After an unbelievable day, we were on the bus again the following day. Again another short ride this time to a small town called Estella. We slept in a bit too long and missed the morning buses meaning we had a few hours to kill before the afternoon buses. This didn’t matter too much, we ate baguette and left over tortilla and olives. The bus ride was nice and scenic, although the roads through the hills weren’t helping how Christine was feeling.
We are staying in a campsite about a kilometer outside of Estella. For the next week we will be part of a travel company, PP Travel, ground crew. We were one of the first to arrive, most people were arriving the following day. Upon arrival we had a swim in the campsite swimming pool and then a few beers with the guys that had already arrived. When they found out that it was Damien’s birthday he was treated to a beer funnel or 3! Something we would get used to over the next few days.
The following day about 1pm we met the rest of the crew (about 25 in total) and started work. Over t
he next two days (about 10 hrs all up) we set up over 200 tents in the caravan park, just in time for the forecast thunder storm. Due to the heat, we also got to fight a fire in the paddock next door to the park. We had it out by the time the fire brigade arrived, which was amusing to see them amble in, have a look around and just leave. Luckily the storm didn’t hit too bad and only a handful of tents needed repairs, meaning Saturday we only worked for about an hour in the morning and then had the day to ourselves.
We were not being paid for our time but the company was great to us. Besides the 1000 cans of beer, vodka, sangria and schnapps they bought for us, we obviously got a free tour and accommodation, breakfast as well as lunch and dinner on our lo
nger days working. They were all really nice and enjoyed partying every night with us.
Saturday was basically a day off so we enjoyed a swim and lazed by the pool. Christine had been (trying) talking to the locals and had got us an invite to have lunch at one of their caravans. We ate with an old couple, their caravan neighbor and her two kids. The kids spoke a bit of English, but most of our conversation was in Spanish which was fun, our dictionary got a work out! The food was great, meat grilled over hot coals, bread, salad and plenty of booze. They actually have houses quite nearby but spend weekends and holidays at the caravan park. They were lovely, very friendly and great cooks. We had a wonderful afternoon.
Sunday was our first breakfast duty. The campsite is still pretty empty, so it was fairly cruisy, but bit of a test run for when all the guests arrive. Its nothing flash, bread, boiled eggs, cereal, fruit, tea and coffee. We basically just set up a big production line, handing out food as the guests co
me through. This only lasts about an hour and a half, once were cleaned up there is only one thing left – debrief. Debrief occurs whenever we finish, usually 8 or 9am. It starts with an esky of cold beers being dumped in front of us and beers passed around. They then tell us what time we start the next day. There is the ‘Dick-of-the-day’ award, which involves stupid acts and stories being shared of the previous day. The ‘winner’ then has to carry around a giant shuttlecock everywhere they go for the next 24 hours. The last part of debrief is the penalties, again for anything that happened in the past 24 hours, people are forced to take a beer through the funnel. Unless of course this is deemed too enjoyable for them, in which case a mix of corn flakes, raw egg, mustard, salt, pepper and milk will be added to the beer! Today I think half the crew were drunk by 10:15…
After a swim and siesta we headed into town with Justin, one of the other crew and climbed up to some old building ruins on a mountain with a view over the city. This was a pretty easy walk, about 30 minutes, but led us to a big iron cross on a peak. At the top we were joined by one of the passengers who told us he had just bought his brother a gift. The gift was a harry potter book, in Spanish, everytime he goes away he has bought him a harry potter in a different language, unique and cool gift idea!
Heading into town we had some lunch in the nice little Spanish bar that we watched the soccer at the other night (Spain won again!). Some shopping, walked up another hill on the otherside of town, an alcohol run and we headed back to camp for a picnic dinner.
We had had some pretty solid nights so far this week, including welcome drinks for the crew and a rocket fuel/sangria night, but tonight was where the party really starts! Most of the 500 passengers have now arrived at the camp and Top Deck is on the other side of the park with 300 passengers. PP Travel have bought over an entertainer who tonight played a set with a guitar and backing cds, it was you classic aussie anthems (think men at work, barnsey and john farnham amongst more recent pop tunes). It was an awesome night, plenty of Kali Mucho, dancing and revelry. Amongst the antics were one of the guys that is crew with us running through the dancefloor in a blue bikini and one of the girls being whisked around the campsite in a shopping trolley until that became boring at which point she was launched into the kiddie’s swimming pool!
After a solid 3-4 hours sleep the crew was up to prepare breakfast. Today is the biggest day of the tour, San Fermin. San Fermin is a huge street party in Pamplona and the opening ceremony for the running of the bulls which continues the rest of the week. Everyone was keen to get into Pamps so as soon as breakfast was finished, we cleaned up in a hurry and got stuck into the beers.
We arrived at Pamplona about 11am, which was actually pretty good timing. Gave us time to look around a bit and get a spot in the main square in time for the ceremony at midday. At midday the crowd holds up their red handkerchiefs and starts chanting “San Fermin”, who is a saint, asking for his blessing. A rocket is then launched into the sky, and everyone ties their red handkerchiefs around their neck.
Next came the popping of champagne corks and the spray of champagne throughout the crowd which progressed gradually into sangria spray and anything else people could get their hands on (ketchup, mustard, flour etc.). Once adequately covered in Sangria we headed for the side streets where once again the locals were out on their balconies with hoses and buckets of water. This time the crowd pleads up to them “Agua, agua, agua!” (Spanish for water), and eventually they would comply by pouring the buckets of water all over the crowd.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the town, every street and alley was packed with people partying. We met some friendly locals, way too many aussies and a girl who Damien went to primary school with. The consumption of sangria was rampant, Damien making his way through 6 litres of the stuff, although some of this was shared and spilt! Despite getting separated from the rest of the crew, and each other, we had an amazing time and both managed to get on the right bus back to the campsite in the afternoon. San Fermin is by far the highlight of the running off the bulls tours.
Back at camp it was time for a shower, swim and siesta. But the day was far from done, after siesta, the night kicked off again down by the pool, with more excessive beer consumption and a DJ set by the same guy as last night, this time minus the guitar. The night was equally as wild, although only about half the camp was their tonight, the grueling day had obviously taken its toll on some! The memory of the night is somewhat blurry (huge understatement), Damien had to be told a few days later that all of this occurred on one day, his memory thought it was actually 2 separate days!
The next morning was the first bull run meaning that we had a sleep in as breakfast isn’t until the passengers return at about 10am. We were on breakfast duty today, with half of the crew h
eading in for the run with the passengers at 5.30am. After breakfast the day was spent lazing in the sun, swimming and recovering from the mayhem of the past 36 hours! By the afternoon things were starting to fire up again as we all headed into Pamplona for the evening. The main destination was Boogie Street, a carpark that for this week of the year is turned into a series of bars and outdoor clubs! Tonight was the easiest we took it, spending part of our night having a bit of a look around the town of Pamplona. The highlight of the night was being back in the main square for the Spain v Germany game which was being shown on a huge screen in front of thousands of people. Despite still being in Basque country, the crowd was on Spain’s side, with at least half the crowd being Aussies, and the rest was mainly other Europeans and tourists from the south of Spain. It was the biggest atmosphere we got for a game in the whole of the world cup, when Spain scored and when the final whistle was blown the crowd went nuts! Another high scoring soccer match (1-0). The night finished with a fireworks display, before we headed back to camp to prepare for the Bull Run tomorrow.
Another handy 3-4 hours sleep and we were up at 5am and on the bus by 5.30am. The coaches get us into town for the bull run nice and early, about 6.30 meaning we had a bit of time to wonder around, find the encierro (bull ring). We got into the ring and had seats in the front row which was great. Leading up to San Fermin, Damien was still considering running, but after the last 3 days of partying and lack of sleep the decision to sit and watch was quite easy. Its not actually the bulls that are the most concern, its all the other people and the stone streets that are the main cause of injury. Also the idea of doing Sail Croatia in 3 weeks, with an arm in plaster because someone tripped me over on the stone streets really didn’t appeal!
The run itself was great to see, nowhere near as gruesome as I had hoped, but the atmosphere and craziness of it all was pretty cool. The passengers on the tour come in for two runs, the crew only come in once, but this is enough. Many of the passengers opted for a sleep in rather seeing it twice anyway. Once the big bulls have cleared out of the ring, small bulls with corked horns are released into the crowded bull ring to entertain the crowd.
The whole experience has been amazing, but for me, there are far too many tourists. Most of the tours will be gone tomorrow so the later bull runs are probably a bit less touristy. The Wine Battle in Haro was a far better Spanish experience in our eyes.
That said being part of the crew has been great. We have met some really nice people, and a few really crazy people. As the tour company says, the crew generally have a better time than the passengers, which I think has definitely happened this year!
After the Bull Run we were back at camp for breakfast. Once this was done it was the crews time to pull down the 200 tents we had set up only a week ago. This was a much easier assignment than the set up and after about 3 hours most of the tents were done with the last hour or two being bit of a slowdown in productivity, and a big clean up of the rubbish left around the camp. The afternoon was spent drinking more beer by the pool and then in the evening we headed into town with a few of the crew and had steaks for dinner, which were huge and the Basque are good at cooking.
Once the tents were down our duties as crew were finished, but we have been invited to head up to the beach camp which one of the tours use after their visit to Pamplona. This was very convenient as it meant another 2 nights of accommodation and is a nice small town and beach just around from San Sebastian, which was our next planned stop.
We arrived in Dubrovnik about midday and took the public bus from the airport into town. We walked to our accommodation, not that far on the map, but really hilly once you start walking it! Were staying at Anica Guesthouse, a private apartment that is attached to a lovely ladies house and there is a big old golden retriever for us to play with!
The city has been completely rebuilt, as it was, so it looks hundreds of years old but not in a falling apart kind of way. The main streets are made of white marble paving stones and fountains and monuments are scattered throughout the city. This really is a must see European city! 
We ate dinner by the port in the old town in an outdoor restaurant. Lots and lots of seafood, octopus salad, squid and fresh bread!
We woke the next morning to the sight of a massive thunder storm. Still being pretty tired we headed back to bed, thankful we had done so much the previous day. By midday the sky was clearing and we were able to get out of our room. We headed towards the Copacabana Beach which was bit of a walk. Luckily about halfway there we stopped for a drink, only to realize we had not bought the wallet. Since we had hoped to take the bus home this was a real pain, so we turned around and walked back. We never made it to the beach.
Our first morning in San Sebastian we were keen to get out an about and have a look around the town that so many people rave about. Our hostel is very basic, feels like its someones apartment with bunk beds throughout. The lounge room even sleeps 8 people, including Christine the first night as no rooms had two spare beds the first night! It is in a great location, just on the edge of the old town. We headed into the old town and found a square with a few café’s for some breakfast. The first thing you notice is that it is a lovely old town, with more great pincho’s, but once you order them you notice how much more expensive it is than the smaller Spanish villages. 
After breakfast we headed down to the port and then spent the day walking around the bay. The bay is very sheltered from the swell as there is a big island in the middle of the entrance to the bay. At the end of the beach are some wonderful sculptures. They are large pieces of rusted iron stuck into the side of the cliffs and rocks in the water. The cliffs are also quite impressive and the pavement has been done in such a way to create some blowholes with the waves crashing in under the pavement. 
Our bus took us back to Bilbao, where we first were 3 weeks ago. When we walked into the hostel we were staying at, we were amazed to see one of the passengers from Pamplona, who had then been in the same hostel as us in San Sebastian and now in Bilbao. She is also doing a blog, but focusing mainly on the food she eats rather than the places she has been, quite interesting, I will find the link and you should check it out! We just had a quiet night, feeding ourselves from the supermarket, although Damien did manage to drink a bottle of Spanish Red wine on his own, was quite nice!
After lunch we crossed the river on a gondola type bridge thing, apparently there is only a couple like it in the world. Christine decided she wanted to walk across the top of the bridge so she did this to get a good view and cheap thrill. We wandered along the coast, saw some amazing properties we could easily live in, and had a sit on the beach, still full from the huge lunch! After a bit of a look around Algorta, the suburb we had ended up in we jumped back on the train and headed back to the hostel. A few beers and another bottle of that red wine and we called it a night, preparing for an early flight back to London in the morning. 
