Pamplona & Bibao

We've all heard of Pamplona, famous for their somewhat unique festival called San Fermin or more commonly known as “The Running Of The Bulls”. Since we were in the general area and knowing very little about the festival other than what they show on the 6 o’clock news, we decided to check it out.
We arrived in the afternoon just after the opening ceremonies to a scene difficult to describe. Imagine an entire town of some 100,000 people ALL wearing white outfits with red neckerchiefs and red sashes. And I do mean everyone from newborn babies to the oldest inhabitants. Then triple that with an additional 300,000 or so white and red clad tourists, (mostly Australian and British from our estimates). Take this massive group and turn the entire town into a party where every street and plaza seems to have a band, parade or street party at any time of the day. And let's not forget the Sangria that is regularly launched at the revellers staining your white outfit red as if you’ve just been gored by a bull.
This is the scene that greeted us as we pushed our way very nervously (and conspicuously NOT wearing white) through the drunken crowd in the town square to access our hotel.
A short time later and a quick visit to the local store selling white outfits and we were ready to join in with what we can only described as the biggest party we have ever experienced. The next 48 hours were a blur of dancing, drinking and sleepless nights since the only way to get a good vantage to see the bulls is to wake up at 4am and sit in the cold until the 8am start. It was a long and cold wait for the 30 seconds of action but it was totally worth it. Martin actually ran with a crowd of 3000 or so others as the bulls attempted to exact revenge before reaching the stadium. All in all, an amazing experience but we didn’t have the stamina to last whole 8 days of the festival.
We made our escape from the party and headed to the town of Bilbao, stopping briefly in San Sebastian for lunch. Bilbao is perhaps most famous for the spectacular Guggenheim Museum of Modern art. We wandered the rooms amazed at the things artists can dream up and sell as art. For example, one artist signed his name to a simple bottle holder and proclaimed that because he called it art and signed it, it was art! The building itself is perhaps the best example of art with its stunning titanium “fish scale” exterior and juxtaposed curves and lines. Bilbao seemed to have more to offer with its great Basque food and quaint cobbled streets, but it was just a short visit before heading to Greece.