NH Agustinos Pamplona

... it is them not me. ¨America¨ as some concept that I am somewhat loosely associated with... that is not how it works here. Many people have so many questions, criticism and false perceptions. I am from the United States, and I am thinking more about what that means...

Great fun with the group tonight... much laughter at the very bizarre Italian religious youth group. One boy is lugging a full guitar along their partial camino, and is very nondiscerning about ...

... missed at Puenta la Reina the night before, as I had opted to stay only about 2 miles away with George. It was Puenta´s running of the bulls and town festival, very boozy and very Spanish, complete with fireworks, red bandanas and packed streets. They even ended up meeting the mayor of the town, who brought them up to their apartment and gave them some drinks... he even called the refugio tot ell them to keep it open late for them!! Apparently it was a rather alte night (versus ...

... familar faces at the hostel waiting for me. If they are not there, I sometimes experience a weird sadness, depression and anxiety for a few moments. How much do I owe my fellow pilgrim, for whom I have shared conversations and time with?

Anyways, this was part of my dilemma on this hike, although the views on this walk were especially beautiful. Also, as we had begun so late, the trails were virtually empty and I felt so much less pressure to arrive ...

... 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’s. It makes you think that the Spanish just have the event to watch tourists get run over by bulls for their entertainment…. But that wasn’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.

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.

... 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 ...

... see it happen. Now that I survived with all limbs intact I would like to give a few tips for those who would like to run with the bulls: Tips: - Race starts at 8:00am but be there earlier. Otherwise you won't even get in. Now this doesn't mean stay up all night on some kind of binge that you can't even remember which way to run! - Understand that the bulls come out at the bottom of the hill in the Santo Domingo pen. But you don' t want to be there- it's a 200m uphill tunnel ...

... to ring to get it back, but when Nathan rang, the person on the other end of the line didnt speak English at all, so we ended up going into an English Language School to ask for assistance. The woman there was really helpful and even called us a taxi and wrote the address on a note to give to the driver. So about 1 ˝ hours and 100 later, we were on our way again, quite happy to be leaving Pamplona. It was quite funny really, but not at the time!