San Fermines... A unique experience!

Last weekend, I attended the festival of San Fermín. This festival is one of three festivals in Spain where the bulls run. The other festivals are the Spring Festival of Sevilla and the Fire Festival of Valencia. Nearly everyone wore white clothes and wrapped a red scarf around their neck. I actually bought my white clothes the day before the festival and was lucky as the store had so little white clothes left! Such is the popularity of the festival.

San Fermín is celebrated from 7th to 14th of July every year and on the 6th of July, the eve of this period, is when the bulls run. During my previous research of this festival I knew I would enjoy it and it exceeded my imagination. We gathered at a Plaza in Salamanca at 5.00 am to begin our journey to Pamplona, and we arrived there at 10.00 in the morning. After we left the bus it was amazing to see the number of merry revelers already on the streets. Everyone was enjoying themselves and throwing their drinks in the air! Incredible! In an instant our white clothes had changed to pink and yellow.

 

The next day at 8.00 am the running of the bulls started. We made our way down to the city at 6:30am and already there was a huge crowd! While making our way through the crowd we arrived in the area where the bulls would run and found a spot to watch the event.  We waited for over an hour, and then we heard a banging of guns and the roar of a bull. I saw people running and the bull chasing close behind! For me, I think this happened in about 10 seconds and finished in a flash. Having experienced San Fermín I think it was an interesting and unique experience!

Nori, student of Tia Tula

The month of San Fermin

July, the month of San Fermin and the San Fermin festival, is officially over. We do not want to miss the perfect opportunity to write something about this event, like most of the foreign students who come to Spain. Surely it is one of the biggest festivals among Spanish festivals: Fallas of Valencia, the April Fair in Seville, the Carnival of Cadiz and the Canaries, the Spanish and Andalusian Holy Week ...

It may be a better way to refer to a student, who went to see the San Fermin festival this year, to know the details of the event. Here it is!

It was dark. It was noisy. I felt  ringing in my head. The noise grew, still in the bus station. Of course - it was my first night of San Fermin...

My first week in Salamanca passed like a gust of wind. I came across many things - The celebration at the Plaza mayor after EURO 2012, the first class in Tía tula with many U.S. students... but nothing were like the trip Pamplona!

As soon as I saw the poster, I decided to go there. I had to go! I talked to people, but no one would come with me - Although everyone finally joined when the trip was coming to an end.

The trip lasted only 24 hours, the round trip. But I will remember it forever. We danced wearing white and red. A wave of white and red on the streets of Pamplona - that was the first day of San Fermin! The fireworks were spectacular, guys were playing Croquette (a competition between drunks on the top of a ladder!) Bands played music and there were wines everywhere!

We partied until 3 in the morning and then slept in the station - my friend told me I was talking in his dream in Spanish!

There are pictures I do not remember when they were taken - but life is long. and I'm young. I may return one day with my children, to teach them about the festivals in Spain!

Cameron K. S. (a student of Tía tula from Sweden)