July 12, 2015

Pamplona, Spain

Men playing cricket with a tennis ball in the Plaza del Castillo on Saturday night (this was the wildest night during the whole San Fermin Festival).
Men playing cricket with a tennis ball in the Plaza del Castillo on Saturday night (this was the wildest night during the whole San Fermin Festival).
Roman candles being shot out from a balcony on Estafeta Street.
Roman candles being shot out from a balcony on Estafeta Street.
An outdoor discothèque.
An outdoor discothèque.
Another outdoor discothèque.
Another outdoor discothèque.
Inside the very crowded Cafe Iruna.
Inside the very crowded Cafe Iruna.
Blurry drunk vision at a street in Pamplona.
Blurry drunk vision at a street in Pamplona.

After staying out so late the night before, I wanted nothing but sleep. So, I stayed in bed until after 16:00, giving me about twelve hours of sleep. I then woke up, showered, dressed, and got ready. I should’ve typed out some journal entries, but my mind was still too numb and I bullshitted instead. I also opened up the bottle of Spanish Rosé I had purchased a couple of days ago and was drinking that when Michelangelo called to meet up for dinner. After 20:30, I joined Michelangelo for dinner. We first walked to a nice beer bar that has cheap drinks; however, it only serves small finger foods; so we each had a beer and a bowl of fried calamari. We then walked to the Plaza del Castillo and stopped at a restaurant where I had beer, slices of veal steak with a fried egg and fries, and a plate of Navarre sausage. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel with plans to meet up later after midnight to see the late-night debauchery. We returned to the hotel and I finished the bottle of wine I had opened earlier. At 01:00, Michelangelo called and we both walked outside to see the night’s festivities. He was drinking sangria from his bota, but I needed a drink, so I stopped at a bar to get some beer. We then wandered around the old town, passing by bar after bar and club after club. In the Plaza del Castillo, we saw some older guys playing cricket with a tennis ball. Then, as we were walking down Estafeta Street, we watched some drunk partiers shoot a shit-load of Roman candles from their balcony; most of the fireworks went up in to the air, however, quite a few of them hit the building opposite them. We also witnessed a kid driving around in his toy car, passing between drunkards, around 02:00 (I still can’t believe how many kids we keep finding between all the drunks). Tonight, the party wasn’t as large or extreme as the previous night (Saturday night was something else) and we didn’t see nearly as much public urination and vomit everywhere. We then proceeded to stop at several bars for more beer before calling it a night before 03:00. I returned to my hotel room and decided to cut my mustache (I had originally grown it to make it easier to spot myself in pictures and video taken during the encierro, but I realized that a colorful shirt makes more of a difference; also, I was receiving a lot of attention from drunk men (not the desired effect I wanted) between this and the last night; so I figured it was best to be rid of it). I then showered, watched some music videos, and finally went to sleep around 04:00.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

An open journal or an exercise in narcissism.