The day began at 8 am. I woke everyone up with the Riau Riau, but they took a while to stir and get the heck out of bed. For me, at this point, the 6th is pretty close to Christmas Day. I can't wait to get up and open my presents (which are usually filled with large cocktails)! Everyone rolled out of their rooms, got some coffee and I went to the store to buy 10 baguettes. Stage #5 is not an option on the chupinazo. Moncho and Inaki whipped up some magras (which is slow cooked tomato sauce and ham), fried eggs, chistorra and I cut up the bread and popped a bottle of wine.
By 10, we were well fed and and ready to hit the town. We road up on the bus and went to the opening ceremonies pretty quickly. Whitney, Steve, Moncho and Inaki went into the crowd and mom, dad and I stayed on the outskirts. The crowd folks got doused with wine and got to see the 15 minute delay due to the basque flag being strung up as a political statement.
The outside the crowders were pushed back a few times by garbage dumpsters and tried not to get pinned to pillars. What is the deal? I have the worst luck when I'm in the action at the chupinazo.
We all met at the designated spot afterwards and the attitudes were all good, just some less sober than others. Mom, dad and I had to catch up, so we started on the bota bag. Shortly after, we decided they should get a new bota bag because that one was from the 70's and the plastic inside clearly wasn't holding up.
We cruised down Calle Estafeta to meet up with Dori and Lurdes. Lurdes owns and runs a bakery on Estafeta and makes the best baked goods in the city, especially the garrotes! A lot of the local business owners on the street close down for the morning of the 6th and go have a party together in one of the shops. We were so lucky to be invited to delicious snacks, cava and dancing.
We said our thank yous and went out on the street again, to take in some of the sights. As you can see in the 2nd picture here, people were so soaked in wine and hot that they begged for water from the apartments above. The party-goers obliged!
We stopped in at the Cafe Iruna, the Hemingway bar, and danced cheek to cheek with pretty much everyone else there. This is where my family learned what a katxi is, a plastic cup with around 32 ounces of whatever beverage is poured into it. Moncho and I bought a beer and a kalimotxo (ice cold red wine and coke) and the kalimotxo was definitely the preference! Everyone was skeptical, but now they're all converts!
It was about 1:30pm by that time and we started to inch home for a delicious lunch that Paco made for us. On the way we had to stop for a few more katxis of kalimotxo and some rest. Whitney busted out her money belt to add some money to the pot and found that her bullfight tickets had been torn in half from being soaked during the chupinazo! We were able to tape them back together, thank goodness.
We had lunch, about an hour nap and off we went to the bullfight at around 5. I woke up so grumpy. I now know that a nap is not the way for me to go during San Fermines. I just have to power through.
Paco got us just about the best seats ever for the bullfight. And, it wasn't just a bullfight, it was the Rejones, pronounced re-ho-ness. The bulls are fought on horseback! I'm not a person who is pro-bullfight, but I did learn some interesting things about how they score them and how you know the good from the bad this year. One piece of information that I found really interesting is that this breed of bull would be extinct if they weren't bred for bullfights. They are so angry and want to fight all the time, so they're good for nothing else. Also, the meat is used and even labeled with the bull's name in the butcher shop. Regardless, I hate seeing them die. Now, I will back right back down and off this road of politics and show you some pretty pictures from the fight.
At around 8, we walked out into the evening sun and made our way to an eating society where Paco had invited us for the evening. We passed through town and stopped at another society on the way and got some sorbette (lemon sorbette blended with cava). I'll talk about at least 3 societies over the course of the trip and they are all invite only places. Paco was a rockstar to get us into all of them!
We hung out a bit too long and had to hustle down to the next eating society. We were walking through the crowded streets and drunk teenager stumbled out of a bar in front of us. He fixed his eyes on dad and had to re-focus them a few times. As dad passed in front of him, the guy yelled, "Hemingway!" He turned to his buddy and pointed at dad again and said, "Hemingway!" The buddy nodded enthusiastically and the two friends sandwiched dad and jumped down the street with him yelling "He-ming-way! He-ming-way!" I let it happen for a while and then pulled dad free. It was so funny! Although, at the time, we weren't sure if there was going to be some kind of hazing that went along with it.
By 10, we were in the next eating society and sitting down to a huge, delicious meal, that we weren't hungry for at all. We had shrimp, white asparagus and calamari to start. Then came the whole roasted pig. Dad even got a kidney in his! Sorbete, coffee and cocktails for dessert. This society was pretty cool. It was a space that a few guys rented that had a bar, an industrial kitchen, a meeting room and a fronton court. Awesome!
Cocktails in hand, we danced the evening away.
At 3 am, we headed back home and tucked ourselves in. It was a long and great first day with 3 more to come. What a fabulous time!
