Barcelona!: August 2010

So, after celebrating a very unusual 4th of July in Barcelona, John and I packed up our bags and got ready to head to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. Meghan, our Canadian friend from Barcelona, moved to a small town North of Barcelona called Rodellar. She moved there because she is a huge climbing fan and this town is full of great climbing walls. She invited me, John, Sarah, and Katya to come visit her when we were on our way to Pamplona, so we decided we would give it a go! John and I somehow convinced Sarah and Katya to come with us to Pamplona, so Sarah offered for us to tag along with her in her car. The timing worked out perfectly because Sarah and Katya were heading back to their homes for the summer anyhow. So, John and I pack up our things at Alberto’s and headed into the city to meet up with Sarah and Katya. Since Katya and Sarah were leaving for the summer, they had to pack Sarah’s little car with all of their luggage. Not to mention, they had to bring a few bags to Meghan that she couldn’t take with her to Rodellar when she left a month ago. It took about 20 minutes to pack the car and I felt like we had to get a darn protractor out to figure out how exactly we were going to fit everything in. After all was said and done, John and I had to squeeze into the back and share about a seat and a half between the two of us. I’ve never felt so close to John in all of my life. Oh yah, did I mention that Sarah’s car didn’t have air conditioning? …….. So, it was a little cozy. I kept thinking to myself, “How many Germans, Fins, and Yankees can you fit into a little red car?....” The trip to Rodellar was about 3 hours, and was pretty brutal. Sarah had only one C.D. (thankfully it was Kings of Leon), so we played it on repeat for the entire time. I think had the trip been 5 hours I might have started to go a little crazy.

We finally get to Rodellar, park, and walk through the tiny village to find Meghan. Along the way we see random climbers with all of their gear walking along, a couple of bars, and….nothing….else. This little town is so incredibly isolated! It’s almost like a ghost town. No one is in town during the day because they’re all climbing. We meet up with Meghan and immediately head to her place to drop off our stuff then head down to the lake to go for a swim. Rodellar was beautiful. The mountains, greenery, lakes, even the fresh air instantly sent a wave of relaxation over our bodies. It was a much needed de-tox/stress relieving leg of the trip, and perfectly timed right before Pamplona, where I knew we would get no sleep and feel rough the entire time. That night we went to the local café that overlooked the beautiful canyon and watched the sunset. We met some of Meghan’s friends that she climbs with, who were very interesting, hippie-like people, and enjoyed the delicious salad and lasagna that the bar is known for. The chef is actually a very talented chef who worked at many nice restaurants in France, but comes to Rodellar during the summer for vacation. So, the food was awesome. We sat at this picnic table for hours enjoying some beers and some ice cream cake for John’s birthday dessert. When you look up into the sky here, you can actually see the entire Milky Way. I’ve never seen it in my life, and we were so far from civilization that you could actually see a blanket of stars. It was breathtaking. We then got a flashlight and all headed out to a field to lay in the grass and look up at the stars. I will never forget that moment. I truly could have stayed there for hours. I made about 50 wishes that night because of all the shooting stars, so I hope at least one of them comes true. The biggest one I made was for John to not die in the Running of the Bulls. Lord knows I would be pissed if he died. After our star-gazing evening we headed back to Meghan’s to crash. We had to shove two twin mattresses together on the floor so John, me, and Katya could all have a place to sleep. It wasn’t the best sleep of our lives, but we managed. We wake up the following morning and get ready to go climbing. I was excited to climb because I remember doing it when I was younger and had a blast! We make it to an easy level wall, where Meghan belayed for us. It was such a great feeling! John and I got to the top no problem…even in our running shoes! I really wanted to try a more difficult wall, but Pepe called and was waiting for us in the town, so John and I left to go meet him. After all of the hoo-ha of everyone getting packed, showered, and fed, we finally make the journey to Pamplona around 6pm. We wanted to leave earlier so we could get our tents set up in the light, but of course nothing ever goes according to the plan. Since Pepe was tired he made John drive his mom’s BMW car to Pamplona. Did I mention that it’s a stick shift and John nor I know how to drive one? After about 20 minutes of John attempting to drive, Katya takes over, who has also driven a car maybe twice in her life. Nevertheless, we manage to make the long 4 hour trip to Pamplona. Our plan in Pamplona was to stay at a campsite that was about 6km away from the city. It would be cheaper, and we thought we would have some fun roughing it. We finally get to the site at about 11:30 at night and are baffled by what we see. After we check in, we drive our cars to the site, passing a stage with loud music, mini market, and food stands…oh yah..and a gagillion young kids were running around. It looked like beerfest. What kind of camping is this?! We got to our sight and set up our tents. We were at the top of the hill overlooking the entire campsite. Everything was easy to see because there were absolutely NO trees in the entire thing. This didn’t seem to matter to us until later. It was absolutely freezing outside. I don’t know why, but I could not, for the life of me, warm up. We grab some rotisserie chicken and French fries for dinner (John had pasta though for some carb packing) and go to sleep as fast as we could. Did I also mention that we didn’t have any sleeping bags, mattresses, and pillows? All we had was our body heat and a tent. Clearly prepared for this trip. We had to wake up at 5 in the morning so that John could make it to the bus in time to make the race. We finally tried to sleep at 2 in the morning, but it wasn’t until we were laying down in the tent that we realized we had set our tent up on a lovely bed of rocks. Good God…can’t we do anything right? I couldn’t sleep for the life of me. Not to mention I was freezing to death! I got out and grabbed Pepe’s keys so that I could go sleep in his car. It was the only option I had…I was dying. It was freezing in the car, and incredibly uncomfortable…especially trying to sleep in my jeans, along with every other article of clothing I brought.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010: I swear I wasn’t asleep 20 minutes when John came knocking on the window of the car to wake me up. This is the earliest I’ve ever woken up on my birthday in my ENTIRE LIFE. I wanted to sleep so badly, but instead I rolled with the punches because this is something he really wanted to do. I was frozen like a popsicle, and on our journey to the bus stop everyone was decked out in their all-white painter’s gear (some girls were even wearing shorts—don’t know how this is possible). I on the other hand, was wearing 20 layers, and wrapped in my black, trash bag rain jacket…almost like I was anti-running with the bulls. We make it to the center of the city and the first thing that I see at the bus station was a random boy in his white clothes passed out on the ground. Oh my god…what have I gotten myself into. John sprints ahead of us and finds a place on the street to start the race. As the rest of us walk through the streets, I can’t help but notice that I am walking through the most disgusting conditions I’ve ever experienced in a city. The ground was covered in trash, bottles, and filth. There was legitimately a layer of grim, dirt, and God knows what else piled up on the cobblestone streets. It was so slippery, I didn’t know how all of these people were going to run and not fall on their faces instantly. Pepe, me, Sarah, and Katya tried to find a place along the street to watch, but realized quickly it was near impossible to see anything. So, we decided to go to the arena and sit in the stands to watch on a flat screen TV. After the race began, we honestly couldn’t distinguish one runner from the other. After the bulls ran, they ended up in the arena and sprinted down into safety. But then, all of the runners end up in the ring just wondering around in circles. I didn’t know what was going on, then all of the sudden they released young bulls into the ring that were bull-dosing (literally) all of the runners. It was extremely entertaining. They weren’t big enough to seriously hurt any of the runners, but big enough to toss a few up in the air. After the little bull ran around for a bit and got a little tired, these bull-handlers brought out the big mama to come guide it to safety. This was the biggest bull I’d ever seen in my life. I thought at first that it was going to do the same thing as the young bulls, but it was simply there to guide it back to the cage. It was so hilarious when the runners didn’t hear or see the bull coming up behind them, because the moment it was next to them (even hitting some people in the head with its huge ass longhorns) the runners dove away in fear. I swear one of them must have had to of peed his pants. It was all very entertaining, and after the 5th young bull or so, the first race of the two-week long Running of the Bulls was over. No one died, or got seriously injured, so it was great to watch. We also got to see John in the ring! It was seriously like playing Where’s Waldo, but the moment I located him it was a huge sigh of relief. After the event was over, we found John and grabbed some breakfast at an outdoor café. We had hot chocolate (still freezing at this point) and sandwiches for breakfast. This hot chocolate was like drinking hot pudding—it was the thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. It was about 9 in the morning at this point, so we decide to head back to camp and sleep a little bit since we got about 1 hour of sleep the night before. Then we would get revved up for my bday celebration for that night! We’re walking towards the bus station, and then all of the sudden Pepe screams, “Omg, look! It’s you!” I look over to whatever it is he’s trying to point to, and my jaw drops open. Holy shit…it’s the ad that John and I did in San Sebastian for the bank. The print ads were huge and posted on the windows of one of the banks! I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a completely out of body experience. There I was…no big deal…on a poster on the side of a bank in Pamplona during one of the biggest festivals in the world. We took a picture, and I still couldn’t believe it. Where am I? What am I doing?! Haha…this is such a crazy trip. After that shock and awe moment we make it to the bus and head back to camp. We arrive, and the moment I step off the bus my cold body instantly warmed up. It was blazing hot outside. I was stripping off my layers of clothes as we were walking to the campsite. I look at the tent, feeling so exhausted and now boiling hot, and almost wanted to cry. Not only had we managed to set up our tent on a bed of rocks, but we set it up where the tent door was facing the midday sun. Omg…f my life. All I wanted to do was lay down and sleep and there was absolutely no shelter from the sun. I attempted to sleep in the tent, but the sun was beaming on my body and there was no ventilation system so it felt like a sauna. I gave up after about 10 minutes, then head down to the base of camp to try and lay outside underneath one of the few trees that were around. Well, not to my disbelief, everyone and their mom had the same idea, so trying to find a sheltered area was impossible. I was livid at this point…and so very hot. I almost wanted to cry, but I tried to man up and pull myself together. It got to the point where I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t find a sheltered area, so I just got up and took a freezing cold shower. I started to rally the troops up around 4ish so we could head into town, get some food, and stay in an air conditioned bar to watch the game. We all get in our white gear and head into the city. When we get out of the van that took us into town, we look up at two buses that were next to us….and they had our ad on them! The ad was not only in the banks, but it was blown up and plastered on the back of almost every single city bus in town! We took pictures, and I really started to freak out. What the hell? How is this possible?! After I came back to reality, we walk around and settle into an Australian pub that has a big screen TV to watch the Germany/Spain futbol match. Since it was my birthday, the gang bought me a tiara and a delicious chocolate cake that they brought out to me while sitting at the table. It was so sweet and unexpected of them to do that! We order some drinks and hang out for a while until the match starts. John and I really wanted Germany to win, but of course it was difficult to be hardcore “Alemania” fans when you’re in Spain during one of the biggest Spanish festivals of the year! We were definitely outnumbered, but it was still fun to watch. During halftime John and I ordered Kangaroo burgers! Can you believe it? I actually ate a poor, little Kangaroo! It was definitely the weirdest animal I’ve ever eaten, but honestly, it tasted pretty darn good. Germany ended up losing the match, which sucked for Sarah, but it meant that the city was alive with celebration. In hindsight I’m glad that it wasn’t the other way around…everyone would have been pissed off and depressed. So, after the game we head into the party area of the city. It was absolute madness!!! I’ve never seen so many young people drinking and going crazy in all of my life! Every night at 11, they have a huge fireworks display, so we sat down and watched it. It was so much fun, and I told John that our Fourth of July fireworks came a little late this year, but they made it nonetheless! After the show was over, we decided to check out the bar scene. We didn’t exactly know where to go, but it was so exciting we could have gone anywhere and been happy. We randomly run into a group of kids that were from some town in Spain and they buy us all tequila shots. Then, they take us to a club/bar that was in a plaza of the city. We danced a little bit, and continued to drink even more. It wasn’t really that late, but since we were fried by the sun, had no sleep, and had been up since 5 in the morning…we decided to call it a day. Pepe had brought a blowup mattress that he slept on the first night, but John insisted that he give the girls the mattress tonight. Pepe was SOOO hammered…and literally was sitting Indian style outside of our tent saying, “No, but I don’t want to! John…why do you have to be such a gentlemen…I hate you.” It was hilarious. He finally gives it up and we sleep like babies…until, of course, the sun starts to beat on our faces at about 9:00am. Sarah and I get up, shower, and grab some breakfast from the little mini mart they have in the campsite. We were hung over, tired, and hot as hell. The thought of staying there another day and night was terrifying to me. After John and Pepe make their way down for breakfast, we talk with them about our idea to leave a day early and they were fine with it. Thank God! After they eat, we head back to the site and pack up everything. We load up the cars and have to say our goodbye’s to Sarah. I was really sad and even started crying. I would hope that to see her again, but you just never know. It was my first real farewell to one of the good friends that I’ve made in Europe. We then make about a 4 hour trip back to Barcelona, stay with Alberto for another night and begin to pack up our life since we both would be leaving Saturday morning with our parents. John survived running with the bulls and it was one of the craziest birthday celebrations of my life.