San Fermin`, Restrooms, and Sleep Deprivation

So I havent blogged much this trip, but i've been terribly sleep deprived recently. I guess in the last 72 hours i've slept about 6, non-continuous, hours. I slept well in Madrid the day before our san fermin (The Running of the Bulls). That day I got up pretty early to check out , we went exploring Madrid again. We went out , saw El Prado museum with art from Rembrandt , some other guys of note. We ate at a restaurant called VIPS, which was pretty good aside from the steak being cooked medium rare, (they never asked how i wanted it).

One thing I have been doing the whole trip is comparing restrooms to each other. I havent been keeping any record of exactly the ones i've used but i'll talk about the ones i remember at least.

My favorite restroom so far is a restroom i went to on the train from gatwick airport in london. It had really high-tech equipment and a cool setup that was a motion activated sink, soap dispenser, water faucet, and hand dryer all in the same little unit. Very cool stuff. The second one i liked was the restroom in the Madrid airport, where they had green glass everything.

San Fermin was really cool. The first night we got there we walked around looking for a place to put our bags and eventually came across this really old school that had been converted to a less than minimum security baggage hold. In any case, it worked fine, nothing was stolen as far as i know. ( well actually, Jessica reminds me that her imaginary monkey was stolen... who knew).

After we dropped off our bags we went straight to the huge makeshift market for the festival to buy white clothes and red scarves. (You wouldnt believe how many people were there that were wearing the same outfit, it was unreal). We then walked around the city taking in the excitement. We saw live concerts by some spanish people and some indians (yes, indians...?).

We were out pretty much all night that night and ended up getting to sleep on a grass patch outside the old school around 4 or 5 AM and got up around 7:00 AM for the Running of the Bulls. I had a soar throat so we got some hot chocolate and donuts. In spain the hot chocolate is very thick and is meant to be a dip for your donuts, or churros (churros and chocolate is like deep fried elephant ears dipped in thick hot chocolate).

We walked around town looking for the starting point for the running of the bulls after eating breakfast. Eventually we walked into this random area of town the had about 30 million people in a 40 ft radius. They were blocked in by large wooden fences. jessica and i followed some other people into the big crowd. A police officer came over and made jessica leave for some reason (im not entirely sure why). Since i was alone i started walking around, looking for people speaking english. I found some guys from Los Angeles and Washington DC that were talking about the process that goes on before the bulls start running.
Before the bulls run, thousands of guys pack into this short stretch of road leading to a bull fighting arena. The road was split into 3 courses and you had to be fast to make it to the arena. Most people started in the 2nd course and ran from the second all the way to the arena. They explained that before anyone runs, you will hear a loud bang that signifies "get ready", then another loud bang that signifies "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!".

At first, a few guys started running as soon as they heard the second bang, but the group that i was with waited until the bulls were in sight. We couldnt see them directly at all, as there were way too many people crowded between us and the bulls so we asked people in balconies about the street to tell us when the bulls turn the corner. I was about 200 feet from the corner when they started yelling that the bulls were coming. So i started running as fast as i could, keeping up pretty well with the crowd. People kept looking back over their shoulder looking for the bulls. I looked back a few times then tripped and fell.

I was sure i'd be trampled by a few people and the bulls, but i got back up as fast as i could and luckily, as it turned out, the people behind me were jumping off to the side because a crazy huge bull (at least 6ft tall not including the 3 foot long horns) was pl0wing through people right behind me. As soon as i got back to my feet i looked to my side and this huge bull was right beside me, all he had to do was turn his head to look at me and i woulda been knocked to the wall.

Everyone there was pushing and running into each other. I saw one guy, right in the middle of the street trip and fall like i did, but he wasnt quite as lucky. As soon as he fell, 3 other guys behind him tripped over him running at full speed, they all slammed into each other and probably had a nasty run-in with a bull.
Altogether it was crazy fun, and i wouldnt hesitate about doing it again. It was a great experience.