Dear readers,

We are very glad to announce the start of the 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF FLASH STORIES ON SAN FERMIN.

Lat yea we came up with this idea while drinking a bottle of red wine after a enjoying a nice dinner in our ‘Peña’, some two months ago. Since then, we have been preparing all the details with the valuable help of some friends (and sanfermin fanatics) from the winery Principe de Viana.

The stories can be written in english, spanish or basque and shall be no longer than 200 words.

We would like to thank our sponsor Principe de Viana for their support, as well as the Pamplona City Council for its cooperation.

Feel free to participate in this contest, which will serve as a warm-up for the fiesta.
There are very nice prices for the winners!.
The 10 better Flash Stories will be translated into the 3 official languages and will be stamped on a book.

If you want to get more information, just click here.

Dear readers,

we are very glad to announce today the official start of the 1st INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF FLASH STORIES ON SAN FERMIN.

We came up with this idea while drinking a bottle of red wine after a enjoying a nice dinner in our ‘Peña’, some two months ago. Since then, we have been preparing all the details with the valuable help of some friends (and sanfermin fanatics) from the winery Principe de Viana.

The stories can be written in english, spanish or basque and shall be no longer than 200 words.

We would like to thank our sponsor Principe de Viana for their support, as well as the Pamplona City Council for its cooperation.

Feel free to participate in this contest, which will serve as a warm-up for the fiesta.
There are very nice prices for the winners!.
If you want to get more information, just click here.

We have noticed that many of our readers are looking for some useful tips to travel to Pamplona and especially to find accomodation at a decent price.
Regarding the trip, say that the city is located in the north of Spain (just 90km from the border with France).
There is a domestic airport on the outskirts of the city with daily flights to Madrid and Barcelona.
Still, if you fly to Madrid or Barcelona, you can also come to Pamplona by train or bus instead (definitely very goood transport means and usually much cheaper than a domestic flight).

Other possibilities are to fly to any of the two closest international airports, which are Bilbao in Spain or Biarritz in France. In this case you will need to rent a car and drive all the way from there to Pamplona (do not worry about this, Biarritz is just 1,5-hour drive and Bilbao 2-hour drive from the city).

As for the accomodation, we are going to collect information about where and how to get more details and will upload it in January (together with our own recommendations).

Until that moment, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of you!

Yes, there are just six days left.
San Fermin starts (as always) on 6th July at 12:00 when a rocket is fired from a balcony in the Town Hall.
Everybody here feels excited about the festival; everything is now ready.
Most of the bulls have already arrived and are staying in the stables on the outskirts of the city (you can have a look at those massive animals at the ‘Corrales del Gas’).
If you have a walk through the old town, you will see how the wooden fences which mark the path for the running of the bulls, are being erected.
There is a saying in the city ‘it smells like bull’ to describe the feeling you get during the previous days to the festival.
You can see an unusual number of visitors (in comparison with the rest of the year) in the streets of this small town called Pamplona (or Iruña, as we call it in Basque).
So , what are you waiting for?
Hurry up, pack your things and come here if you do not want to miss one of these things you must experience at least once in a lifetime.

While checking our section ‘What info are you looking for?’ we have seen that a reader named Heather has posed the following questions:
Is there an increased concern about safety during Sanfermin?
Have there been any issues during past festivals?

Well Heather, I can tell you that safety is not a major issue in Pamplona during the festival (nor during the rest of the year).
The only way you might risk your life comes if you decide to run in front of the bulls, otherwise there is not much you should be worried about.

Of course, you have to take care of pickpockets and the like (this is quite logical having in mind that the population of the city almost doubles its size on weekend during the festival).
Still, ours is a midsize town and I can assure you there have never been any crimes or serious offences reported during the festival (no, this is not like Rio de Janeiro in Carnival).

You can go out in the night really safe (if you are a girl for example, and you go out for a drink with another female friend, you do not need to worry about safety, being raped, or anything like that..).
Crime rate in this town is really low and the probability of something bad happening to any visitors is not higher than in their hometowns.
I will not say that everything is perfect, but the city is pretty safe and also police is not corrupt and you can trust them (well, to the same extent as in other western countries).

Do any of the readers have any comments or would like to share with us their personnal experiences about his topic?

My dear and unknown foreign reader,

Sometimes I wonder why people from the other side of the world are coming to our city in order to run the bulls. Do you know or understand why people from Pamplona do that? Do you admire our traditions and want to imitate us? Or are you a simple fan of risky sports like rafting or so and want to have a go at the ‘Encierro’?

Sincerely I wouldn’t travel to jump into the Krakatoa vulcano, for instance, although I love native traditions.

So why do you come here? Does blood attract you? Do you really know that you may loose your life or make somebody else to loose it?

If you see the photo below, are you still interested in running or are you even more interested?

Please, let me know your opinion, dear reader…

Toro. This is the Spanish word for bull. A short and strong word. During San Fermin festival, bull is the King in Pamplona. Although the festival is dedicated to San Fermin, everything goes around the bull. A week before San Fermin bulls arrive in Pamplona from their homelands in Castilla and Andalucia. You may visit those splendid animals at Corrales del Gas, Errotazar Street. They spend their last days in Pamplona in a beautiful and quiet place close to Arga River. When you see them so relaxed, it is difficult to realize how fierce and brave may be in streets and bullring.

The night before their running, bulls, acompanied by oxen, go from Corrales del Gas to Corralillos de Santo Domingo. They will sleep there and at 8 o’clock in the morning, they will play the main role in the most famous race in world. Pamplona stops breathing during the two or three minutes bulls need to arrive at the Bull Ring.

Those six bulls will die at the arena that afternoon. Lots of runners will attend this ceremony as spectators at the Bull Ring.

This ancestral rite about life and death will be completed some days later, when you eat a delicious ‘estofado de toro’, bull meat cooked with potatoes, carrots, spices and some other secret ingredients.

You may think we are cruel and behave as barbarians, so let’s discuss about it…

If you only have references about San Fermin based on TV or Hemingway’s ‘The sun…’ you may not have noticed one of the main elements in our fiesta: Peñas.

What does that strange word mean? Peñas are a kind of clubs in Pamplona where you may go in, only if you are a member. But during Sanfermines, Peñas are open for anybody, no matter if you are native or foreigner, boy or girl, leftish or rightish, poor or rich. These Peñas have bars in the Old Part of Iruña*, where members of these clubs work as waiters. As they are not profesionals, drink prices are lower than in normal bars and the atmosphere is very funny and popular.

Apart from these bars, each Peña has its own music band you may find playing on streets, surrounded by a lot of people and going from bar to bar, singing and dancing, following a banner.

If you respect musicians and rest of people from Peña, you will be accepted and perhaps you may have the best hours in your life.

For further information (in Basque and Spanish languages), consult http://websanfermin.com/web/index.htm

*Iruña is the Basque name of Pamplona.

Come dice il tema del rinomato compositore Turrinni: Tre cose abbiamo a Pamplona che non e possibile trovare a Madrid, une ragazze come il sole e il famoso txakolí, e lo meglior del mondo, la festa de San Fermín.

Allora, questa premissa e corretta, ma abbiamo un grande problema con la prima parte della composizione: le ragazze sono come il sole, ma… come fare la constatazione?

In questo articolo vai trovare una formula che non e sufficiente, ma altamente necessaria: per ottenere un trionfo amoroso con una pamplonesa, tu devi essere un saltimbanco.

Il mero fatto di essere transalpino gia e un punto a favore, e si la tua maglia e tanto piccola quanto la della squadra azzurra, per que ti voglio contare.
Il rostro abronzatto per il sole, la tua melena sventolante, le muscoli delineati, una voce profonda e suggerente, lo sguardo levemente strabico, … tutto questo e molto importante, ma insisto, non serve a niente si non hai destrezza acrobatica.

Tu puoi stare pensando, per che devo essere un acrobata?

Molto facile, caro amico. Abbi fede alla nostra esperienza di molti anni. ¿Come aspiri a sorpassare il perimetro de securezza chi formano le amiche della ragazza senza fare una cabriola mortale con duplice tirabuzzone e mezzo?

It’s a very common question: what can I do at Sanfermin?.
It really looks like an easy question, but the answer could be very, very large.
At first, if you are considering coming to Sanfermin, you can ask yourself: why do I want to go there?.
There are a lot of reasons to come to Pamplona:
In some cases, it is just to get off with girls or boys …(be aware, this place is the real spiritual reserve of the western world!). Still, the chance of making out with girls or boys, if you are a foreigner, is much higher than if you are from Pamplona.
Sometimes, it is because a lot of people think this is a lawless city during the festival (like a farwest town) and you can do everything you please. Be careful!!! because you are wrong. There are far more police officers in the city than during the rest of the year. You know, there are a lot of visitors who come here on business (pickpockets and the like…), and not only that, if a policeman sees you pissing in the street, you will definitely be fined (but it is better not to speak about that, if you have ever been here you may remember the disgusting smell of the streets in a hot morning, even though cleaners work very hard every single day).
Some other times, it is because you want to know the atmosphere, and compare it with other Spanish festivals such as Fallas in Valencia, April fair in Seville or Pilar in Saragossa. I must tell people that want to compare it with Fallas, that there are not so many rockets and firecrackers here as in Fallas, even though we have fireworks every night and the best Valencian fireworker comes to display his show. To the people who want to compare it with the April fair, I will say that you will fit in our festival by yourself and that you needn’t be a member of any society. To those who want to compare it with the Pilar, just one thing… Go! Osasuna Go!. (The best soccer team all over the world).
You can also say that you are coming to Sanfermines to learn or improve your Spanish, but this is a very poor excuse… you can learn Spanish another time and in another place.