The GCW Tour, Spain & Morocco: San Fermin, Day 2, Part 2

So once you've watched the bulls -- and by the way, I'd like to find the Chicago Bulls fan who works for Apple and managed to program the iPad's autocorrect function to always capitalize the word "bulls" and hit them with a stick -- enjoyed a cup of café con leche, and recovered from being dumped on the ground by your chair, it's about 9:15 in the morning. 

Now if you're one of those people for whom 9:15 is too early to start drinking, as opposed to one of those for whom it's too late to stop, it's not exactly clear what you're supposed to do next. If you had a hotel room nearby you could go back and take a nap, but that doesn't work as well when you're a decent bus ride from your bed.

In our case, the niece and I decided to wander around to see if we could find our balcony for tomorrow and then possibly the museum devoted to the running of the bulls. We did find the balcony, but not the museum, but in our wandering we found lots of people lining up. The first group was obviously lining up for churros and chocolate -- and I thought Americans had a sweet tooth -- but the second and third lines seemed to be preparing for an imaginary parade. 

Not so imaginary it turns out. After killing about an hour with more wandering followed by a lie down in the grass, our two lines had evolved into a mob lining the street near my lie down spot. I sent the niece to find out what was happening, but she wasn't confident enough in her Spanish to start that conversation. So instead we just waited until the mob started making crowd noises at which point I stood up and we wandered over to see what was happening.

It was the shortest, most boring parade ever. A few giant religious characters, a couple of marching bands, a choir, and what was obviously supposed to be San Fermin, and that was it. It had to be hours of waiting for some people followed by, maybe, fifteen minutes of entertainment. Crazy. 

But it got us to lunch time, which took us to siesta time, which will take us back to the central city for dinner followed by the nightly fireworks show. 

And if reading between the lines you're getting the sense that I'm starting to get bored with San Fermin, well, hey, I'm a better writer than I thought. I am clearly not the target audience for this event.* I'm looking forward to the balcony view of the run tomorrow, and the bull fight that evening, but after that I will be ready to be done with San Fermin. 

I don't see how people can entertain themselves for eight days of this. Our three will be more than plenty for my taste. 

* It's said that the popularity of San Fermin and the running of the Bulls is largely due to Earnest Hemingway, who was here in the 1920s and included description of San Fermin in The Sun Also Rises. It's also said that Hemingway came back to Pamplona in the late fifties and expressed regret at what he'd done to the festival. One can only wonder what he'd make of it now, post-City Slickers II and YouTube.