FTCO Travel Podcast
FTCO Travel Podcast
Ep. 48 | Pamplona: The Festival of San Fermin
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In this episode Tony leads Friends Brian, Eric and Jim Scott on our adventures in Pamplona Spain, specifically talking about The San Fermin Festival, aka “Running with the Bulls”. Except for Brian, the rest of the friends on the episode have been to Pamplona multiple times and run with bulls’ numerous times.
We start off with a history of The San Fermin Festival. It was two festivals dating back to the 12th century, and the town combined the two together somewhere in the 15th century because the weather was better in July. One festival celebrated the Patron Saint Fermin and the other was the celebration of the herders bringing their livestock to market. The festival is always July 6-14, with bull runs everyday starting on the 7th.
The San Fermin Festival is like no other festival in the world. Everyone is clad in all white outfits with red trimmings, and it becomes a sea of white and red as over 2 million people roam the streets of Pamplona during this 8 -day period. This is a bucket list item for many people, and some do it and never need to comeback, others, like us, do it, meet a lot of people, and now try to make it an annual or at least bi-annual thing.
Accommodations range from campgrounds, to hostels, some hotels (hotel capacity can only cover 1-2 % of the festival goers) and renting of apartments. AirBnb, Heart of Pamplona apartments to name a few. We have stayed at a hostel, several apartments and a hotel once. Depending on your needs staying in the old quarter, where the main events of the festival take place is convenient but can be loud at all hours of the night. Quiet sleep time usually is from around 11 am- 4 or 5 pm.
The festival itself is the main day trip here, from the daily bull runs, to celebratory drinks and meals afterwards, meeting up with friends and a great nightly fireworks display, Pamplona has a lot to offer during the festival. But a Day trip north to the beautiful coastal town of San Sebastian is a very nice respite from the party. San Sebastian has great food and beaches and can be a destination all on its own with several Michelin rated restaurants in its limits.
Back in Pamplona there are lots of great restaurants and bar hangouts a few of our favorites are Bar Txoco, Bar Windsor, Café Iruna and an Italian restaurant called Latigellatia. All of these are on the main Plaza Castillo. Please click on the episode to get more details
Intro
Welcome everyone to the Friends That Carry On Podcast where we dive deeper into our trips, unpack tips, and everything in between. Now, sit back, relax, and get ready to go on a trip with your favorite group of friends.
Tony Price
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of The Friends That Carry On Podcast. We’re a group of friends who love to travel the world together and we’re here to share our stories. In the studio today, we have Mr. Eric Fargo, Jim Scott, and Brian Romani, …
Brian Roman
Hey everybody.
Tony Price
… and I am Tony Price and welcome. So, again, we want to make sure everybody goes and checks out the website, www.friendsthatcarry.com and please subscribe to any place you listen to your podcast, and of course, any place on social media @friendsthatcarryon. When you get to the website, make sure you register. We have a lot of free things that come along that keeps you up-to-date on opportunities, specials, and things like that. Also stay tuned for the new fan page that’s coming up where we’re going to have, well, when you kind of join the fan, there’s going to be several things, probably a T-shirt, a couple of other giveaways, but the big thing is you’re going to be entered into at least winning, what do we say, four trips?
Brian Roman
Four trips annually, yeah.
Tony Price
Some of them, we may or may not be on. You don’t have to hang out with us, right?
Brian Roman
You may not want to. More than likely, you won’t want to.
Tony Price
But it’d be pretty cool, and you have a really, really high odds of winning. That’s the thing. And then the more times you either refer friends, get additional people to register, and download and listen to the podcast, you increase your chances of winning. It’ll be cool, good trips. We’re talking like river cruises in Europe. Cool stuff. So, definitely stay tuned for that.
Brian Roman
Maybe some place in Mexico.
Tony Price
Maybe. We’re working on it.
Eric Fargo
Adios, amigos.
Tony Price
There we go. All right. So, how are you guys doing?
Brian Roman
Doing great today.
Eric Fargo
Excelente. Muy bien.
Tony Price
Good, good, good. You’re feeling that, huh. He’s working on his Española today. I wonder why.
Eric Fargo
Yeah, well, cuz we want to go to Pamplona.
Brian Roman
So, Eric got to announce the location.
Eric Fargo
Sorry.
Tony Price
Yeah, that’s okay. It’s what’s near and dear to most of our hearts. We’re coming up, when this gets released, it will likely be the week prior to the festival, San Fermin, which we’ve been to multiple times.
Brian Roman
Or what would have been this year?
Tony Price
What would have been this year? Is this the first time it’s been canceled?
Jim Scott
As far as I can tell, yeah.
Tony Price
Since the modern day. We’ll talk about it, of course, but there’s a lot of disappointed friends.
Eric Fargo
It’s something they look so forward to this week. It’s two weeks.
Tony Price
Well, yeah, because as soon as January 1st starts, you have the countdown. It’s literally about the days in a month. It kind of sucks, but we’re still going to relive some of the good times of it and some of the great things that we love about Pamplona.
Brian Roman
Do you remember those?
Tony Price
Most of them. We have pictures and I got you guys to remind me. But, we’ve talked about Pamplona at least four times on previous podcasts. I know part of our first one, our very first podcast, which was just over a year ago. That was about our epic trip from 2013. It was kind of thrown in there.
Eric Fargo
Yeah, it wasn’t solely focused on Pamplona.
Tony Price
No, not at all. None of them had been. And that’s why we felt like it was like, “Wow, we’ve gotten this far and we haven’t actually talked specifically about Pamplona.” And it’s funny, we could probably invite 30 different people onto this to have these discussions.
Brian Roman
Nobody would get a word edgewise over someone else.
Tony Price
It would have to be like a week long episode.
Brian Roman
Just invite one person at a time.
Tony Price
But we also had a guest on episode 27 when we talked about top places to grab a cocktail around the country. And we mentioned [inaudible 04:23], which we’ll talk about later. We also hit it in episode 31, unique places to stay when we talked about Hostel Hemingway, episode 39 when we interviewed John Hemingway, and then episode 42, which one was that one? Do you guys remember?
Brian Roman
I don’t remember that one off the top of my head, but I trust you.
Tony Price
Oh! I’ve written it down. That was the one where we talked about after Coronavirus and the travel restrictions lifted, what are some of the places we’d love to go to, and that was where we hit on that.
Eric Fargo
But we’ve never gotten specific about Pamplona.
Tony Price
Not at all. We’ve touched on it, we touched on it again with all of those, but nothing really specific.
Brian Roman
Come on guys, let’s get specific. There are a lot of specifics.
Tony Price
There are.
Jim Scott
As far as bucket list trips, running with the bulls has to be on one of the top bucket list trips on anywhere. Maybe some women might not think that but that’s when you think of Oktoberfest, that type of stuff. But running with the bulls, it’s got its own connotation, sort of its own league.
Brian Roman
It is interesting you mentioned ‘maybe not some of the women’ and what I was reading was within the country of Spain, there’s not many Spaniard women that actually run with the bulls, but the women that you actually do see running now are foreigners. I guess it’s just the culture and tradition, and things of that sort.
Tony Price
There are women who run, for sure.
Jim Scott
Yes.
Tony Price
We’ve talked about there are tons and tons of runs, not just Pamplona. It’s infamous. It’s throughout Spain. And we have a lot of friends that we’ve met in Pamplona who have done many, many runs.
Brian Roman
Well, even in Pamplona, it’s not just one run.
Tony Price
Oh. You’re talking about the number of days.
Brian Roman
Yeah. Many people think that running with the bulls, it’s just one run and that’s it, but I’ve never been there.
Tony Price
Yeah. The San Fermin Festival always starts July 6, at least in the modern day era. First run is on July 7 and it runs through the 14th. Then, the closing ceremony is at midnight on the 14th. The Chupinazo is kind of the opening ceremony leading up to it and to this day, we have talked about this, but I’ve been to some of the big ones. Jim mentioned Oktoberfest and being to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I will still say to this day, that is one of the craziest experiences ever. Just absolutely crazy, and it depends on what time you get there. So, again, the opening ceremony is on the 6th at noon but people get into Town Hall Plaza … What time do we get there? 8:30, 9:00?
Jim Scott
I came and went twice. That’s why I had to go get a hat. We got there like 9:30-10:00. It was easy to walk around. At noon, there was a crowd, but it wasn’t overwhelming. Jeremiah and I went back to get hats because we’re both follicaly challenged. Spanish sun in July would have done some damage. So, we went back to get our hats, which was probably a 15-minute walk each way. We got back. It was a struggle to get back to the middle. It had become packed. We’re both good size guys and we had our wives with us and it was a struggle to get through the crowd. 30-40 yards probably took 30-40 minutes to get that far. This is probably 11:00, another hour to go before the actual ceremony.
Eric Fargo
Let’s give the listeners an idea of how many people are packed in. So, that square, where they open everything up, giving an idea, how big you think that square is? Rough idea. Just to give them an idea.
Tony Price
I honestly don’t know the size of town hall.
Eric Fargo
It’s not a block? Maybe half of a block, a third of a block?
Tony Price
It depends on where you’re talking about, but it’s only the width of the town hall. It’s not much wider than that.
Eric Fargo
You can look it up online.
Jim Scott
At most, it’s 40 or 50 yards wide and maybe 60-70 yards deep.
Eric Fargo
Right? How many people would you say they packed in there on that opening?
Jim Scott
10,000-15,000
Tony Price
It was crazy.
Eric Fargo
It’s the biggest mosh pit you’ve ever partaken in your life.
Tony Price
It was just an experience. We talked about one of the things you feel like you always should do. Not sure I would do it again. Other than we were supposed to take our good friend, Gary, who has been multiple times but he hasn’t been to the opening ceremony yet. And so we were like, “Okay, we’ll go one more time [inaudible 09:45]
. But..
Eric Fargo
Did you do that?
Tony Price
No, we haven’t yet. Last year…
Jim Scott
We thought about maybe doing this year and then of course it got canceled because of COVID.
Tony Price
Last year, he didn’t get it [inaudible 09:57]
Eric Fargo
And he’s run how many times? This is funny. He’s run how many times, probably a dozen, maybe?
Brian Roman
No, no. More.
Tony Price
He usually runs like we do, like four times, I guess, each year. He’s gone every year since ’14.
Eric Fargo
So, he’s had all those runs and he’s never partaken in the opening ceremony.
Tony Price
Well, it’s tough for a lot of us, too, from the States because it’s the July 4th holiday, and he’s got kids, too. So, it’s kind of hard to get there for the 6th. You obviously have to head out of here by the fourth or the fifth? It makes a tight schedule.
Eric Fargo
And a lot of times, the experienced runners like to come and run the second or third day of the running because they’re not as busy that first day.
Tony Price
Well, the first day but also the weekend.
Brian Roman
Yeah.
Tony Price
Yeah, weekends are usually the craziest but it’s an awesome experience. I think our first year, we went because it was a bucket list thing. It was also Jim Reed’s 50th birthday kind of wish and we did that. It’s kind of turned into so much more than that for a lot of us as far as the friends we’ve made over the years. I don’t know who said this but it’s either you kind of get addicted to it or you’re like, “Okay, yeah. Done.” And you never think about it again.
Jim Scott
Absolutely. I’ll be honest. Leading up to the first trip, that’s what I expected. We’re going to be there a few days, one run, get in, get out, haven’t said we did it and move on, but there was sort of an addiction to it. There was just electricity in the crowd, the whole festival, everything about it. And then, our one buddy, Jeremiah, he instantly got addicted.
Tony Price
Oh my, yeah.
Jim Scott
That first run’s adrenaline is incredible, which I’m sure we’ll talk about here in a little bit. But he was in after that first run, and had told his now wife, “I’m coming to this every year.” and he has done that except for this year, and just was all in. He’d already made some connections, which helped us learn a lot about what’s called the Pamplona posse, group of people mainly from Scotland, Britain, and that type of area. Just really got in with them, which made it easy for us as we’ve come back to meet these people. We know we met someone on that initial trip. And by meeting all those people, it makes it easier. It’s almost like, if you like going back to your college for homecoming, it’s sort of like that because you’re going to go. You got some good friends there, people you have a good time with, and it’s a big party. So, it’s true like a homecoming every year. It’s really cool.
Tony Price
It truly is.
Tony Price
But if you don’t like homecoming, you’re probably not going to like that.
Eric Fargo
Homecoming without football. Homecoming with bull run.
Tony Price
Right. We know what’s unique about those, people hear about it and they just think, giant bull run, a big party but there’s so much more to it. I don’t want to go to kind of like a history lesson.
Jim Scott
But, some of the history wouldn’t be bad to be honest, how did he get here wise, because in today’s political climate, bull running and bull fighting is certainly not politically correct. So, why is this a tradition and where did it come from?
Tony Price
Well, it’s actually a combination of two different things. It used to be to celebrate Saint Fermin and now it’s in October. And then in July, that was kind of more of a commercial parade of animals, really.
Eric Fargo
Livestock festival.
Jim Scott
Going back to the either the 12th century or the 1500s, it varies, and when you look at different histories of it. But back then, the cattlemen had planes out there, so they’re bringing their cattle in, hurting them off the planes into where the butchers are. It’s like a stock sale or anything else, but as they got into the city, people would follow and chase with the bulls even though it’s not like what it is today, we got thousands and they had 10, 15, 20, but it just sort of became a tradition when they got to those city streets, leading up to wherever the butcher or wherever they sold their B for cat or whatever the stock sale. And then that tradition became a festival. That was in July, which still is. Then like Tony was saying, the St. Fermin festival was in October. So, the folks of Pamplona over Townsville, I don’t know why they didn’t need two festivals, but they decided to combine them.
Jim Scott
It was 1591. It’s when they combined it and of course, it’s truly about history.
Brian Roman
[inaudible 14:49]
Tony Price
A few years ago, they said that, one, the weather’s better in July than it is in October. But that’s when they kind of combined the two festivals. Then, the official bull running part of it started, at least the first reference to it, was the 17th century. And then of course the parade of giants, that started in the 19th century. The bull ring was actually built in 1844.
Brian Roman
So, what’s the parade of giants?
Jim Scott
Well, it’s giant heads, I guess, but these giants. They’re these historical figures, but they’re kind of like a cartoon or character of them. They stand probably 10, 12, 15 feet tall. There’s somebody underneath but they’ve got stilts or whatever on to build them up and they parade through the festival.
Brian Roman
So, damn, they’re not real people.
Jim Scott
They were real people.
Brian Roman
They were underneath the giants.
Tony Price
The giants are. But, we talked about that first trip and some of the people we meet, Bill Helman, was one of the first ones because he was the one who gave us our tour. The date was the evening of the 6th because we were going to run the next day.
Jim Scott
Yep, first day.
Eric Fargo
Highly recommended tour.
Jim Scott
Absolutely. And then, another guy that we’ve met along the way, Xander, Alexander Vince Carson. Brian was actually doing a little research because Brian is the only one of us that hasn’t been.
Brian Roman
Yeah, rub it in.
Tony Price
Brian hasn’t been. Did you guys know that Brian hasn’t been?
Brian Roman
So, this is my research on Wikitravel, it’s one of the sites I pulled up just to read a little bit about it, and John was mentioned, as well as Alexander. John Hemmingway was mentioned and then Xander was as well, which Tony picked up on right away in the book that he had written.
Tony Price
Yeah, he’s got a great book also. We obviously interviewed John, but…
Brian Roman
Probably should get Xander on.
Tony Price
Yeah. Fiesta, How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona, and he’s also a matador. He’s done a lot. And he’s very worldly and he’s got a lot of stuff. He’s awesome to talk to. Great to hang out with.
Brian Roman
Those were the two highly recommended one, at least on Wikitravel, in regards to preparing yourself for running with the bulls. It’s good to maybe do a little research and to maybe read Xander’s book.
Tony Price
Yeah. I would say this, that’s a good place to start. We had a couple other friends who’ve done some stuff. Jim, I can’t remember some of the…
Jim Scott
Well, Bill Helman, [inaudible 17:41] let us and guide us through the thing along with Gus and two. He wrote a book. I think it was also 10 Ways to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona. The ironic thing is, Bill is an experienced bull runner. At the time he took us on our tour in 2013, he’s already run 60-70 times according to my memory of what I believe he told us at that time. I wrote the book in I think 2014 and then in 2015, he got gored. And because he had written a book …
Tony Price
I think it was ’14, he got gored.
Jim Scott
Maybe it was ’14.
Tony Price
It was the next year.
Jim Scott
It was whatever year he wrote it, the next year … he wrote it in the offseason then when he ran the next year, when the festival came up, he actually got gored and got gored pretty bad in the legs, thigh, and hit the artery or drill close to it or the femoral artery.
Tony Price
Yeah.
Jim Scott
Anyhow, but because you’ve written that book and because he had been gored so bad, he kind of blew up. He was worldwide on CNN and Fox, and all that type of stuff, and being interviewed constantly, but he was hurt pretty bad. He’s in a hospital for weeks and then even more therapy afterwards. So, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
Tony Price
I can remember it. I don’t want to make it about Bill. Bill’s probably like, “Oh, guys, can you talk about something else?” He is a great author, by the way. But I remember, once you kind of get addicted to it, back then, one of the TV channels was doing live, the runs, and since I didn’t get to go that following year, I remember I was up, of course, it was 3:00 in the morning. Kris, my wife, was like, “What the hell are you doing?” I was like, “I’m watching the run. I’m watching it live.” And they said, “Hey, coming up after today’s run, we’re going to interview one of the top American runners.” And we’re like, “That’s got to be Bill. Can’t imagine who else it would be.” And then afterwards the run, they’re like, “We’re not sure where he is.” And then all of a sudden, you get that instant kind of thing like, wonder what happened. Then you find out, you’re kind of like, “Oh my god, that’s crazy.” Bill’s the first obvious person that we knew that had been hurt.
Brian Roman
Has he been back since?
Tony Price
Oh, yeah.
Jim Scott
So, you’re right. It was ’14 that he got gored and ’15 is when I went back again. John Ribo and my daughter, and his son, and we met up with him. That was his first time back. And he was pretty timid and said it affected his run. He still ran and had decent runs, but it affected him. It affects your mindset if you didn’t do it for a while. It definitely had an impact, but he’s run since and been gored since.
Brian Roman
I want to clear up something about running, people. You’re a runner, Brian. You think, “Oh, you just go along and you run along bulls.” Well, it doesn’t really work that way.
Tony Price
They run fast.
Brian Roman
They run fast, right. It’s 8/10 of a mile and the course has a 90 degree turn in it. I have never heard of anyone that has run the entire course. They run sections of the course. Americans, we don’t understand that. I’ve never been there, nor done that. So, you think, “Oh, they just run 8/10 of a mile.” No. Bulls run at 35 miles an hour. You can stay in front of them for so long. You have to be smart and get out of the way.
Tony Price
Yeah, as you mentioned, it just depends. It’s about 7/10 of a mile, I think, 6/10 of a mile. But it’s broken down into sections and that’s kind of what people run. It typically lasts three minutes or less, just to give you a perspective, and you can’t really run the whole thing.
Brian Roman
The entire run.
Jim Scott
The beginning’s uphill and other parts are slightly inclined.
Tony Price
Yeah. So, that’s kind of how it starts. We’re giving people a quick rundown before we jump into the other stuff. We need to hit on Pamplona. But, I guess it opens up around 7:10, 7:15 is when they start putting up the barium. 6:15 is when it starts. Everybody who does it a lot, they have their kind of morning routine. I’ve got mine now. It’s not the same as everybody. We walk out in the morning and you step over the people who are passed out for the night before.
Eric Fargo
Yes, exactly. Let’s be honest about our morning, it’s never really a routine because you never know how the night before is going to go, right?
Tony Price
Well, yeah.
Jim Scott
Or if it’s still going.
Brian Roman
There you go, right. You’re ready to go.
Jim Scott
Everybody’s different. I know when I’ve been running, I’m not out after a certain amount of time. I just need a certain amount of sleep because I’m not taking that kind of chance. So, I get up, shower, walk out and again, depending on where you’re staying. It depends on how drunk people that were passed out, people you’re walking over top of. I usually get a coffee at the little corner place, walk into the places that sell the newspapers to get my newspaper to read what’s going on and also to use for the run. Meet up with our group of friends. Usually right around town hall, walk down to the statue.
Brian Roman
Can I ask you, you just said the newspaper you use for the run?
Eric Fargo
Yeah, right.
Jim Scott
Well, there’s a lot of different things. You roll it up. It’s not a sly. It’s really a …
Eric Fargo
It’s a moving thing in front of the eyes of the bull. So, you run, you put the paper
behind you rolled up, and they think that it may be attractable because of its movement.
Tony Price
It’s a help.
Eric Fargo
Not really, no.
Tony Price
I don’t know if there’s science behind it.
Brian Roman
If I run, what can I use to make the bull go away?
Tony Price
Nothing.
Eric Fargo
Well, your legs. That’s what you could use.
Jim Scott
If you think of the matador and the cape, sort of the same theory, just get something to focus on and get away from your body.
Tony Price
Now, you also read the paper. What’s awesome is the papers have like prize fighters because the bulls are very, very revered. They’re coming from the various branches from throughout Spain and it’s a very noble thing to have your bulls run. They’re all listed, all the bulls, all six of them that are running that day, their weight, colors, everything, their name.
Jim Scott
And their farms. If you know the farms, you know what type of boy you’re getting. Some are really heavy. Some are real fast. Some are more meaner than others.
Eric Fargo
Never been around human beings.
Jim Scott
They’re all fighting bulls, but some are meaner than others or have their reputations. The Miuras.
Eric Fargo
So, the breeding farms are very equivalent to horse breeding farms here in the States. They take it very seriously and it’s a real deal. It creates a whole commerce within itself.
Tony Price
We should get Xander on because he is a great efficient author on that.
Brian Roman
Yeah. I’m sorry. I interrupted. You were talking about your routine …
Tony Price
Oh, yeah. That’s kind of it. I’m not one to go down to the statue and sing, but I’m close to that, down there on, oh, what’s the name of the street? Santo Domingo, right? Enjoying it and then again you get up there and it’s like 7:45 is when the police barriers break down and you’re allowed to go to wherever you want to run because they force you into a tight area.
Jim Scott
The Town Square and down to the [inaudible 25:22]
Tony Price
Yeah, just so they can clean the streets, make sure the barricades are all up and secure.
Jim Scott
Well, they also are checked. They’re making sure there aren’t drunks, obvious drunks in there. You can’t have like pocketbooks or stuff, even a camera strapped on you. You can not wear GoPros on your head. They’re looking for those kinds of things. Because like a strap, if you’re just carrying a bag, the horn could catch that strap and drag you. So, it’s a safety check more than anything.
Eric Fargo
I saw that “don’t tie your bandana in a knot” and your panuelo in a knot, slipknot.
Jim Scott
In fact, I had my daughter there the first time, she was going to run, we were there and I did not realize when we left our apartment or hotel and came down there, she had a little camera strap around her thing. It’s literally in the most stressful times that are 20 minutes or so half hour right before the Rockets golf and the bulls are lost. The energy in that crowd is intense and there’s a lot of scared people and you feel that energy. And of course, this is the first time she’s ever run. So, she’s nervous and everybody’s nervous, and I’m nervous. I’m like, “Oh, man. I hope this goes well for her.” So, there was a girl behind her that had a full big size purse. Lauren’s little thing was only two or three inches wide, but it was a strap that she had around her neck. And just because she didn’t know and I didn’t see it, and they got the girl behind her and she got behind me to try to hide because it’s like, “Man, it’s five minutes still.” We don’t have time to go take it to somebody or get out or whatever and they saw her and they pulled her out and made her go. So, she didn’t get to run. She went through all that uphill and stress. I told her where to meet her at chacos and we’re going to get out at that point. She wanted to plan on running another time but she couldn’t go through all that and not run, so we had to come back the next day, which was fine. She ran and went well but they are serious about it. They will pull people out.
Eric Fargo
Mainly a safety precaution.
Jim Scott
It’s totally about safety.
Eric Fargo
Again, don’t wear a belt, anything. No leather belt. Believe me if those horns can hook something, they’re going hook something. It’s crazy how that works out.
Tony Price
And then you get dragged along.
Eric Fargo
You get dragged. Yeah, so it makes complete sense.
Tony Price
You can see tons of videos and pictures of it but the one was 2017, I think. That year, I had a really good run but we left the day before. Our flight was the 13th and we’re in Madrid, and watching that morning. That was the year that young guy had his panuelo tied in a knot. He got caught up and he was right at that Calyon going into the bullring. The bull literally went up underneath his paneulo and he got dragged. That’s crazy.
Eric Fargo
He’s lucky. I don’t think it turned out okay.
Tony Price
It did not. [inaudible crosstalking 28:31]
Eric Fargo
It happens in all kinds of times.
Brian Roman
The course is crazy. Jim was saying you start off Santa Domingo and it’s like a 10 degree incline.
Jim Scott
A pretty steep hill up cobblestones that usually in the morning are damp and slippery. And then the bulls, the rings down at the bottom that they keep them in and they let them go and there’s about 50 feet or 50 yards before any of the runners are there. Even though they’re going to uphill they get a head of steam.
Tony Price
One of the unique things about them is their front legs are shorter than their back legs. So, uphill is just natural. They’re fast.
Eric Fargo
Oh, yeah. Cuz it’s where their powers are coming from. Right?
Tony Price
Yeah. And then you get to town hall, left onto Mercaderes. And then Markova is where you …
Jim Scott
Dead man’s curve.
Tony Price
Yeah. Where it’s a 90 degree turn to the right, where you get down to Estafeta. Estafeta is not quite as steep.
Eric Fargo
Would that be the longest stretch probably?
Tony Price
Absolutely the longest stretch. Then you get to the top of Estafeta. That’s where you kind of get off of the street.
Eric Fargo
And then onto the left.
Tony Price
Onto Telefonica, then Caleon. Caleon is where they go into it. It gets down to three and a half meters wide.
Jim Scott
Right, as they go into the tunnel to the bullring.
Eric Fargo
And that has closed up before.
Jim Scott
That first year, while Bill there ended up being in a pile up, just as he got through the tunnel of people falling over each other and they kept piling up and piling up, and the bulls couldn’t get through. The people in the bottom were getting suffocated because of the amount of people, and the bulls are trying to jump over him and they’re ramming into people, and it was nuts. While Bill was part of it, he actually pulled somebody out that had gotten injured but couldn’t do anything for themselves at this point, being knocked out and unconscious. They got him CPR, but they didn’t think they’re going to live. I’m pretty sure they did live but it was a scary situation.
Jim Scott
The last person that died was in ’09.
Jim Scott
That’s correct.
Eric Fargo
Wow. So, the entire run for the bulls themselves is less than a mile?
Tony Price
It’s 6/10 to 8/10 of a mile.
Jim Scott
Over a half mile. Usually two minutes.
Eric Fargo
Yeah. So, for a person running with the bulls, you’re maybe 15 seconds.
Eric Fargo
Right. Now, what lengthens that from two minutes to three minutes, and of course that minute is a long time when you’re on that course, is there’s a total of 6 bulls and 6 steers. Cattle, by nature, are hurting animals and that’s the reason for the steers. They’re just as big if not bigger, but they’re tame and they got cowbells on. But they’re still scary, if you don’t know. You think everything’s gone and then next thing you look up and there’s one coming. But either way, they’re there to herd the fighting bulls. The bulls themselves, as mentioned earlier, they haven’t really been around humans at all. They’re trained to fight. They’re going to fight that night in the bull ring. On some runs, they all stay in the pack, in the herd, and they just roll right on through. It’s a quick two minutes and nothing happens. I mean, stuff happens but it’s a quicker match or run. But if a bull gets separated, then it gets scared, it’s looking. If they can’t find the steers to herd them or the rest of the crowd, or the cattle, they’ll stop and they’re just looking.
Eric Fargo
Looking for somebody.
Jim Scott
Looking for anything.
Eric Fargo
Usually, movement. Any movement, they say, will draw their eye to the movement. That’s why when they’re separated, that’s it – they’re most dangerous. It’s better when they’re herding together. When they’re lost and scared, and they put their eye on you, you might want to jump the fence.
Jim Scott
Absolutely.
Tony Price
Or go under. Don’t jump.
Jim Scott
Yeah, definitely. Always go down and get under. If you fall down during the middle it, you stay down until somebody comes in.
Brian Roman
Cover up. I saw that, the fetal position. I think it was Rick Steves said, “You’re better to get trampled six times than gored.”
Eric Fargo
It seems like the minute the people try to get up, that’s when they get run over by 1,300 lb. When they get onto your head, you’re done.
Jim Scott
I don’t know if this was the last person that died but I remember in 2013, being told about this person, he had fallen down and then just stood up at the wrong time and got it right in the chest. Killed him instantly.
Eric Fargo
Wow. Yes, stay down.
Jim Scott
Stay down. Yeah.
Tony Price
Moral of the story is ‘stay down’.
Eric Fargo
Well, runners will tap you.
Tony Price
If it’s clear, people will tap you and say it’s clear.
Eric Fargo
There are pastores that are running along. They have long [inaudible 33:50]
sticks. If you’re bugging and trying to pull the tail of the bulls, they’re going to slap you. But they’re also there to keep the bulls going, or if they get separated to get them going to the right direction.
Eric Fargo
They’ll tap you. That’s if you’ve gone down and you’re staying down.
Tony Price
Yeah, stay down.
Jim Scott
If it’s clear to get up.
Jim Scott
And the pastores, you’ll recognize again they have a long [inaudible 34:16]
but they also wear green.
Jim Scott
Green uniforms. I remember the first time we ran. Of course, it’s a blur. It goes pretty fast and the bulls have gone by. We were pretty close that first time, within a few feet. Your adrenaline and your heart is just beating. It’s like, “did this really just happen and all this?” And then, good 30 seconds or maybe even a minute later, because you’ve kind of taken that deep breath and then gets over, next thing you know, you hear a big [inaudible 34:45] behind you and there’s another. We didn’t know. But it was the sweeper steers that are coming through. They’re just as big, but they’re not mean and they’re not looking to..
Tony Price
Jogging.
Jim Scott
But they’re just jogging. They come through but you don’t know. We’re here the first time.
Eric Fargo
They’re there to pick up another bull and try to get it’s herd, just in case it was lost.
Jim Scott
But the first time you’re like, “Oh, Jesus” and you’re trying to get a doorway or whatever.
Jim Scott
Experienced runners are going to laugh at you.
Tony Price
Of course.
Jim Scott
But that first time, it’s a little unnerving.
Jim Scott
We’ve known several people that have been injured. One of the guys dislocated his shoulder really, really bad. I don’t know if he’s ran since. Probably a little risky for him to run.
Eric Fargo
One of our friends got knocked out.
Tony Price
We won’t talk about that because that was a steer.
Jim Scott
Right, but it’s just as dangerous. That’s just it. He was running along.
Tony Price
He had a great run.
Jim Scott
Had a great run in the middle of the pack. And of course, he’s looking over his right shoulder where the normal bull traffic was coming. And then, he just had his look over the left, and he got hit by a horn right underneath his [inaudible 5:59]. Cut it open. Knocked him out. It was a steer and it’s a steer’s horn. They’re still 12, 14, 1,500 pounds. The impact is big.
Tony Price
These horns are still hard.
Eric Fargo
I’ll never forget. He said, “I’ve been in several fights in my life, but I’ve never been hit that hard, ever. I was out.”
Tony Price
I will say this. The Red Cross and the medical staff are… They’re on it.
Eric Fargo
Topnotch. Absolutely.
Tony Price
They’re pretty diligent about it, that one run that I hit the deck inside the bull ring. It’s sand. I got a hamburgered elbow and knee. I lost my sash and all kinds of stuff and rolled underneath the fence. But as soon as they saw blood, they were like, “You need to go to medical.”
Tony Price
They might have to get cleaned up, even cuts, scratches.
Eric Fargo
And they have a buffer zone outside of the course. So, they have a course that’s separated by a split rail fence.
Tony Price
It’s two rails.
Eric Fargo
They have a buffer zone and then they have a split rail fence again. That buffer zone is for all medical. So, nobody’s allowed to be in that buffer zone. It’s for the medical personnel only. When you dive out, either jump over or dive under the fence, you’re in the buffer zone, and if you’re bleeding.
Tony Price
They literally helped drag me. I went down and I think there were still two or three bulls behind me. When I went down, of course, I’m crawling and rolling towards the side. Somebody reached in and grabbed me. dragged me under and they were like, “bloody, you gotta go.” So, I can tell you that was probably the first time from an adrenaline rush. My adrenaline was pumping so hard. I got nauseous.
Eric Fargo
Wow.
Jim Scott
That’s crazy.
Tony Price
That was pure adrenaline. But yeah, that was wild. Still, to this day, the best run I had.
Eric Fargo
Needless to say, your adrenaline’s pumping. If you’re gored real good, you don’t know. You’re gored in a major artery, you could bleed out real quickly.
Tony Price
We talked about that. It is Pamplona. It is awesome in San Fermin, but we’ll still talk about our places to stay, things to do, wining and dining. We are staying kind of around the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. You stayed in a hotel one time, right?
Jim Scott
I did. I wish I could’ve found the name of it. This was in 2015. It’s about six blocks away from the main plazas and all. It was a decent little hotel, a typical European kind of a boutique hotel. Only like three or four floors, sort of like an old house. John [inaudible 39:02]
booked it. I don’t have the name. I apologize. I wish I could give it to you. But, it worked. That was probably the furthest I stayed away, but still only a five or six block walk and very easy to get back to. So, there are hotels, you can get fairly close.
Brian Roman
How far in advance…
Jim Scott
You want to be booking around the first of the year for July.
Brian Roman
Okay, six months.
Jim Scott
Yeah, we’ve talked about this before on festival types of trips. Try to book something where you can have a cancellation policy. If there’s a chance you’re going to go, go ahead and book it. That way, you have a place. The hotels, well, let’s be clear, there is room, when they say for about one to 2% of the actual people who attend.
Jim Scott
Yeah.
Brian Roman
What?
Tony Price
Literally. You should see it. It is the most chaotic looking thing you’ve ever seen when these people camp out outside of the area, outside of the old town, outside the city. There’s campgrounds. These like, two in three kinds of buses that are linked together come rolling in. And it’s like a pack subway of New York when they unload in the morning. I mean, it’s crazy, the number of people that are in town and the number of hotel rooms that exist.
Jim Scott
Yeah.
Tony Price
So, we’ve rented apartments and we’ve got some decent connections and have been able to get some stuff. The first year, we stayed at a hostel that’s about five blocks from the bullring. It was Hostel Hemingway. We sort of figured out if it’s open or closed right now, right?
Jim Scott
We get mixed signals. In our show notes, we’re going to have a thing for top hostels in Pamplona. One site says their permanent closed, other says temporarily closed. But it was a good location.
Tony Price
Yeah, it was very inexpensive. We booked January 2nd. It was the first time you could book. They had just renovated that year in 2013. They renovated in January. We were there in July. It was a great location, great spot, inexpensive. Since then, we’ve stayed down closer to…
Jim Scott
Right in the middle. Those were Airbnb.
Tony Price
Yeah, both of them we did through Airbnb.
Jim Scott
Through Airbnb, but they were a block or two of where you get into the street to run with the bulls.
Tony Price
And we have some good connections. I mean,
Jim Scott
We do. Graham.
Tony Price
Graham and [inaudible 41:19]
. In the show notes, we can put that link up. And then also, [inaudible 41:25]
.
Jim Scott
Oh, yeah and Stephanie. Part of Pamplona. She runs apartments all through Pamplona year round. That’s what she does.
Tony Price
So, give a shout out to Stephanie and get that link out if you’re looking at a great place.
Eric Fargo
Give you an idea, Brian. I guess there’s about 200,000 people in the population of Pamplona with normal time. They get about 2 million visitors in two weeks. Gives you an idea.
Brian Roman
Eight days.
Jim Scott
Imagine the economic impact by not having it.
Eric Fargo
They make their hay in those eight days. They really do.
Tony Price
One of the other hotels though that, I mean, I know it’s expensive. And I don’t even know how early it is. La Perla is right there by the Windsor, which we’ll talk about. One of our favorite hangout places to have a beer or two. La Perla’s right there on the corner of the plaza. It’s a great grand old hotel. I have no idea how much that would.
Jim Scott
During that week, it’s probably pretty salty.
Tony Price
But, we’ve gotten great. If we’re talking about places to stay, you want to be in the old city center area. But you can go four, five blocks out from the plaza and it’s a little quieter.
Eric Fargo
It’s not going to be quiet. Let’s be clear. There’s no there’s no downtime.
Jim Scott
And that’s probably what the craziest thing or the thing it’s hard to prepare yourself for. If you’re in that Old Quarter, there is no downtime. So, four or five blocks away, you might get a little quiet time around four or five in the morning but not total.
Tony Price
Until like six, seven.
Eric Fargo
Actually, the quietest time is like 11 in the morning. After breakfast, after the runs. 11am to two-ish, three-ish. That’s the quietest time and I found out, “Hey, man. This is the time to sleep.”
Tony Price
Well, that’s what the smart thing is, right? So, we always say, with Jeremiah, we talked about this so many times. Okay, you do your run. You go do your taco. You do your couple drinks. You go grab breakfast, which includes bottles of wine and whatever else. Maybe you do a couple other things, but you’re supposed to be taking a siesta at lunchtime. Then you meet back up usually at 4:00. If you don’t get that nap, it makes for a long day. Very long day.
Jim Scott
Well, it makes it even longer because if you didn’t get that nap that means you were day drinking. Which goes along with morning drinking, which goes along with night drinking. And yes, it’s a long day.
Brian Roman
Well then, I would think you could sleep through all the chaos after that.
Jim Scott
They call that passing out.
Tony Price
I do remember the one year, Eric. It was me, Jim and Eric, right? It was us all three that year. Eric, I don’t know if he volunteered or drew the short straw but he had the front room. Oh, my God, it was right on the street. And I just remember those bands rolling in it like 4:00 and is playing.
Tony Price
That’s when I found out. You don’t get mad. What are you going to do? I mean, they’re banging big drums bigger than you. And there’s bands going around three, four in the morning. And then you find out, “Oh, 11 am is the time to sleep.” You have to learn the hard way I guess.
Tony Price
There’s literally a bar across the street. There was one kind of underneath us and then one right across the street and we were on the second floor. They didn’t shut the doors until six am. The music didn’t stop and we’re like, “oh my god.”
Jim Scott
Eric mentioned the drums but these are little marching bands and drumline. Little drum lines like you would have for a classical band. A dozen people. few horns and then a drum line and they’re just sitting there going at it. Usually, they have one real big bass drum. One of these was seven or eight feet tall. It’s huge. On rollers, but they’re beating the hell out.
Tony Price
People also understand, it is a very family-oriented thing too. Obviously, the 8-year-old kids aren’t out at 4am. But all day long, it’s just a fantastic environment.
Brian Roman
But the 12th and the 13th to the 14 year old’s are.
Tony Price
They have fun stuff. They do the kid bull runs. I mean, they chase them. Imagine a wheelbarrow and they got a bull in front of it. It squirts with squirt guns. It’s just a fun environment. It is loud, it’s busy and there is a lot of good street food.
Tony Price
There’s a lot of stuff that happens in the street.
Eric Fargo
It all happens in the street.
Jim Scott
Some of it, sleeping. Some of it, drinking. There’s fireworks. There’s singing.
Eric Fargo
There’s fireworks every night, right?
Jim Scott
There’s all kinds of things happening in those streets. And they clean them down very thoroughly every morning.
Tony Price
They hose them down.
Brian Roman
Even the people?
Jim Scott
You’re the way.
Tony Price
So, yeah, just think about that. If you’re staying, if you are with your family, you don’t want to stay that close. Out more towards the Citadel in that area, then you’re at least closing from a walking standpoint but you got too crowded.
Jim Scott
It is family-oriented. If the group you’re with is not into the day drinking, in the party and in that part of the Fiesta. It’s still very family oriented. There’s a lot going on. There’s a carnival, there’s lots of great food. There’s lots of just stuff going on for the family. Especially the Spanish families, you see the kids and the mom and the dad. You do see a lot of that. It’s a weird combination, but it’s all there in white and red.
Tony Price
So, all right, we got places to stay, things to do. Obviously, the big thing is just the festival itself, and the [inaudible 47:48], the bull runs and closing ceremonies. There’s tons of stuff like that. If you’re into it or not, we can debate that to blow the face about the bull fights. There’s a lot of things to do. One of the things we’ve been doing recently is taking the break midweek. We took the bus to San Sebastian. An hour bus ride.
Jim Scott
Yeah, 50 minutes to an hour bus ride. Out here, it’s about the same by train but we didn’t do that. If you haven’t heard San Sebastian, it’s a gorgeous coastal town. That’s inlet for, is that the Atlantic? France is on the other side, just so you know, but it’s gorgeous. And the food there; they’ve got three or four Michelin restaurants but it doesn’t matter where you walk in. The tapas are incredible. The beach is incredible. It’s just a fantastic place and we did it on a break. We need to go there for our own little vacation. I mean it is that incredible of a place.
Tony Price
The food was fantastic.
Brian Roman
So, when you say a break, how much time did you spend there?
Tony Price
Day trip. Typically, you do the run at 8:00. Some people skip it, obviously, but you can still do your run. Go to tacos, grab your couple of drinks, and then go hit the bus. 50 minutes are up and then you get your bus ride back. When did we come back? Like 7:00?
Jim Scott
Something like that.
Tony Price
We get back in time for dinner because we don’t eat till like 9:00.
Jim Scott
Well, we’ve been eating all day at the tapas restaurants. They were just incredible.
Tony Price
It was ridiculous.
Jim Scott
San Sebastian. They’re in a better state trip, to be honest.
Tony Price
I know the first year, Jeremiah and them, they went up. They were there a couple days and then Barcelona. But yeah, there’s a couple of the tapa restaurants in there. So, definitely a good day trip.
Eric Fargo
Have we talked about how to get there actually, for most people?
Jim Scott
We grabbed the bus up through the pier on the east. Even the ride’s beautiful. Then, you get to this coastal town. It’s just gorgeous.
Tony Price
The one thing I will say, no matter where you are, just be careful. They are very, very cautious on drinking and driving during the festival. So, when you take a bus out of there, as soon as you get to the outskirts of Old Town, there must have been 30 cop cars just pulling people over or checking and doing whatever. It’s a big festival. They just want people hitting the streets. Don’t even consider it. Don’t rent a car. Don’t go driving if you’re consuming some. Buses and trains, don’t even worry about it.
Tony Price
But the Citadel, that’s kind of cool too. There’s a lot of history to that. We don’t have time to really kind of dig into that piece of it but we did a big tour of that the first year that we went. That’s also kind of where the fireworks are each night during San Fermin. That’s what’s really cool. Every night, there’s fireworks.
Jim Scott
And very good fireworks.
Eric Fargo
It’s a show.
Tony Price
The only thing we haven’t done is the closing ceremony.
Jim Scott
Exactly.
Tony Price
Yeah, we definitely need to do that.
Eric Fargo
That would be fun. I would like that.
Tony Price
Kind of emotional, too, though. The whole closing and wrapping up at home ending. Anything else we can think of, things to do? I know there’s a lot to do but …
Jim Scott
The festival really is what takes everything up and there’s so much going on with the festival. Those are your day trips.
Eric Fargo
I remember the last time we were there. We were stumbling around the outskirts of it and we stumbled upon an outdoor eating area.
Tony Price
Close to the hotel, near the Irish park.
Eric Fargo
How many of us were there? Probably, at least six or seven of us at that time.
Tony Price
I was napping.
Eric Fargo
You were napping and they brought us a picnic table full of food. I mean, it was a picnic table full of food. Steak that thick in all kinds. We didn’t mean to order all this food.
Jim Scott
That was one of them. Usually, the language barrier is not bad with your servers. It was very bad there. And that’s not known Spanish. So, we’re saying, “we will take this, this and this” and they’re shaking their head. This is like at midnight and we weren’t that hungry. Well, I mean, just got a ton. I mean, steak and sausages. Oh my goodness, the food was incredible. We got way more than we needed or wanted. It was incredible. And these are just tents. They’re set up sort of like a fair. It’s not like a restaurant. We can say, this restaurant was part of the festival.
Eric Fargo
You just walk around the outskirts if you can and you just pick what you want whatever they were cooking on grills and pits.
Tony Price
Well, that leads into our third segment where we talk about destinations, the wining and dining, where you eat, drink and what’s good. Spain is obviously famous for their pinchos, tapas, and small dishes. In the first year, we were for opening ceremonies. We got to see some of the places prior to the festival. Just like with anything, they kind of change some of their food, some of the bars make it easier. But there’s some great places. It’s just like anything that’s kind of touristy. You’re going to have some of them that are just okay. I mean, you’re just there for sustenance, to soak up some of the beer you’ve been drinking from earlier. But there’s some great places to eat. I’m going to be selfish. I’m not going to share a couple of them that we found. Just being truthful, because that’s part of the adventure. Go find things that you like, right. And there’s some cool places that I will share right off of the main plaza Castillo. [inaudible 54:39] We hit that every time. Great Italian restaurant, pizza, pastas, and it’s big. And that’s what I was saying. We can’t share that because there’s usually plenty of capacity.
Eric Fargo
It’s right there in the main plaza. So, they’re going to do business no matter what. But it is good.
Tony Price
Still cracks me up that one year that Jeremiah rolled in and he was “He had a little drink.” We just ordered a pizza and he didn’t pay any attention to it and it had tuna fish on it.
Eric Fargo
Tuna on the pizza.
Tony Price
Not like raw, fresh, sushi grade tuna. This bizarre piece and he was like, “Wow, I didn’t know I ordered that.”
Tony Price
But it is great. We always go there. There’s a couple great places, a great little steak house that had just some great food not too far from there.
Jim Scott
Right around the corner. I don’t remember the name of it. And Tony’s not sharing, but it was very good.
Eric Fargo
Some of the steak houses may be serving the bull.
Jim Scott
Wow, that’s special. They had to butcher that but that didn’t happen that soon. But that happens later. One of the interesting things about the whole festival is the parties, the camaraderie, the vodka party. John Hemingway mentioned in his book, Bacchanalia. Some of the things that we’ve attended, which is really cool. But Jeremiah, I mean, a lot of the people have started these trends. This is what we’re going to do, Guinness Mondays, right? That’s not just a Pamplona thing. That’s all over the globe as far as having a Guinness on a Monday, but if there’s one or two Mondays that happened during those eight days, we pretty much know where our crew of people are going to be.
Eric Fargo
Drinking Guinness.
Tony Price
Yes, absolutely and lots of it. It’s fine. Maybe it’s just kind of a great thing. The vaca party is cool. Jeremiah started one, too. He invited everybody. There’s a cool Asian place, Asian food, not too far off of esta feta, invites the whole crew, and he takes care of the bill.
Jim Scott
We were there that time. You usually get through three or four or five courses. We just kept going and it was like eight or ten courses just kept coming and coming. It’s like, “Dude, can we just leave? We’ve been here a couple hours now?” You’re done and then they bring something else out.
Jim Scott
Like, “I can’t anymore”. Of course it’s like 9:00-10:00 at night when you sit down for dinner. That’s kind of Jeremiah’s thing. It was just awesome. I think he does that on Tuesdays.
Jim Scott
I think so.
Tony Price
Everything’s based off of a day.
Eric Fargo
You tend to lose track of time, don’t you?
Tony Price
Yeah. So, it’s all based on the day.
Brian Roman
Well, the festival starts July 6th every year, right? So, it’s going to be a different day every year. So, Tuesday is not necessarily the same day of the festival. Right?
Jim Scott
Yeah, it just doesn’t matter. It’s just like Guinness Mondays. Like 2017, we rolled in. We got in on Tuesday. We got to Madrid on Monday and took the train up Tuesday morning. We were going to run Tuesday. By the time we got in, it’s afternoon. We don’t even need to text anybody. We don’t need to call anybody. We know exactly where everybody is. It is Monday. Irish Pub, here we come. And literally, we just rolled in. “What’s up guys?”
Brian Roman
Is there just one Irish pub, though?
Tony Price
There’s actually two, but there’s only one that we all go to.
Jim Scott
Right. It says Irish cafe pub, but it’s real name is Cerveza Baztan.
Tony Price
It’s near the one hotel right on the outskirts of the old area. About several blocks from Plaza Castillo. It’s just awesome. It’s just one of those things and then food. The other thing too is breakfast is a brick thing. I guess, we can kind of combine some of the drinking in the eating. We’ve talked about before, at least our crew. The non-Spanish runners tend to gather at Park Chaco, right there in Plaza Castillo after you run. It’s kind of like a check in plint.
Jim Scott
Everybody gathers, celebrates, makes sure everybody’s alright. If somebody doesn’t show up, figure out what happened to them. Somebody saw what happened. They have either vanilla or chocolate brandy Alexander’s that they serve out of a window.
Tony Price
Spectacular.
Brian Roman
So, what’s a Brandy Alexander?
Tony Price
It’s basically brandy or cognac. Right? In chocolate or vanilla milk. It’s delicious. I usually like chocolate versus vanilla but not in those.
Brian Roman
I’m a vanilla guy.
Eric Fargo
Yeah, I am too. I’ll tell you after two of them. If you step into the third one, it’s going to be a big day.
Eric Fargo
We’ll see what happens. So, what happens is you run. You go have your drinks at bar choco and then everybody goes out to breakfast, usually 15 to 25 people. Then you eat breakfast. Half of those people end up continuing on to day drinking and the other half go and take a nap. Well, whatever half you’re in, determines probably the rest of your day. Happens right there in the morning.
Jim Scott
If you pick the wrong group, what you had planned probably ain’t going to happen. You could end up at breakfast with 14 bottles of wine and it’s not lunch time yet.
Tony Price
Because after you’ve done it a couple times, you’re like, “Alright, what am I going to do? Am I going to stay here and drink or am I going to go nap?” There are consequences.
Jim Scott
You get up. You’re a little hungover. You make the run. The adrenaline kicks in. You’re still very tired. You go to a bar chaco and those first couple of brandy Alexander’s kick in, and like “I start feeling a little better.”
Jim Scott
Not necessarily cocky, ’cause you’re like, “Man, I didn’t feel good this morning.” Then, you get that breakfast, a little food and then somebody starts one of those little bottles of wine. Next thing you know, you’re rolling.
Brian Roman
Next thing you know, it’s 3pm.
Eric Fargo
You feel invincible, but you’re not. And then you’re like, “I don’t really need an app.” I don’t know.
Tony Price
A couple other places, though. Food wise, like I said, I think you can’t go wrong with the Pintos. And there’s also a Burger King.
Jim Scott
Right in the middle, right on the course.
Tony Price
It’s pretty crowded, but it’s two floors. But there’s great little street food, great little pizzas. I would say there’s just good stuff all over the place. Just try your own thing. That’s what I would say. Hands down.
Jim Scott
Get off a block or two and you’re going to realize where you really find a little diamond.
Tony Price
Fine, little cool stuff.
Jim Scott
They’re not like America. You don’t always know there’s a good restaurant. There isn’t big signage. There are some places, but a lot of places you’re going in and you’re told to meet there. That’s how we found that Steakhouse. There was no sign for it. It was just a doorway up a flight of steps. And we’re like, “Are we sure we’re in the right place?” And there was nothing that gave you any idea you’re going to a restaurant.
Brian Roman
Did somebody refer you to this restaurant?
Tony Price
Yes.
Brian Roman
So, you got a recommendation, then.
Jim Scott
Yeah, but I mean, that’s just it. Get out and explore because there’s a lot there. But if you’re just walking by you, you may not know it’s there.
Eric Fargo
It’s okay to get lost in Pamplona. It’s really not that big and you really can’t get lost. I mean, you’ll know.
Jim Scott
All the noise will find the way back.
Eric Fargo
We’ll take you to the center. And once you get to the center…
Brian Roman
Somebody will show you the way.
Tony Price
But as far as places, we tend to congregate. We do share love with a lot of places to have a drink, but our crew, the chaco, in the morning, we disperse, but everybody meets back up. Right?
Jim Scott
Right. Well, just to give them a center point, Plaza Castillo is a huge plaza, old style, center of town type thing where they have a lot of concerts and stuff. There’s just a huge open square. Then, around the outside are the bars and restaurants. So, all these places Tony is about to start talking about are kind of centered there.
Tony Price
We all met up at Mar Windsor, as I mentioned before, is right near the one hotel. It’s a great place around the corner of the plaza. We all hang out, take up anywhere from two to 20 tables.
Eric Fargo
Bar Windsors mentioned in Hemingway’s original book, Sun Also Rises or Chaco, one of the two are mentioned.
Tony Price
Aruna is. Cafe Aruna, which is right across from it. I think they took down the statue.
Jim Scott
That, I’m not sure. I’ve got a picture with it.
Tony Price
Yeah, it was up there originally but I think they may have moved it or taken it out.
Jim Scott
Maybe, it was just in the last couple years.
Tony Price
But Cafe Aruna’s right there. It’s fun, too. All those bars there actually.
Eric Fargo
Another good piece of advice is take euro. A lot of times, you can’t get into the banks. I had that problem maybe the second time I went. I needed to get money and we kept going into the banks and couldn’t get cash.
Tony Price
Cash machines. There’s one right from Windsor, it can literally just visualize. It’s one block away right towards the market [inaudible 01:05:07] right around the corner. There’s a lot of cash machines through there now, that’s much easier.
Eric Fargo
But credits cards?
Tony Price
Yeah, you can. A lot of times it’s easier, from just a cash perspective, because it does get busy and it’s kind of crazy. When there’s a group, we end running a little bit of a tab and paying it but when you’re just towards the end, you kind of go one off, it’s a little easier to just go in and grab a couple drinks and go. Those are kind of our favorite places. Again, there’s a ton and ton of places to go, things to see. We talked about the bucket list things. I don’t know what our bucket list looks like. It’s a little different probably than a lot of people’s. This is one of those things that I would say, ‘I don’t know how to describe it. I really don’t.” I know some people look at us like, “You are absolutely insane.” Absolutely crazy.
Eric Fargo
I remember coming back the first time I went and my son was probably a late teenager, and I thought, teenagers in our country, 19, 20-ish, they have fun. They don’t hold a cane over the Spaniards. Sorry, they really don’t. Once, I went through that opening ceremony and I realized what a good time they have, I said to myself, “Well, we have to get some Americans over there to experience it.” because we just don’t do anything like this over here. We really don’t. Not like they do. It is a different experience.
Jim Scott
Well, their society didn’t frown on it.
Eric Fargo
Right. Yeah.
Jim Scott
Yeah, it really is a big celebration. And you feel it.
Eric Fargo
When you’re there, you really feel it.
Tony Price
And I would say this. It’s one of those situations that I don’t know if I’ve really felt any negative vibe in the multiple times that I’ve been there. And usually when we’re in Pamplona, we’re there for about five days, four runs. Typically, five days. I just don’t recall really any negative situations.
Eric Fargo
I’m sure pickpocketing, a little bit.
Tony Price
Well, yeah, that happened. That has nothing to do with the people that are there, that’s people taking advantage of a situation. But the people that are there are there to have a good time. And when you get that many people in that environment, it’s just amazing that you don’t have any situation. There’s no fights or arguments. I mean, it’s just a very, very good time. People are just there to have fun.
Eric Fargo
Everybody’s there for the same reason, to let loose, enjoy.
Tony Price
You just have to be in that kind of frame of mind and you can have a good time. I highly, highly recommend it. And again, it’s one of those things, like we said before, when we started the show, it either bites you and you love it. Or you’re like, “Eh, I don’t need this thing.”
Eric Fargo
I’ve been there, done that..
Tony Price
I know [inaudible 01:08:11]
Jim Scott
That’s what stinks with COVID and cancels. I mean, I was planning on going this year, seeing all the people and you see how sad or upset our friends are on Facebook. And I think that’s where social media has made a big difference because you see these people. The only time you see them in person is at the festival, but you do stay in touch and you see what they do in their regular lives, not just wearing white and red and all that. So, it’s pretty cool. You get that kind of bond going. Then, you’re excited to see him. You want to see him. You want to have drinks and get a little crazy. It’s a cool situation.
Jim Scott
One of the guys we met a few years ago, Ricardo, lives out in Colorado. He just posed a little while ago. “Can’t believe I’ve met all you guys literally just five years ago.” It’s the first time that he went. I feel like I’ve known everybody forever. It just kind of what happens is, comes like a big camaraderie.
Brian Roman
Which is really cool.
Eric Fargo
It’s a good thing.
Tony Price
Well, Pamplona.
Jim Scott
We’re going to miss you this year.
Eric Fargo
We are going to miss you. Viva, San Fermin.
Tony Price
So, until next year, I guess.
Eric Fargo
Oh my gosh, thinking of that. I heard matching what it’s going to be like.
Tony Price
It’s going to be fun.
Eric Fargo
Holy cow.
Brian Roman
I heard they were going to do it for two weeks next year to make up for this year.
Tony Price
Brian, you I think you’re onto something.
Eric Fargo
You may want to call Spain.
Tony Price
I tell you what, it’ll be a little bit unleashed, I think.
Tony Price
Can’t wait to see [inaudible 01:09:56]
Eric Fargo
It’s all a group of people that just love to let go and know how to let go and have fun and enjoy themselves. I can imagine how it’s going to be after missing a year.
Tony Price
It’d be good.
Jim Scott
Absolutely.
Tony Price
Well, again, I guess we can wrap up on this one. Any parting shots, any final thoughts?
Jim Scott
If it’s on your bucket list, do it. You won’t regret it.
Tony Price
Well, we’re going to have our show notes up. We’re going to add some things on there. If anybody has any questions about it, any thoughts, concerns, ideas, just shoot us a message. Reach out on Facebook, or any social media again, @friendsthatcarryon. Check out the website, friendsthatcarryon.com. Don’t forget to get on there and register. Look out for the fan page so you can win one of the four or five trips a year that we’re going to give away.
Jim Scott
Absolutely. Good stuff. Maybe you go to Pamplona.
Tony Price
Maybe, we’ll do that.
Eric Fargo
Somebody might join you. Somebody in the group may possibly be there. You just don’t have to hang out with her if you don’t want to.
Tony Price
Please shoot us a message if you have any questions on anything or any ideas or thoughts. Check us out on the website. I guess we’ll catch you guys again next week. Don’t forget to check out the new thing that we just started – Weekly Travel Updates. Our normal podcast has been dropping on Thursdays. And now on Tuesdays, Mondays or Tuesdays, we’ll have a travel update.
Jim Scott
Right from our travel experts from around the country, given their insight on the best deals and places to be booking.
Eric Fargo
Next week will be Tom Karnes out of Lamacchia Travel in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Tony Price
So, they’re just helping us update as things are starting to unwind, hopefully. What’s opening up around the globe and deals that are available, what you can jump on. Typically 15 to 25 minute kind of podcast. We’re just going to let you know what’s going on.
Eric Fargo
Full of information.
Tony Price
Definitely listen to the episodes that are coming up.
Brian Roman
This one has an incredible offer.
Tony Price
This one’s going to drop behind that one.
Brian Roman
No, before it expires. Oh, this one. Might still be. There’ll be another offer.
Jim Scott
There’ll be other offers. When Tom’s not giving us advice, Matty K from Matty K Travels in Long Island, New York will be giving us advice. Two great travel experts.
Tony Price
So, again, stay tuned. Thanks, everyone. And we’ll be in touch I guess next week.
Jim Scott
Absolutely.
Tony Price
All right.
Eric Fargo
Bye, everybody. Adios.
Outro
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