Pamplona Plaza Hotel

... also left today, getting picked up by her Basque boyfriend. Over a few beers, we talked spanish politics. It was darkened by the news of the Burgos bombings that had occurred just hours ago, and only a few days´ walks away. It was very interesting to hear their perspective. With tim and someo thers, we also talked a bunch about history, the learning and coping with it, and about America. It is great to be able to talk about such things, mostly WWII, but also very ...

... spanish women, doing a small portion of the camino. They told me that their husbands were driving their bags from place to place, crashing at the hotels, and usually would be accompanied by their children, although the young kids might walk part of the way as well. I appreciated all the effort GEorge and the other put in with me when I was struggling to converse with one of the women in spanish. It is quite incredible how many ways you can try and use a very limited vocabulary to ...

... which I faltered, I worried for how George might do coming down it. I went through a twon with a pilgrim hostel, but kept moving....


this brings up an intersting aspect of the pilgrimage that I will discuss more later. But, in general, the issue is with making new friendships and maintaing ¨your own¨ camino. The generosity, kindness and openness with which these pilgrims treat each other has gone beyond my expectations. This type of ...

... his mom are also germans (i am surrounded by them!), he being 25 and his mom 56. AFter that, we headed to an äuthentic¨ irish pub in pamplona, on the furious request of Damon and Tim, where we met two young irish guys who are driving around europe ¨until they feel like it¨ in a camper van. At the bar, Jane also joined us, who is a British woman living and working Barcelona: We had to be back at the hostel at 10 pm, but managed to get a few pints of guinness into our tired bodies.

... the actual route we would be taking for the running of the bulls. On our way to the route we ran into several street performers, marching bands and even found ourselves randomly in the middle of a parade route in which all sorts of groups marched by playing their traditional music very proudly. Towards the inner city walls we found a small area were a Swedish group was having their own little fiesta . We found ourselves a spot on a nearby roof and got a chance to just relax for the ...

... the tingle of bells make you aware that animals are near.

We have met people from Finland, Germany, England, Ireland, France, Spain, Sweeden, Canada - all wonderful people. Quite a few speak English, but Cathy saves the day with her conversation skills.

It´s nice to get to a big city and we bought a couple of postcards, stamps, new lightweight sandals, pastries and lotion for our feet. I´ve eaten more food than I planned on so far. . . not ...

... Over 800 people have been killed by ETA since it's campaign began in 1968 and though things have calmed down in recent years there are still occasional incidents. The Spanish governments response to ETA has hardly being stunningly ethical either, during the 80's it emerged that the, by now democratic, government controlled barely legal death squads who were killing suspected ETA operatives. I'm going on about ETA so much because the Basque ...

... refuge of Paderborn well before 1 pm. Later on, Agnesa decides to team up with Max and Petra, my fellow Austrian travellers, and Veronika, a congenial Swiss girl who by chance ended up at the same refuge. As Agnesa learns that Veronika is originally Italian, an Italian chit-chat far too fast for me to follow begins. We decide to take a city tour - as if we haven't walked enough today already. The centre of Pamplona is rather small and we ...

... at you and stare! That's great I'm scared shitless and there is still a ways to go. 7:20am; We are back at our spot, but before we even realize it the sardine effect kicks into overdrive. We are caged, the track is not open and we can barely move. This is where we realize the true challenge: Drunk or sober we all have one thing in common: we take up space. And so far running in this is out of the question. 7:58am; Still stuck 200m from the pen... not good. They finally ...

... arranged one for us. It was a bit hard to watch, as I was so hung over from the night before. This year, I was amazed because there were girls in the run. Previously, they were not allowed but the streets were so packed, they were walking. They did not let the hard core and the bulls go until the punters were out of the way. Once started, a couple of bulls got separated and it became dangerous. A bull in a pack will run together. A lone bull will attack ...