Short stop in Barcelona then BBK music festival

After spending over a week becoming so close with everyone from Topdeck it was sad to say goodbye but I am sure that our paths will cross again in another country sooner or later. So we jumped on the train headed for Barcelona. Unfortunately our time in Barcelona was short, Jay had visited before and listed it as one of his favourite cities and within hours of being there I soon realised why. On every corner you look there is a chic little tapas bar, a cute clothes boutique or an incredible building with architecture just out of this world. We spent majority of our short trip wandering through the maze of streets and alleys stopping at as many tapas bars as we could manage. We wandered down past the beautiful harbour, envying the owners of all the gorgeous yachts parked in the glistening waters. Then made our way to the beach where we once again envied all those smart enough to have brought with them their bathers. Although in saying that this did give us a chance to walk along the coast dipping our feet in the ocean and it gave Jayden a chance to check out all the very liberal topless spanish. We were then lucky enough to have a couple of hours in which we were able to meet up with Ashlea and her friends Jordan and Kristine. Our time with them was once again spent at tapas bars and then not that we needed it, but we also went out for dinner and scored ourselves free delicious, seafood paella all round.

Gaudi Cathedral

Jay being sad because he forgot his bathers

Our amazing room!

After a huge day out wandering the city we suddenly realised that the festival we were attending and camping at the next day was probably going to require us having a tent so the rest of our evening was spent scouring Barcelona high and low for a tent store. To our relief it was a success and after a good nights sleep in the most beautiful bed and breakfast I have ever come across (if you are ever in Barcelona I can not recommend it enough - see link below) we packed up our bags yet again and made our way to the bus station for a bus which we still hadn't booked. So it came as no surprise when the bus to get to the 35, 000 people festival was sold out, when we quite vocally showed our disappointment the man behind the counter found a way for us to get there and only a couple of hours and missing a few of our favorite bands later.

So we finally arrived in Bilbao and attempted to set up our tent in pitch black amongst a sea of others. As soon as the tent was somewhat secure we made our way to the festival and spent the rest of the evening dancing and singing away to "The Maccabees", "Bloc Party", "Snow Patrol" and "The Cure". The next morning we were able to catch a shuttle into town and were pleasantly surprised to discover the amazing town of Bilbao. They had beautiful streets lined with huge trees and every luxury store under the sun. We stumbled upon an amazing art gallery with a statue of a dog out the front made entirely out of flowers! And of course it wouldn't be a day out in Spain without our beloved friend Tapas. After a quick booze stop it was back to the festival where we got to see even more great bands such as "Radiohead", "The Kooks", "Noah and the Whale" and our favourite for the night "Mumford and Sons". The next day was incredibly painful as we were up at 6am to catch a flight and unfortunately had to pack up our tent in the pouring rain and make the trek into town, but its not a proper festival till its rained right?

We made it!

The flower dog!

Being cute in our super cute tent

Watching and RUNNING with the bulls!

Over the next couple of days we had the chance to go into town a couple of mornings to watch the bull runs. We decided that to avoid the crowds that line the streets of the run we would head for the arena where we were able to watch the run through the streets on the big screens and then see the runners flood the stadium from the door out to the street as the bulls chased them in. The atmosphere in the arena was incredible. It is the second largest bull fighting arena in the world and the crowd was so pumped that mexican waves were running around the entire circle five times at least, and rest assured sangria was still aplenty for all in the crowd. After the larger bulls that take part in the run are herded away the spectacle began. One by one six smaller bulls (steers) are let into the arena to have a stab (no pun intended) at the runners that are now waiting inside the bull ring. We all agreed that buying the tickets worth a couple of euro to see this gave us more entertainment then any sporting match we have every paid a lot more money for. There are hundreds of people running around trying to have there shot at stardom by touching the bull and avoiding serious injury, but for the crowds injuries are what they came for. The crowds go wild when a bull charges into a group of people silly enough not to stay out of its way, and when the bull occasionally gets someone and either attempts to gore them right there on the ground or send them flying through the air with its horns the crowds get even louder. Everyone here is clearly on the side of the bulls. This is demonstrated even more so when someone grabs the bull by its tail which is a big no no. The crowd starts chanting "viva la puta"which essentially means you are a bitch, and then they also get met with a couple of swings from the Spaniards in the ring. Obviously the only ones to do this are generally tourists and unfortunately majority Australian. To make this experience even better we got to meet up with Hayley's best friend from back home Ashlea and watch the whole thing with her :) All in all though this was a great spot to watch the happenings of the bull run but it will never compare to ACTUALLY running which one half of this blog decided to do. We have all established that this is Hayley writing so I am going to hand the keyboard over to Jayden so he can recount his experience in his own words ...

The band in the ring

The ring filled with runners

When I woke to the alarm at 4:30am shit had already started gathering in my pants and the hangover that had been at home for most mornings of the festival with me set in. Most of us had agreed to run but as the morning went on the pull outs escalated (I'm looking at you Hayls) and I started to really doubt what I was doing. All week I had been telling campers just to rethink running, as yes its fun but people get seriously hurt and yep the odd one or two may die. Although I was determined and decided to go through with it even with the hangover pumped like crazy behind my eyes. We set off on the bus into town which was 45 minutes away and unfortunately left me a long time to think about how stupid it really is, but the adrenaline started kicking in the closer we got and the more determined I became to have what I hoped would be one of the best experiences of my life. Then before I knew it I was lined up on the sangria and urine smelling streets amongst the the revved up Spaniards in our red and whites. As the time of the run grew closer the vibe of the crowd was ever lifting. Chants broke out and the nervous faces in the crowd grew, those with nothing but a smile ear to ear earlier now became more sober, you could see the thoughts running through peoples heads (what the fuck am i doing!). The gates shut down around the runners and the crowd irrupted. We were let out to flood the track and pick our starting points. For obvious reasons my chosen spot was after dead mans corner. Luckily I ended up on the street below Hayley as she had got cheap tickets from 'Topdeck' watch the run from a balcony that lined the street below. This for me worked out perfect as I was able to see 'dead mans corner' over the crowd. I nervously jumped up and down as I waited to see the 6 bulls, some weighing as much as 620kg turn the corner. 


The cannon fired and signalled the release of the bulls. I looked up to Hayls' balcony and was reassured I was safe for the moment. Runners pushed passed me, pushing me to the wall and any which way for me to be out of there way. The bulls passed the corner and I remember clear as day as my stomach dropped as Hayls and the others all screamed "RUN!". WELL I LEGGED IT!!! Probably quicker than I ever did back in my athletics days. Next thing the thunder of the hooves were next to me, and the grunting as they took the hill. I made it to the top near the stadium and all of the sudden 1 big fuck off bull was running right at me! It had fallen back from the pack, got confused and turned around. All I remember jumping to the side to get out of its way. As I got to my feet thankfully it had be persuaded into the tunnel of the stadium. Nothing will compare to the rush of this run and making it into the stadium with 1000's of people cheering. I stayed in the ring to try my luck at slapping one of the smaller steers on the ass (this is tradition to do). The first steer burst out the gate sending many into the air and goring a couple of others to the ground. It wasn't till the fourth steer I got the courage to coax it towards me and give it a slap as it passed. After it was all done and over I could not have felt more shattered from the massive adrenaline rush, the run itself and then dodging 6 steers in the space of just over an hour but it had been a truely unbelievable experience. This is one of those things I will never forget and will be telling my grandkids over and over in years to come "Back in my youth I ran with the bulls ..."

We spotted Jayden from the balcony!

Here come the bulls!

As mentioned when I was offered a spot on a balcony I jumped at the chance as I wasn't overly keen to run. This also meant I was able to get some great shots and videos (will be posted when we have better internet) of Jayden on the streets below. We also got to go inside the flat of the balcony and watch the carnage on TV of what we had missed from the balcony and my eyes couldn't help but search for Jayden on every stretcher that came on screen. So when we finally found him after the run the sense of relief that washed over me was indescribable.

Jayden in the ring (middle right, next to guy in red jumper)

Running of the Bulls Opening Ceremony!

We were fortunate enough to be able to work for the tour company "Topdeck" in Pamplona for Running of the Bulls festival. It was unpaid work but the benefits were endless - free booze, food, accomodation (okay it was just a tent but still!) and a free festival! What more could you want? So we made the long and painful 27 hour journey there from Egypt and were greeted at the campsite by the rest of the amazing Topdeck crew. The first couple of days were spent setting up 150 tents and double that in lilos for the passengers travelling with Topdeck. Lets just say we are not going into the professional tent building business any time soon ... Luckily afternoon beverages were always readily available to get us through.

Our amazing Topdeck crew

Once the hard labour was done and the passengers arrived, the highly anticipated "Opening Ceremony"  was upon us. This is the day that marks the start of the festival and would have to be the funnest day we have ever had. We were all dressed up in our traditional white outfits with red sashes and scarves, and most importantly our sack of sangria! Arriving in the main town was out of this world! Every single person was dressed in white and going absolutely crazy with festival spirit, but we hadn't seen anything yet. As the mayor made his speech from town hall that was shown on huge screens throughout the town everyone held there red scarves high in the air chanting "Viva San Fermin!". You couldn't help but join in and feel as though you had been a part of it all along. And then the mayor fired the canon to signify the start of it all and the town literally went wild and so did we. Sangria went everywhere leaving no ones clothing still coloured white, along with shaving cream, flour, eggs and the occasional stream of mustard and ketchup. Unless experiencing it yourself nothing could ever describe the adrenaline rush from being amongst it all. The streets were heaving with people fuelled on excitement and huge amounts of sangria. The party didn't stop as we danced and sung our way through the streets past marching bands and Spaniards pouring sangria straight into our mouths. Buckets of water came down from the balconies above us which were a welcome refreshment to wash the copious amounts of sangria off that were now causing our eyelids to stick together. We stumbled upon bar after bar filled with people dancing inside and out onto the street. We ducked into one purely to use the bathroom but ended up being swept onto the dance floor by Spaniards spinning and twirling us around and offering us more sangria. We could go on and on about the greatest day of our lives for ever so lets just say that on the 6th of July next year I know exactly where I will be and that is back on the streets of Pamplona doing it all over again.

'

Hayley's new spanish boyfriend

Everyone covered in sangria and cream

One of the marching bands

Next stop Dahab

After seeing a few more sights (mostly temples) around Luxor we hopped on the bus for the treacherous 22 hour drive to Dahab. Jayden unfortunately (although it makes for a good story) came down with a severe case of "the runs" quite literally an hour or so before we jumped on the bus, to keep it PG so we don't get banned from the blog world we will just say that this meant a lot more toilet stops and leave it at that.

Dahab is as the Egyptians call it a "hippy" town which was just what we were after. We spent our days snorkelling around the amazing coral that lines the coast and even got a chance to snorkel over the blue hole. The blue hole is as it says - a hole in the ocean that is a whopping 120 metres deep, it was created by a volcano thousands of years ago. We did buy an underwater camera however somehow it didn't stay so waterproof so the photos we took have developed with a slight "old school effect".

Wandering around Dahab

Snorkelling at the blue hole

From our underwater camera

And another quality underwater shot

For some reason while we were in Dahab we thought it would be a good idea to climb a mountain at two in the morning. Lucky for us it turns out it was one of the best ideas we have had. The mountain was Mount Sinai and this is believed to be where Moses received the ten commandments and the base of the mountain is believed to be home to the "burning bush". As hard as the three hour walk in pitch black was, when we got to the top just as the sun began to rise it was completely worth it.

Freezing our bums off waiting for the sun to rise

Here it comes!

After an amazing 13 days with our tour group it was time for us to venture off on our own, so we left the tour and chose to stay on in Dahab for a bit longer so Jayden could get his open water scuba license! 4 days later and he was certified and hooked on the idea of becoming a scuba diving master. And so we bid farewell to Egypt, having had one of the hottest and most culturally challenging holidays thus far but all very worth it to have been able to explore this beautiful country.

Jay being the biggest cutie in the world in his scuba get up!