Here's where our trip went a bit strange...  This event happens once a year and draws very large numbers, so inevitably room rates are unthinkable (we couldn't find anything for less than €300/$400).  In order to participate in the "encierro" (Running of the Bulls), you need to be IN position @ 0630, or you cannot get through the wooden barricades.  The firework show ended around 0100 and it seemed ridiculous to get a room just for a handful of hours...so we slept in the car.  Not something we would normally advise doing, but we were already parked in a huge parking garage with high security and access to bathrooms...so we did it.  Not the most comfortable, but we were able to wake up, brush our teeth, straighten up in the bathrooms, and get to the street where the magic happens with not much else with us than would fit into our pockets.

People pack into the streets for hours before the event.  It's a bit too early in the a.m. for many of the people who partied hard starting the morning before, evidenced by drunksters sleeping everywhere often in their own vomit (ewww...).  Police come through patrolling (in riot gear) and setting up barricades until the runners are completely separated from the on-looking crowds (some in bleachers), at which point the front of the runner pack and the end of the runner pack are kicked out.  We heard in advance where to station ourselves for the best chance of actually running alongside the bulls (good job, Team!)

[caption id="attachment_206" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Waiting for Encierro to begin..."]<img class="size-full wp-image-206" title="Encierro 2010" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dscn0352.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="640" />[/caption]

It is illegal to run with a camera (not to mention absolutely unsafe), so aside from a few "before" photos that we sneaked in...we have none.  The only thing you are allowed to run with is a rolled-up newspaper, which you can throw in front of a bull's face should you need to make an emergency get away.  You can watch a professional video of our run <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdy70SJb7Ys" target="_blank">*here*</a>.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdy70SJb7Ys]

We've played it over and over again to look for any clip of us running, but the only shot we recognise is a crowd backing up against themselves to let the bulls pass.  If you need to know...we are the ones wearing white shirts, white pants, red waist sashes, &amp; red neck bandanas.  LOL.   (You let the bulls pass?)  Yes, we let the bulls run by.  To clarify, those gigantic, 1100-lb. beasts are wicked fast.  With the first firecracker @ 0800, the runners are chanting to San Fermín for protection.  Simultaneously, SIX wild, black bulls (who have intentionally been kept away from human contact until now) are released to rush up a hill and through a 1/2-mile course into the stadium.  Six, steer (castrated bulls) are also released with bells on their horns -- they are meant to keep the bulls in a herd pattern through the race.  The danger arises mainly when a bull is separated from the group, as it will charge any individual in its path.  This all sounds very dangerous, but it is widely spread that people are NOT to try to separate a bull or antagonise it into attacking.  If a person falls, they are to stay down until the bulls have passed (the bulls jump over people in their footpath--err, hoof path), but will gore you if you are trying to right yourself in front of them (this is how the last person was killed in 2009).  With all this running through our heads, we waited until we could see the bulls at the bottom of the hill.  Again, the point is to actually run with the bulls.  They have shorter front legs made for hills and just zip up to where most of the crowd is waiting.  Where we chose to start had a sharp turn that usually slows the bulls down as they slide around.  It's part panic, part fun as everyone is yelling and running.  You know the bulls are *somewhere*, but it's not really certain which are bulls, which are steer, and how close you are to losing a butt cheek; it's a mess, you just RUN.  There is a second firecracker set off when the last animal has left the pen...and until you see a mass of people behind you, you just hold steady and defy your nerves (aka better senses that tell you to "get the Hades out of there!)!  So we ran and pushed through the crowd until we saw those animal bodies just behind us...then everyone backs up into the sides of the course (either against the wooden barricades or (in our case) against the buildings.  Some people keep going, but it really is difficult to keep up with such a fast, unpredictable animal...so most people start running again after the bulls sweep through.  If you are fast enough, you make it all the way into the stadium...where the bulls are penned and you stand cheering with all the other survivors.  There was also a third firecracker to let us know that the first bull had entered the bullring, which we sighed a relief to hear until runners behind us yelled out "one more!  One more!!" (Evidently there is a fourth firecracker to let you know ALL the bulls have been accounted for)  Run, run, run!

The races happen every morning for the whole week, although the first race is usually the big-ticket race (yes, we did the first race) &amp; the most crowded.  Stephen will tell you that he was more nervous of the panicked, pushing people than the bulls; Jennifer will tell you it's the pointy horns that had her heart racing.  We took a few photos and I started getting some epic footage of Stephen in his true adventurous condition.

[caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Happy Stephen after the run"]<img class="size-full wp-image-208" title="Stephen after the run" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dscn0354.jpg" alt="" width="336" height="448" />[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_209" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Team Oswald in the bull ring"]<img class="size-full wp-image-209" title="Team Survival" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dscn0356.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="360" />[/caption]

And just when you think the excitement is over, you realise that you've been closed into a bull-fighting ring with hundreds of other people...and a bull has just been re-released!  (Okay, so it turned out to be a young cow...but still!)  They've wrapped its horns, which doesn't do much to quell the panic of the group who basically crowds together hoping to avoid the charging animal.  People are attempting to exit the ring by climbing the 6' walls, although there really is no leaving the arena for another 45-60 min.  Jennifer, uninjured until now, fell on her wrist jumping the walls lined with spectators (it turned a purplish-black instantly).  Stephen stayed in longer, but eventually rejoined Jennifer on the other side of the wall to watch the brave participants dodge the bull (the bravest--what we considered the craziest-- taunted the cow by trying to grab its tail or trying to mount it).  Every five minutes or so, the cow was corralled back into the pen by a steer.  There would be a minute of reprieve and a new, boisterous cow would be released.  We saw people trampled, kicked, thrown by horns, and one man knocked unconscious.  Indescribable.

Once the ring was opened back up, we booked it out of there and back to the car.  This was definitely the experience of a lifetime, but we had many places to go before arriving home in Italy once again.  We rescued the car and fled the streets of Pamplona, as new festival hopefuls poured in.  Just after a Spanish tollbooth, we were flagged aside by uniformed officials (what did we do??) for a Breathalyzer test (officer, we must be the *only* people in Pamplona who have zero alcohol in our systems).  He definitely seemed surprised that Americans visiting during Sanfermines were 100% sober.  LOL.  We stopped for gas/breakfast about thirty minutes outside, still in our festival outfits and watched the footage broadcast on the local news (big smiles).

We hope to see the rest of Spain on another trip.  For now...onward to France again!