To get in "the spirit" of San Fermín, I JUST watched a FANTASTIC video of the year 2000 running of the bulls in Pamplona. Most of it was recorded from TVE1 in Spain. What fun!! I'd seen other videos by ESPN, but this one was EVEN better for it's ALL Spanish format and "angle".

I don't think ESPN is covering it this year as they (seemed to have) skipped it last year, but I'd LOVE to see it. I know there's a website which shows RealPlayer video from that days (and previous days) runnings.

Here are a few websites (in addition to those already listed above) for you regarding the runnings:
http://www.bullrunning.veryfast.co.uk/running.htm
http://www.pamplona.co.uk/running-with-the-bulls/
http://www.runningofthebulls.org/english/go.htm
http://161.58.213.2/2000/video2000/indexeng.html
http://www.sanfermin.com/ (the best site!)

If anyone else has other useful San Fermín/Running-of-the-Bulls/Pamplona websites, please post them in this thread! Thanks!!!

Saludos, MadridMan

[ 05-24-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

¡pobre de mi, pobre de mi se van a acabar las fiestas de san fermín! Jejeje, but not until loads of people have an amazing time. I went in 1996 and it was toooo much! Slept in the park during the day, raraaaaaad all night long, it almost killed me (and I only went for a few days!) Even more fun than watching form the streets outsied the gates is getting on line at the bull ring and scoring tickets to watch it form inside the ring. We got lucky and hads seats right above the entrance where the bulls run in chasing the screaming crowd of "pañuelo" adorned participants in the "encierros". It was amazing!!! I can not make it this year but maybe will go next, if you are going, I envy you so, have a caña for me, or a "kalimocho" (red wine mixed with Coca Cola) if that is more your speed.
jer...

I'm probably going to be in Pamplona this year, but I have been incredibly haphazard about the whole thing. I was just going to get a train ticket and get up there from Salamanca. I don't plan on getting a room or anything either, just rough it. Maybe I'm being stupid and rash, anybody care to comment?

I'll comment: You and a thousand of your closest friends (or is it two thousand?) will all be "roughing it" that week. There are plenty of public spaces suitable for resting up. Most like the ciudadela park, others, tanked beyond recognition, simply use the street as a bedroll and the curb as a pillos (not recommended). I suppose you can always go to misa and sleep "sitting up"...(not a great idea...)

Get ready for the time of your life...just don't spoil it with TOO much booze. You want to remember running and having fun, not waking up down at the precinct. Also, if you are planning to run, they will kick you off the course if you're visibly "impaired". (Why anyone would want to get drunk and get in front of six fullgrown bulls and seven cows is beyond me!)

Enjoy and please post your impressions upon your return.

-CaliBasco, Sanfermines Class of '92!

The Hawaiian transvestite cocktail party has truly peaked my interest. I have been to San Fermin once before, but it was the summer of '97 when ETA held Miguel Angel Blanco hostage & eventually assasinated him... needless to say, the tragedy marred our festivity & the bulls did not run. SO.... I'm considering a trip back this year. I will be in Sevilla in July & I'm truly not sure if it is worth my time & energy to travel (alone) from Sevilla to Pamplona. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Also, I'm not sure how wise it is for a woman to travel by herself into that kind of pandemonium with no plans/ place to stay/ etc... What do ya'll think about this?
Ok, someone let me know! Thanks. Lindsay

CaliBasco,

I think I understand. It's a Catch-22. If you're drunk you can't run with the bulls. If you're not drunk, anyone who isn't insane wouldn't run with the bulls.

If you're insane enough to run with the bulls, they know you're insane, and won't let you run. If you don't ask to run with the bulls, they know you're sane, so you can run with the bulls.

Now... How in 'ell did you get to run with the bulls?

I can't even fathom doing anything beyond ripping off a nice beef steak from one as it slams by me. At 40 MPH, wide-eyed, slobbering, and horns flashing in the sun. Now you can picture me! Think about how terrified the bull would be to see me in that condition?

Wolf (With no 8 inch gash-like scars across his abdomen and thighs)

What a lovely way to finish my day, by chuckling just now at your post, Wolf!

You've been conspicuous by your absence recently. Hmmm..... the proposed MM newsletter taking up all your time these days, is it?

Anchovy,

Actually I've been at our summer home in northern Wisconsin, enjoying the fishing, and sitting on the deck watching the deer frolic around in the fields on our property, next to our woods. Very peaceful and relaxing.

It's so quiet up there that you can sit on the deck and hear a mosquito pass gas at fifty feet

I had to come back home (325 miles) to pay the bills, and get re-organized so I could go back up there and spend the entire summer writing, fishing.... and of course posting here on site.

When I go back, I will have another ISP in place, as well as the one I have now (you can never have too many ISPs they tell me )

When I'm up in that country, I'm a regular Jack Pine Savage. I shave about every ten days, avoid haircuts, eat buffalo burgers, and whup up a skillet of road kill about once a week to keep things "loosened up."

What ever gave you any idea I would write a newsletter? Gawd! Do I look like I'm into self-flaggelation? I don't even own a whip... well.... not a good one.

Wolf (putting calamine lotion on his skeeter bites)

Maybe I am wrong, but it is true that you have to sign up in order to run the bulls? Is it true that they test you and if you are drunk you are not allowed to run? Are there basic instructions to run?

No there isn't a test to run with the bulls, but you do have to find the right place to enter the course or the police come thru and clear the streets just before the run and if you aren't in the right spot you have to leave the street. Running drunk is a terrible idea anyway you look at it. So please do not do this. You are a danger to yourself and the other runners as well. All it takes is for one person to fall and then there is a pile up of bodies and other people trampling over you as well as the steers and Bulls. Please walk the course the night before with someone that has run before and knows the dangers of each section and how to run it. Knowing what to do if you fall, and when to get back up is a great assest, if you don't take this seriously the bad side of running is bumps and brusies all the way to Death! The up side is such an adrenline rush. Have a safe and fabulous time. Viva San Fermin1 Gora San Fermin!