Sounds like a basketball team! Every year I watch on TV the thousands of brave (should that be crazy??) souls who take part in the "encierro" and think to myself that next year I will definitely be there.

But then the next year I'm still watching TVE (Its live on TVE International too, by the way) in July at five to eight in the morning and wishingI was there!!

So now is the time to do something about it, or else there won't be a chance of getting there next year. Can anyone give me any tips re accomodation etc? What stories do you have?

Hi Anchovy Front! While I don't have any personal stories or suggestions for lodging, I'll refer you, in part, to the hostal in San Sebatian? thread in the "Hostels & Other Lodgings" forum -- there's lots of talk about San Fermín with some other useful links. Good luck with lodging! Better reserve now if you can.

Run for your life!, MadridMan

I was there for the first day of the festival this year, and we didn't even have to plan too far in advance. (We actually worked it out the week beforehand with a travel agent in Madrid). We took a train from Madrid to Pamplona that arrived at around 10pm. We just brought small backpacks and carried them around all night, there was plenty to do and see until the run the next morning - music, carnival rides, fireworks, food, etc. At about 6am we headed over to get seats to watch the bulls and those who wanted to run went to walk the course. After that, we took a bus to San Sebastian and spent the rest of the weekend there. We stayed at Pension Kaia, it was small but the owners were very friendly, the location was great, and the price was very affordable (maybe $30 a night?). I was ready to get out of Pamplona when I did, it was fun but I can't imagine staying there for a few days. Hope this helps!

Thanks elfroggy, it does! It's probably as good a way as any when you think about it, as any hotel there is going to be charging exhorbitant rates for a room, the inside of which you'd hardly see.

However the only worrying aspect of this is that if we stay just 24 hours, it only allows for a shade under a minute and a half in each stop in the street of a thousand bars....hmmm!

I last ran the bulls in 1992, but had the added advantage of staying with friends, so didn't have to worry about lodging. If the truth be known, not too much sleeping is had for the entire festival. I know that many people just found a nice patch of grass in the Ciudadela and crashed for a nice siesta.

Are you alone? Are you planning on running?

I took the bus from San Sebastian to Pamplona, after running around San Sebastian with friends all day. It was a "harrowing" experience for most on board who hadn't taken that particular route before (I had), as the drivers tend to take the corners as if driving their family Opel, not a huge tour bus. I know that since then the autopista has been completed, and you may find that training to Bilbao or Vitoria and busing to Pamplona is okay. I know that train service never seems to have been direct to Pamplona. I hope that's changed.

If you are running, let me know if you're interested in a Yankee perspective...

Anchovy Front. what a great name! i won't ask.

share with us please calibasco!! i want to hear all about this.

Hi Calibasco, thanks for the advice. I'll be going with my wife and it will depend on my practising the art of gentle persuasion between now and July as to whether I run or not! I would love to hear your experiences trying to better Maurice Green's world record!

The name comes from Frente Boqueron, a supporters club of Malaga Club de Futbol, Miles. Glad you like it! Can't believe the team actually won yesterday - wonders will never cease!

Okay...to humor Nicholeye and bore everyone else:

In 1992 I was in Madrid studying and decided that since I was cheated out of my chance to run in 1990, I would head up to Iruña (Pamplona) and run the bulls. I knew enough about it to know that you CANNOT run the entire course. Most guys choose a "tramo" (segment) and run that, either getting out of the way as the faster bulls go by or jumping over the valla (barricade) as the horn nears the buttocks...

We started about half-way through just before the famed "Estafeta" turn, where most bulls fall on the cobblestone street with its 90-degree turn, and morning dew on the stones. We heard the first rocket, then the second, signifying that all the bulls were in the clear (and on the way), and a sense of serious bravado entered my nostrils...along with a mild dose of fear. As the men around us started jumping up and down, I did the same, as we all strained to see where the animals were.

Before we knew it, the mass of humanity came our way, and we were being run, instead of running. We stepped off to the side and let most of the rookies go by, waiting for the serious runners to catch up to us. With rolled up newspaper (I chose "El Correo Español" for the task), we started moving with the thinned pack. Little did we know that on this day, things were not going to go as planned.

On a normal run, the bulls are out of the corral at the bottom of the hill by city hall and in the bullring about 2'50" later. On this day, they would take almost 8 minutes to reach their destination. The group split into three, and the cows didn't do their job of keeping the herd together. Because of this, we ended up with time to make it into the ring, where the fun continued.

Since we were all a little confused as to the number of animals that had made it in, and how many were out, we were in the ring enjoying the atmosphere, when one of the larger bulls came in followed by two cows. This was my closest encounter, and also the time where I learned just how easily I could jump over a wall about 5 feet high...head first! The body is capable of amazing feats when a 1600 pound bull is bearing down.

The bottom line on the whole encierro is, a) don't get drunk and try it (I wasn't, but most others were...they pull out the visibly inebriated); b) don't "go with the flow" of the pack, as the throng is mostly rookie drunks from the U.S. and New Zealand who start five minutes early and are in the bullring before the bulls are even let out of their corral at the start; and c) if you go down, STAY DOWN. The bull will go right over you (as long as you went to mass the day before...San Fermín will protect you .)

After running in the encierro, I have sworn off two activities: skydiving and bungee-jumping. I'm afraid that they would be an adrenaline let-down after what I experienced in July of 1992. Gora San Fermín!

If you have the chance, I HIGHLY recommend this as an unforgettable summertime experience.

WOW! My pulse quickened just reading your account, CaliBasco!! I'm oh-so-glad you were sober. I've never done it, but would like to go and watch/party some days during San Fermín.

With sweating palms, MadridMan