so we stayed inside and visited. None of them speak English and the 5:1 ratio was a bit ...

... As you are being funnelled inside the gates you can hear their collective incessant breathing.. Your hairs just stand on end, and you pray "Please let them keep going forward". 8:07am; You arrive in the arena, the bulls enter their pen. The crowd roars so loud the stadium trembles and every runner that made it this far is just screaming for more. This is where they release a "small" bull. Well if your definition of small is 900kg then I guess you're right. They corked his ...

... handlers should have done. Another night on the beers, hung over again in the morning, we stayed in the flat to watch the run on TV. Pamplona is a hard festival on the body. Different to the Oktoberfest, but one I recommend people should try. On the way back to Bilbao, we stopped for lunch and a walk around in San Sebastian. It was a lovely little beach town and it was a great way to unwind for a couple of hours before we hit the fast lights of England once more