The 1st BULL RUN of the festival!

We were up early this morning and had left the campsite by 6am to get a good spot for the first bull run of the festival!!!

The Running of the Bulls is a practice that involves running in front of bulls that have been let loose on a course of a sectioned-off subset of a town's streets. San Fermín in Pamplona is the most famous running of the bulls. It is a nine-day festival held from 6-14 July every year. The first bull running is on July 7, followed by one on each of the following mornings of the festival, beginning every day at 8am.

Being over eighteen and entering the itinerary before 7:30 are the main requirements to participate. Other prohibitions are to run under the influence of alcohol, run in the opposite direction of the running or inciting the bulls.

The purpose of this event is the transport of the bulls from the off-site corrals where they had spent the night, to the bullring where they would be killed in the evening. Youngsters would jump among them to show off their bravado.

Injuries are common to the participants who may be gored or trampled and to the bulls, whose hooves grip poorly on the paved or cobbled street surfaces.

Before the running of the bulls, a set of wooden or iron barricades is erected to direct the bulls along the route and to block off side streets. There may be a double row of barricades along the route to allow runners to quickly exit in case of danger. The gaps in the barricades are wide enough for a person to slip through, but narrow enough to block a bull.

A group of large oxen are released at the end of the run to pick up any stragglers then a run is considered good if the bulls flow swiftly. Whenever a bull gets separated from the herd, it can be very dangerous because it becomes disoriented and often attacks anything, or anyone who attracts its attention.

For the first day we decided to get ourselves a good spot in the arena where the bull run ends. We could have found a spot along the street to watch it but we decided that might be a bit dangerous and we probably wouldn't be able to see as much. They had a trumpet band playing for entertainment when we arrived....Singing the traditional song before the first run: "A San Fermín pedimos, por ser nuestro patrón, nos guíe en el encierro dándonos su bendición" ("We ask San Fermín, as our Patron, to guide us through the Bull Run and give us his blessing"). The singers finish by shouting “Viva San Fermín!, Gora San Fermín!” ("Long live San Fermin", in Spanish and Basque). Here this Spanish guy is leading the crowd in song...Look at the medical team- there were hundreds of them lined up around the arena...Me and Nicole waiting for the festivities to start!Nicole and Michelle!The arena is filling up....The gates open and people start to trickle into the arena, even though the bulls are still 5 or so minutes away, people just come into the arena at this point to get in for free and they get whistled at which has the same meaning as booing!And the bulls are off!! There were screens in the arena showing the bull run in action- it was so exciting, our hearts were racing!Ooops person down, person down!The first bulls make it into the arena....The crowd in the arena quickly clears when the bulls are let loose to run wild in the arena. It was absolutely insane- the bulls were running after people, crushing people, treading on people, we were gasping with shock!!!Some very brave people try to grab the bulls by their horns and tease the bull- the whole crowd whistles at them in disgust. It is frowned upon to touch the bulls and anybody that does will get violently beaten by the locals- we saw this happen quite a few times. Scary scary....The big bulls come out and they're the ones everyone runs away from!!After the bull run most of us headed back to the campsite for breakfast and a shower and a lie down!! We were all having late nights, drinking lots and then getting up early so we had a nice chilled out day. We hung out with the people from our tour this afternoon, sat around and chatted in the beautiful sunshine and I got terribly terribly sunburned, it was very very painful. Yes yes I know.... I NEVER learn!! Lots of the boys on our tour ran with the bulls and the said it was the biggest adrenalin rush they had ever experienced. It is frowned upon for girls to run but if you wear a baggy tshirt and put your hair in a cap, then you can get away with it. The boys said if I wanted to run tomorrow they would look after me, so I'm thinking I'm gonna do it!!

We headed into town tonight to check out the nightlife, so much fun!