Heaps of writing here, sorry about that, spread it over a couple of visits maybe.
Firstly, I think you should all subscribe to this sucker, at the moment there is only Sam, Daino and Swaney subscribed. Daino actually subscribed twice. You dont want Daino to be more up to date than you do you? I dont even like her and shes subscribed 2 times more than a lot of you, get it together, especially you mum! Comeon!
You can see footage from our run on the 8th of July 2007 on youtube. If you checked this already check it again cos i have updated it as of the 10th of July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znv71_QjPYc
and here is some footage of what happens in the bullring at the end. they release one bull at a time and these just run around goring until they get tired. its awesome they all have names, stats and crowd followings. they chant theyre names when they hit people. theyre horns are all taped up so they can gore all day. James and I are in that fray somewhere but neither of us were hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG16N2lhfOU
Thats probably the best footage. James had it on his camera but it got corrupted. which sucks sooo freaken hard. we also lost some wicked photos from south america! Sorry plum the lake titicaca photos are gone too. We will always have the boat times though!
Now let me write about it. It is freaking intense, standing in the bull run waithing for it to start, looking at the paper from the day before and there are graffic photos of an australian, 36, who got a gorn through the thigh, in fact there will be footage on youtube. hold on. nah i looked and couldnt find the guy getting gored but ive seen the photos. crazy.
Anyway, looking at those photos then reading that we have the biggest bulls of the whole festival was a little unnerving to say the least. there was profiles and photos and each bull had the cold dead eyes of a killer. everyone had strategies but when the first firecracker goes off and the thunder of all the people begins everything goes out of the head and you RUN! hahaha i ran, then hid, then ran, big scary bastards!
Then they pass and you run like mad again before the little bulls come and once you get into the bullring you run around as the little horntaped ones have a gorefest! crazy crazy spaniards. the locals dont really run, they mostly just watch from balconies and the bullring and see all the stupid tourists getting smashed by the town heroes!
Ok, so now ill tell you how it came to pass that we were there to run.
The last post i did was in Pamplona, but we had already booked some accomadation in Santander so we checked our lugage in a place in Pamplona, bailed and caught the bus to Santander. the local bus took us way out of town and we had to search for ages to find the worst hotel EVER. can a hotel have minus stars? i think thats what this was, when u wish you had just slept in the grass but u paid for it so it would feel wrong even though you would probably rather it. anyway, im surprised there was even a nightly rate, i would have thought you rented the room by the hour. I guess you can tell the quality of a hotel by the number of cigarette burns and lipstick stains on the sheets. Anyway, just write this down. Hostal Golf, Santander, Spain. Dont ever go there. Its on the list with Iberia! hahaha, the Iberia slogan is ´service is our aim´. how half arsed is that?
Anyway, so after that we kicked back to Pamplona we dranks a couple of beers, (not nearly enough to help us sleep) and tried to find a comfy place. The town was PUMPING! there must have been 2 million people out partying in the streets. We did see one of the funniest things i have ever seen while waiting though. We were on a park bench and next to us a guy was sleeping. a couple with a young kid walked past and opened their garage. The noise must have woken the incredibly drunk guy as he sat up and stumbled around. he looked like he was looking for something. then he saw the open garage.... he walked in, pulled down his pants and crapped in the corner of the garage with the family watching him and yelling. hahahahahaha priceless! we also saw a different drunk girl sitting in the gutter crapping and a lot of other carnage done to that poor city!
Anyway, so we got an hours sleep in the park and it was time for the run. cheapest accom yet! Then after we ran we grabbed some celebratory beers and chilled out. Because it was sunday the supermarket wasnt open so we really couldnt afford to get smashed. and the town was much quieter cos of it being sunday so we decided to bail out of pamplona. Wait, that was everyones plan! no buses to madrid or barcelona for 3 days!!!
A hire car seemed the only option. after a lot of dicking around we were on our way in the offectionately named ´the turd burgalar´. Our Renault Clio was not quite a the engineering achievement renault make it out to be in the manual. It drove pretty well, with the a/c off, pedal on the floor and downhill. uphill was another matter. but it was a pretty freaken cool drive down to where we are now in Granada.
Very differnt though. to start with i took it easy, it was the wrong side of the road and a new car so it seemed the right thing to do. the speed limit was 100 and everyone was overtaking at such a speed. I settled for doing 130 in the 100 zone and still getting overtaked by everything but trucks. It was usually 120 though once we hit freeway. Anyway, this lead me to some conclusions.
a. The speed limit is 120 but everyone breaks it so they just cant enforce the law.
b. The speed limit is not a limit just a recommended speed.
c. The speed limit is the minimum you must be doing to be on the road. i think that might be the one.
Crazy, but so much fun, until we got to granada.
You know when u see those cool cobblestone streets and youre like, aw how quaint. TRY DRIVING ON THEM!!!!!
Theyre all oneway, there are no f!#@ing maps with which way they are on them. and theyre tight, tight as hell. GRRRRRR We got stuck down an alley, where i had 10cm either side of the car and some f!#@ing f!#@er parked his f!#@ing car in the f!#@ing corner of the f!#@ing street so i couldnt get around!!! i tried for f!#@ing ages and then had to reverse the f!#@ing car all the way out of the maze of streets. GRRRRRRR I have always been against the keying of cars, but right then and there i could have just written f!#@ you all over his f!#@ing car!
Im glad i have that off my chest. this has been an EPIC blog so i will cut it off. We have a cool little hostal in Granada and the city is beautiful. we have bought tickets to lisbon for friday and have plans to chill there for like a week to try and save some money back up! it has been REAL expensive of late!
Anyway i have some new photos on the flickr, not many as james photos are gone, but theres a few. I documented the parting of my beard. Hes gunna come back as soon as possible!! thanks for everyones concern over the bull run, nothing like some stupid 21 yr old getting hurt to make everyone send me comments and messages and stuff!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8075577@N02/
Send me a line if you´re bored, id love to hear what everyones up to back home. this is now the longest ive been out of oz and i must say im just the tiniest bit homesick!
Blog again probably from lisbon once something exciting has happened.
Miss you all, except you Daino, I thank god everyday that were as far away as possible from each other. Just kidding, you´re ok, no matter what everyone says about you, i still like ya.
Hutch
P.S. You know how its cold in Melb, well its 40 degrees here... that is all.
42 °C
