Pamplona = bulls and booze

Up early and on the train to Pamplona!!  This was it, this was the reason we were in Europe, so Brett can run with the bulls during the San Fermin Festival , which is a major bucket item for his life!
We hopped on the train for Pamplona.  The train was super easy to find and get on and pretty comfortable.  It was really nice to just sit back and read while someone else handled the travel.  After about 2 hours, we were in Pamplona.  Our hotel was out of the main town area so we took a cab there and got checked in.  We noticed that everyone around was wearing white shirts, white pants and red scarves and sashes.  Like, EVERYONE was wearing them!
We hopped on the bus and took that downtown to the city center.  It didn't take long to find where the action was, we just followed the massive crowd!  We quickly found a souvenier shop to get the traditional outfits so we wouldn't feel out of place (it almost felt disrespectful to not be wearing the clothes!)  Brett wanted to walk the course so we wandered around the found the start line.  He was really surprised to see the uphill start so we came up with a game plan for the morning race.  We walked the 1/2 mile course which took a long time as we hit lots of shops and the crowds were insane.  At the end of the course is the Arena so we decided I would watch the race from there and we decided on a set meeting place and time as well so we could find each other.
Now, the crowds.  Man, it felt like spring break mixed with Mardi Gras mixed with NYE Times Square.  It was wall to wall people.  Everyone drinking and having a greaqt time.  Singing, chanting, pouring drinks down from the 3rd floor balcony into people's mouths, crowd serfing....basically insanity.  But the crowd was very well behaved, we saw no one get into a fight or even arguing.  The smell wasn't too pleasent as there weren't many trash cans or public bathrooms and it was at least 90*.  But, man, it was fun!!!!

We found a nice bar with really good Wifi and semi-clean  restrooms so we stayed in there for a few hours.  Made some friends with 3 guys who drove 12 hours from southern Spain for the weekend.  Between hand gestures and poor English/Spanish, we were able to have a fun time with them.

We headed back to the hotel later and were very thankful that our hotel was out of the way but comfortable and most importantly, quiet!  After all, Brett needed a good nights sleep for his run the next morning!