Sercotel Hotel Mirasierra Pamplona

... 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 ...

... sometimes occurs here, and how I should consider the new relationships that were forming. I left him at a cafe, after a delicious cafë con leche, with his Woody Allen book and oversized walking stick. I sincerely hope I see him again along the route, and I hope at this moment he is still on the camino, heading towards Santiago.

I walked alone most of the day. In the beginning however, almost aimmediatly after hugging George goodbye, i ran into a group of very fiesy middle ...

Last night, I was planning on taking an extra day to rest and recover in Pamplona. My blister was super bad at this point, and even though one day off the road would not really help it, the issue was that the pharmacies don´t open until after we leave for the day usually, and I would not be in a major town for a bit after that... i really needed to get some new remedies for this open wound on my right heel.

At about 7 something, I woke up to most of ...

... up to slap the bulls ass or take a chance at wrestling it down. During these shanagans, the bulls definitely had his revenge tossing several people in the air, trampling others, and running some into the arena walls. After about 10 minutes of this a large oxen was sent out to round up the baby bull and bring him back in. Then people line up in front of the door where the baby bulls are released. They form a row of about 5 people across and 10 people deep, holding their heads down ...

... speak slowly - if the words are similar to english or french words especially.

It's getting really quite hard to tell when it's day and night and how many days have passed due to our wacky sleep regime - hopefully my body clock will be able to recover at some point in the next few days!

So, the first encierro - or bull run - of the festival was Tuesday morning. After having got to bed at about 1.30am we set the alarm for ...

... at 1057 metres. From here it was more or less downhill; that is apart from two more climbs of 912 and 801 metres! But before I reached the first of these the temperature had dropped considerably and as I was no longer working uphill I became cold very quickly. As soon as I found a suitable low overhanging roof I stopped beneath it and whipped off my wet clothes, exchanging them for dry ones with four layers on top! (Thanks for the ...

... The Basques, apparently, used to expose themselves whenever they got excited about anything. Exactly what medieval Basques had to get excited about, apart from each other's donkeys, I really don't know. I can just imagine a group of French pilgrims on a holy trail suddenly finding themselves confronted by a group of really happy Basques running round with their trousers down screaming about how happy they are they haven't got the bubonic plague.. This is ...

... to survive this festival I knew I was going to need hydration and rest first. So we grab some bottles of water, I took some tylenol has I´m still feeling quite sick, and we found a place to sleep in the park. We both brought daypacks, and I brought along my pillow and sheet to sleep with. We didn´t have any accomodations for the night in Pamplona. Our plan was to stay up until the bull run at 8am and catch the first bus out. Or sleep in the park ...

... Melanie, started hitting people in the face, so she got some in return. Not long after, her eyes swelled up and she was having problems opening them, so we tried to wash them out. The next step was a chemist, and as they couldn't help, we took her to hospital. We ran into some other people we knew, so they took her back to the camper. We stayed out walking and drinking and drinking and drinking some more. At around eleven, we decided to walk the eight ...