July 5 - 14: Pamplona, Rioja, San Sebastian (Spain) and Biarritz (France)

We’ve had another excellent couple weeks in Spain. After Madrid we headed to Pamplona with Sanj and Ester for San Fermin (or the running of the bulls, as we know it in North America), where their friends hosted us for this virtually indescribable festival. San Fermin kicks off with something called Txupinazo, when thousands of people identically dressed in red and white form a mosh pit in the streets, a rocket is fired and the celebration erupts as hundreds of bottles of wine and cava are uncorked and sprayed over the crammed crowd. Imagine the famous tomato fights in Spain – but with wine instead of tomatoes. This is followed by 7 days of partying on every street corner (it’s legal to drink in the streets in Spain, so the entire city becomes an open-air bar). For those who went to McGill, it could be best described as a cross between management carnival and the Calgary stampede. One particularly interesting event nicknamed the “Australian Fountain” involves tourists fuelled by alcohol-induced bravery / stupidity (the latter being most appropriate) belly-flopping off the top of a 7 meter statue, hoping to be caught by the crowd below – which usually works… see our video below for a successful jump.

Of course we mustn’t forget the actual running of the bulls, for which the participants deserve tremendous respect. It’s a fascinating event, which takes place every morning of the festival when hundreds of well-prepared Spaniards and unprepared, hungover / drunk tourists make the 800-meter dash of their lives. As you can imagine, many people are injured each race, most of which are the tourists. We actually saw (and have pictures) of a bull that managed to get his horns caught in the handkerchief tied around one poor chap’s neck, and dragged him for a good 50 meters. Don’t worry, he survived… and was happy to make the front page of the newspapers.  To conclude the race, all the runners end up in the stadium where smaller cows are released and chase around / gore / trample anyone that didn’t get enough of an adrenaline rush from the race and remain stupid enough to taunt them. For those of you wondering, yes, we were wise enough to remain spectators for all of this!

Following Pamplona, we headed to San Sebastian for a week of tapas, wine and surf, where we had a less eventful, but superb 7 days.  We were lucky enough to have Gen’s parents visit for a few days to celebrate her 30^th birthday, during which we were treated to many delicious meals (merci beaucoup Mom et Pops!), went to the Muga vineyards where we were invited for an amazing tour and tasting by the Muga family (thanks for putting us in touch, Max!), visited the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and last but not least went to see the Roxy women’s world surfing championships which we realized was coincidentally being held in nearby Biarritz. Yes, our impeccable timing has continued – we enjoyed the Roxy competition so much that we even went back for a second day.

San Sebastian is a really cool spot; it’s full of energy, tapas restaurants, bars, surf shops and has a very decent (albeit crowded) beach break where Ace completely exhausted himself surfing every day he could. To top it all off, we had a super cute apartment with a direct view of the surf beach. It was so nice to have our own place that we spent most of our nights cooking at home and watching movies. Overall, the only downside to San Sebastian is the weather, which is quite mild and unreliable at best.

Final Impressions:

We absolutely loved every minute of our month in Spain; the combination of having great friends to guide us around with our very fortunate timing made it a truly unique experience. There is such a great variety of things to see, ranging from the beautiful Balearic Islands to the vibrant cities of Barcelona and Madrid, to the lush vineyards in Rioja and fascinating cultural events such as San Fermin. Of course, the high quality surf also earns big bonus points from Ace.  In our view Spain only has a couple setbacks – firstly, the less friendly attitude the Spaniards generally have towards tourists (contrary to the Turks, most appear irritated that foreigners that don’t speak their language would visit their country). Secondly, while the Spanish nightlife has a great vibe to it, and the food is fantastic, after a month of tapas bars we will admit that all we wanted to do was find some restaurants where we could hear each other speak and didn’t have to fight for our dinner! J

All in all, as we were leaving Spain we wondered whether we liked it enough to consider living there, and thought we just might… but were slightly deterred by our pitiful Spanish (although it’s improving…baby steps, right?), as well as a certain economic crisis that the country is facing.

On that note, although the unemployment rate in Spain is about 25% overall and 50% for young adults, evidence of this was virtually inexistent where we visited. We also found it interesting that no one we met seemed to know anyone that has lost his or her job. Needless to say, we expected such a profound economic crisis to be more apparent. What we found equally interesting was that when we asked the locals their perspective regarding the unemployment levels we received two independent identical explanations: during the previous boom, the masses dropped out of school to work in real estate or construction because it was easy money.  Given the recent downturn, these people are now unemployed, uneducated, and uninterested in pursuing an alternative career. On top of that, it is not in their culture to relocate for work, so they typically opt to move back in with their parents until times improve. We are quite curious to see for how long this can last!

Video - Australian Fountain at San Fermin

Video - Running of the Bulls

Photos - July 5-14: Pamplona, Rioja, San Sebastian (Spain) and Biarritz (France)