The craziest 10 minutes of my life!
An epic adventure wrapped around an epic party. You ain't ready, fam!
The Festival of San Fermin happens every year July 6 through July 14, so that's when we had to go. Although you can purchase tours, guides, and packages to watch the running of the bulls from the safe heights of any of the hundreds of balconies that line the old street, I wanted to run, not be a spectator. And everyone asks, "Did you run?" Of course I ran. (Watch the clip to see what it was like.) For 7 months, I was growing the pair to actually do it and now that I was there, I was not about to not run. It's all of 10 minutes but the anticipation and anxiety leading up to the releasing of the bulls (including getting to the starting point an hour or two early, sober) was exhausting. And then there was the stadium, which lasted another 20 minutes. After all that, I got back to my room, slept, and woke up later for the bullfighting (however you might feel about bullfighting, in Spain, it's obsessed over like soccer is in other parts of the world, or football in America. And if you don't like soccer or football, you probably shouldn't go to Spain, or America, or anywhere). Throughout the rest of the week I was there, I'd hop on a 2 hour bus to do some epic surfing in San Sebastian or sightseeing in other coastal towns.
Day 1. Arrived in Madrid. Took bus to Pamplona. Settled into Airbnb room.
Day 2. Sightseeing. Got lay of the land in Pamplona.
Day 3. Kicked things off at El Txupinazo. Partied in San Fermin!
Day 4. Running. Bull fights all day long.
Day 5 through 7. Got on bus to San Sebastian, arguably, the BEST surfing in this part of the world! (Swimsuit optional).
Day 8. Bus back to Madrid.
Day 9. Departed Madrid.
"I mean, everything exceeded my expectations. Located 15 minutes from the airport, it totally made the difference on whether I had a great start of the week or a bad one. Thank you, Artiem!"
