I’ve just about gotten the sand out of my ears after the trip to Roses and it’s time to pack the bags again for what’s sure to be an interesting trip to Pamplona. Pretty much everyone’s heard of the place or at the very least, the main fiesta of the Pamplona calander - San Fermin. Anyone still in the dark should know that I’m talking about the bull run that goes on every morning for eight days of July each year. As the popularity has grown among Italian, American and other tourists, so has the dread of the locals, to see what used to be a relatively enjoyable week turn in to a beer guzzling, pintxo munching, bull teasing infestation. In recent years, a usual sight would be drunken idiots sleeping in the locals’ gardens or on the very high murals where they could (and have) fall to their peril. To cheer themselves up, the owners of the houses like to get up at dawn and spray as many of these lost souls with cold water as they can to see if they’ll wake up and do something typically stupid!

However, as dreadful as this sounds, those who have grown to resent the main celebration of San Fermin have some comfort in the fact that there is a another date on the calendar that brings the spirit of San Fermin, but not the tourists (yet). This ikle version, otherwise known as San Fermin Chiquito goes on for the weekend and doesn’t feature the encierro (bull run), which believe it or not, is not the only thing to this fiesta! Scheduled for the 23rd and 24th, it just happens to be when I’ll be there, so I’ll get the photos up as soon I get a chance to take them. (d’uh)