here i am in madrid. just got in yesterday at around 5, the only thing i could do after the madhouse of pamplona was to reserve the first thing i could find, which was a private room in downtown. they demanded an arm and one leg as a deposit, but they have just given them back to me at check out. anyway, i cant describe how it feels to finally have a clean bed and a shower again. 3 nights with virtually no sleep and no place to stay is an interesting experience, not to mention running for your life with thousands of other screaming people through tiny streets in front of a pack of bulls.
so heres how it goes down.... you cram into a tiny square with loads of other people at about 6 in the morning. eventually the police open up the rest of the run so you can move about a little bit. i was wrong in my previous post when i said you have to sign waivers or whatever. all that is required is that you are wearing all white with a red hankerchief. lots of people wear scarves around their waists as well. i had one but it was lost somwhere somehow... so everyone is standing there in the streets looking very shifty and nervous ( i was strategically ahead of the point called dead mans curve, where the bulls, who are not very good with corners all crash into the wall that makes a 90 degree angle). a gun goes off and for a second everyone is still just standing around. you don´t even see the bulls at first, just a massive mob action wave of people running terrified. everyone is pushing shoving, tearing ass down the street. you really do not want fall down. if you cant see what is behind the crowd, the crowd itself is scary enough.
so im just about shitting myself, running for my life and to my right, through the people running beside me, there is the sound of cow bells and very large things moving very fast. there is no individual bull, just a mass of moving flesh. glimpse of an eye, tail, etc. just like that, the first group is gone. this all happened, from the gunshot to here, in about ten seconds, no joke though it is very hard to tell time. still in the midst of the mob, the game now is to 1) not get trampled by the people behind you, 2) not get trampled by the second group of bulls behind them, 3) make it to the bull ring before they shut the gates. well, made it to the ring right in front of the second group of bulls. all of the huge monster bulls that were in the running are led through a gate and out of the stadium. first looking around in the ring, there are a good number of us in here, thousands of screaming people in the stands all around. the floor is sand. i thought the roman emperor was going to come out or something. anyway, from what i heard, once you´re in the ring, its not too crazy. instead of huge monster bulls, they let out ´´baby´´ bulls to chase you around. well, baby bulls are still about the size of a small sedan. when they come out, they come out FAST. they zip around the ring pushing people here and there. i was being a bit of a coward and staying on the fringes. taking this approach, it´s not too difficult to stay out of the way, but the animals move so fast, one second the thing is on the other side, the next its right next to you. each bull gets tired out after a bit and then they let in another new fresh one. if you really want the crowd´s cheers, you get the bull to charge, then jump over it. im not kidding, people did this shit. anyway, i had really had about enough when the last bull was led away and the gates were opened for all of the runners to leave. i dragged myself to the bus station and said ¨first bus to madrid´´.
managed to find this room, which i had to myself, but it was just what i needed. washed my clothes in the sink, found a bottle of cheap wine, and fell asleep watching south park in german. off to another cheaper hostel now and then out to explore the city. starting over again.
