Wednesday 18 June 2008

Feria de San Anotnio

I know back in England I often wished for a country where the Nanny State didn't rule. Health and safety didn't ruin everything and that people could just get along with their life threatening days out.
Thankfully I have found that in Spain.

So yeah, the weekend. The Bull Run. I had a really good time. It was fantastic.

The whole Feria took up 3 days. There was a travelling fair, shows, all kinds. I kind of missed all of that and went just to the Bull Run. Which was a shame as it looked like a lot of fun.

On the way up to the festival I spotted that there were not that many people heading that way in cars. I was expecting there to be far more many people heading up. But there just wasn't that many.

Also, some advice. If your planning on going to a Bull Run, make sure it's a Bull Run in your own town. Or that someone can give you a lift up. Don't, whatever you do, leave a little too late and rush 3 miles up a mountain to a tiny town. That'll just tire you out.
Lucky for my when I was near the top a friend drove past going the other way, turned around and give me a lift up, saving me time and giving me chance to catch my breath back.

So when I arrived I found out why there hadn't been that many people passing by. It turns out the about 70% of the people watching the Bull Run where still out partying from the night before. I don't know how these Spanish kids can stay out all night.
Anyway so when I arrived I hadn't a clue where to go for the run. I could just see crowds of people around fences. I figured the run was heading this way, but I didn't know how to get to the start. So instead I thought the best option was to scout out this run, in preparation for next years.
Yeah that was the line I was going with as to not run with the bulls.

So instead I got aload of photos for you all.
Bull Run
1. IMG_1890, 2. IMG_1893, 3. IMG_1951, 4. IMG_1965, 5. 15062008299, 6. IMG_1915, 7. IMG_1923, 8. IMG_1969, 9. IMG_1933

It took quite some time to get the bulls in. There was even a point when nothing happened for about an hour. The guy even had to go get his rope as everyone was getting bored.
When all the bulls where in the truck everyone headed off in a big crowd. Now I didn't want to walk all the way back home. I mean I had only just got here. So I decided to go see where the crowd where heading. It turned out that they were having a bull fight. Which was even better.
And I'm still unsure about the whole Bull Fighting and where I stand on it all. I only found out recently that the bull gets killed during the fight.
But in these fights the bull's were more just annoyed. Like when people play fight with dogs.
So I had to get more photos.
Bull Fight
1. 15062008308, 2. 15062008346, 3. 15062008311, 4. 15062008345, 5. 15062008343, 6. 15062008335, 7. 15062008322, 8. 15062008344, 9. 15062008318

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Here is the whole side show.

Direct link

4 comments:

Unknown said...

that's definitely you in the last picture getting your ass speared by a bull horn.

you're writing from hospital, aren't you?

commis chef said...

I totally agree with you that Britain is currently engulfed in a ridiculous health and safety gone mad type situation.

But still, I'd like to express my happiness that we don't have bull runs there, because that's taking it to extremes! That would definitely be a day when I stayed indoors. Don't people even sometimes get killed by the bulls? Terrifying stuff!

Still, it looks like there was a great atmosphere in the crowd at least.

Unknown said...

Ha! "Please don't" took the words right out of my mouth!

Robbie said...

@Joanne@Surviving OK, I admit it.

@Commis Yeah, sometimes the bulls win. Fortunately no one was hurt on this run.
The atmosphere was really good. I'm enjoying all these Spanish fiestas.