Day thirteen

Thirteen, only unlucky for some,what a day!! Today is the 6th of July which means that San Fermin started at midday! We woke up, showered, dressed from head to toe in white, grabbed our red handkerchiefs, and hit the road. All seven of us piled into the big car and went into the city to have breakfast. I wasn’t really hungry so I kind of just sat around talking to Eli, our communication is getting much better as her English improves and our hand actions become more detailed. After that, Inigo said he was going to meet some friends and invited Nikki and I to join him, so we walked around in Pamplona until we found his friends.

Once we found them, we wandered through the streets a little until we got a few streets from where the rocket is launched (at midday to mark the start of San Fermin). Everyone got crazy excited, people in balconies were throwing buckets of water on the crowds below, and everyone was singing songs consisting of no words, only noises, so everyone could join in. Nikki and I decided that we needed to find some Aussies before the end of the day. At the countdown to midday, everyone raised their handkerchiefs and started chanting “San Fer-min, San Fer-min” until 12 when we heard the rocket, and everyone tied them around their necks (handkerchiefs, not rockets, keep up with the pronouns).

They whole place was crazy, people everywhere, but Nikki and I heard our first Aussies and yelled “AUSSIES” so they looked at us and we pretended to look away and Inigo thought we had gone crazy until we explained that they were from our country… Ok, yeah, he still thought we were crazy.

When we tried to get out of the street we were in, the entrance was absolutely swamped. Every time we took a step forward the whole crowed carried us back again and it was actually getting quite ridiculous (plus everyone smelt like off wine because they use it like water in wine bombs, wine pistols, wine fights, etc). So Inigo got out his rage face and basically pushed the entire crowd aside to get through. And then held out his hand and pulled me through, and then I held out my hand and pulled Nikki through. And then we waited for his friends to get through (When I explained this story to dad later, he seemed exceptionally pleased that we're spending all our time with a boy who has a rage face, which I find only slightly confusing).

After that we just sort of walked around for a bit, Inigo’s friends went home because they’d been out late at the concert with him the night before, so he decided to show Nikki and I some of the sights of San Fermin.
We went and saw the tower that drunk Aussies jump off to crowd surf, and the plaza that the rocket launches from, and we hung out at few bars playing good music (people in Spain know the words to the ketchup song, my joy cannot be explained. It’s like the time dad’s cousin sung me the Macarena).

We also heard our second group of Aussies and Nikki and I yelled out “AUSSIES” and one of them turned around and yelled “let’s get pissed mate!” and he was completely purple from wine. But Nikki and I high fived him anyway and he asked how we stayed so clean and I said we hung out in the right places and he held up his boya and said “If I had any more wine in this…oh wait, I do” and proceeded to cover both our shirts in wine. And Nikki thanked him for christening us and we walked back to Inigo who said “Australians?” and we were like “…yeah” and then someone exploded a bottle of Pepsi and we all got covered in brown (went well with the purple). Well, I thought we all got covered, but Inigo only had a few spots, so maybe there’s some sort of trick to staying clean that I will have to learn by the end of the week.

Also, some random guy came over to me with a shoe tied to his backpack, picked up my foot, and measured it against the shoe. The shoe was smaller than mine. He said “no, sorry, it’s not you” and went on his merry way. Note to guys: try this at a party, it might fit someone ;)

After hanging out and dancing a bit more, and learning a few Spanish chants, we made our way to the restaurant we were having lunch at. Inigo sung and whistled most of the way there, but when we got there Diego made him shut up. And then we waited for our parents to arrive.

Our parents showed up and we went inside and we had an awesome meal. Between dad and Inigo, I basically figured out what everything on the menu was and I ended up having salad and roast beef. Nikki and I taught Inigo and Diego to say “G’day mate, how’s it goin’?” with an aussie accent, and they actually did it remarkably well, particularly Inigo. They’re opening up to us heaps more now which is really good because I think they’re both really awesome but I don’t want to be all “I LIKE YOU, BE MY FRIEND :D” because I’m not sure they could handle that, haha. So, step by step. Today I put my arm around you walking down the street; tomorrow I put my arms around your waist and dance with you; next week, we DNM about all our life problems! (See, now I’m being all creepy and I LIKE YOU, BE MY FRIEND, why am I so fucking creepy all the time?) So yeah, we also had dessert, and Eli and I danced together waiting in line for the toilet. And at point during dinner, I waved to Eli down the other end of the table, and she waved back, and then we both got up and ran over to each other and hugged. And then Montxo pretended to be sad, but he was on the other side of the table so I just leant over and kissed his cheek and they both got so excited and they’re so cute and oh my god I love this family. I could live here forever <3

Post lunch we came home and chilled out and stuff (blogged) until dad’s cousin (on the other side), Beatriz, came to pick us up at 7:30. We went with her and her husband and daughters to a bar in Pamplona where we drank and danced and oh my gosh her daughters are so cute and now I know why I’m so beautiful :) Then her daughters went home with her sister and we met up with a bunch of randoms and went to another bar to drink and then another bar to dance before walking for half an hour to the place we had dinner at.

Dinner was absolutely delicious, squid, prawns, salad, olives, wonderful food but I was so full from lunch that I couldn’t finish it and that was the biggest disappointment of the day. Also, Nikki was pretty sick, so although we originally planned to go out with Inigo after dinner, we changed that plan to only me going out with Inigo after dinner. And then Nikki got worse and I asked if she wanted me to go home with her and she said yes so I decided that partying with my second cousin is not as important as my darling sister and we all came home. R.I.P. possible social life

Can’t wait for tomorrow, first real day of San Fermin.