Pamplona Warnings Or Dangers

Don't go for San Fermines unless you want to meet up with loads of Australian and US drunks. Pamplona is a beautiful vibrant city full of history, lush green parks, graet walks along the river, brilliant pintxos, relaxed drinking and friendly folk. For the rest of the year. Many locals bugger off out of the place during the Fiesta as they see their lovely city trampled by drunken idiots. Do the same and go when you can really enjoy the place.

I know this should be a no brainer, but some young man tried to unzip my camera bag while I was at an internet cafe. Fortunately, my bag was next to me and I heard the slow "zzzziiiiipppp" and looked down and say my bag open about two inches. I turned around and confronted the man right behind me who denied and professed innocence. So I throttled him, threw him down to the ground, yelled if he ever tries to steal from me I would ^$%$#$$ and !$#@#$# the @!#$#@#@! out of him. I then gave him a high power soccer boot to the rump and he flew out the door.

You never know what is going to happen...

I sure didn't!!!

After running and picking out a spot behind the safety wall in the bull ring, i thought nothing could happen to me, except maybe the guy who completely freaks out and jumps the wall and falls on me...

Boy was i wrong!! Not only did the above happen, but the UNEXPECTED happened...

THE BULL HIMSELF, jumped the safety wall!!! NO JOKE!!

So everyone who thought they were safe had to jump back INTO the bullring to get out of the way....

*I* on the other hand scaled a wall... the bull ran right below me.... inches from my feet!! If i hadn't acted fast... maaan, i don't even want to think about what could've happened!!!

OOOOH and by the way, while i was in the ring, it didn't happen once... OH NO, it happened 3 different times the SAME DAY!!!!

:D ha!

At the end of the run, the fence narrows and funnels the bulls and runners through a relatively narrow door. There are often piles of runners also adding to the angst. Throw in a few angry bulls and 50 drunken compatriots makes it rather interesting. I saw many injuries here. Make sure you time your entry through the door and as soon as you get in, bolt off right or left.

Pickpockets here are aggressive & bold. Keep your wits about you at all time. Check all baggage & carry only what you need. Backpacks are slashed in crowds & the contents stolen without the owner even knowing.

While my group was "sleeping it off" in a park at 10:00AM with a group of children playing nearby, a pickpocket attempted to steal a friend of mine's wallet. We woke up and chased the would-be thief off.

Even the 800 pound play bulls they send out into the bullring after the running of the fighting bulls can cause injury. This guy was OK, but one bull spent a few minutes polishing his horns on some guys chest. The guy needed medical attention. And obviously I was not as concerned with holding the camera still as I was about which way the bull was going to turn. :-)

Be very careful when u park your car, they have special rules.If u will ever park your car, make sure if u park on a blue coulored parking place that u pay a ticket. I didnt knew that an after five minutes the car get off a crane what costs 120 Euros. The people here call the town "capital of cranes"

I would say don't run around the corner of death with the bulls, they seem to loose their footing and go down, it is very dangerous, I saw 2 people carried away in the ambulance from that corner.