UK Factoid of the Day

This curious looking item is called a Treasury Tag (or India Tag).

It is an office supply that is used to fasten pieces of paper together, or to a folder. It consists of two small metal bars connected by a piece of string. Treasury Tags are threaded through holes made by a hole-punch, like so:

I'm not exactly sure what the American equivalent of a treasury tag would be. Maybe a keyring?

(The first time I was asked to bind a stack of papers in my UK office, I was handed a hole-punch and a treasury tag. I stared at both of them helplessly for about 10 minutes before I finally asked someone how this was possibly supposed to work. It seemed obvious after they showed me. In my defense, I had thought of that option before asking for help, but had dismissed the idea because it didn't keep the papers very tightly bound. I still don't like them for this reason.)

Pamplona for San Fermin (Running of the Bulls)

Following our wine-tasting jaunt in Bordeaux, we hired a bus to take us across the boarder into Spain to celebrate San Fermin (more commonly known as Running of the Bulls) in Pamplona.

San Fermin is the Spanish festival celebrating Saint Fermin (duh), who is the co-patron of the Navarre region of Spain (in which Pamplona is found). Nobody is really sure as to when it started, but the festival has been celebrated uninterrupted since 1592. As for the Running of the Bulls itself (which is just one part of the festival), it first originated with the need to move the bulls from the city corral, where they were placed until the day of their fight, to the plaza de toros. The town's youth would run with and through the herd as the animals progressed through the town square. In Pamplona, Saint Fermin (who was actually martyred at Amiens) is now sometimes said to have met his end by being dragged through the streets of Pamplona by bulls. The festival became famous to the English-speaking world thanks to Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” in which it is discussed.

We arrived in time for the opening ceremony, which took place at noon on the 6th of July. I wish I could tell you more about this ceremony, but all I know is that about half a million people (no exaggeration) packed into the town square, some rockets were set off, and then everyone started spraying each other with champagne/ketchup/wine/whatever you had. It was an amazing experience and tons of fun, but I have to say that I’ve never before been so afraid for my life. The fact that I was not trampled in the chaos is a small miracle (or large one- depending on how you look at it).

A picture I stole off the internet of the opening ceremony- we're in there somewhere!!

After the opening ceremony, we joined the other hundreds of thousands of people who were in Pamplona for what I think may be the official pastime of San Fermin: Drinking. We partook of the official drink of Pamplona: Calimocho (50% Wine, 50% Coca-Cola- surprisingly tasty!!). At 5am and on no sleep, we headed down to the course that the bulls were to take to reserve our spot for the 8am running.

Me enjoying some Calimocho

I’m finding it difficult to find words to describe the actual Running of the Bulls itself. Chaos. Thrilling. Terrifying. Amazing. And I didn’t even run! There is virtually no order to the run at all. Anyone can just show up and stand in the street, if you’re there when the bulls are let out (signified by a rocket being launched), watch out! I was shocked at the number of people who participated in the run- it had to have been in the thousands!

After the first rocket is launched, 6 bulls are released into a barricaded path down center of Pamplona leading all the way to the bull-fighting arena on the outskirts of the city. Some runners choose to jump over the barricades and out of the way of the bulls almost instantly (before the bulls are even close to them), some choose to press themselves up against the side of the walls in hopes that the herd of bulls will pass them by unnoticed, the very brave run right alongside the bulls. It is considered good luck to touch a bull’s horn during the run.

The way we figured it, the run is actually pretty safe except for two things:
1) The people. When you have 2,000 people running for their lives down a narrow street, the changes of getting swept under the stampede are high.
2) A stray bull. As long as the bulls stay in their pack, there is little chance that one will attack you. However, if a bull gets separated (which happens often as they slip on the cobble-stoned streets), watch out! A lone bull will attack everything in sight. Someone was killed on one of the last days of the Running this year after a stray bull gored him through the neck.

After the running was over, we went back to our hotel and passed out for a few hours before waking up and doing it all over again!

Our group in Pamplona

Bobby and I didn’t run, but almost everyone else in our group did. Looking back on it, I kind of wish I would have done it. I doubt if I’ll ever go back to San Fermin, so that might have been my only chance! I highly recommend the experience (by far, the most insane thing I have every witnessed), but once was enough for me.

UK Factoid of the Day

In the UK, what we call a Tank-Top is called a Vest, and what we call a Vest is called a Tank-Top.

Bordeaux

Following out trip to Barcelona, we returned to London for a few days and then promptly got back on a plane and headed down to Bordeaux, France.

Bordeaux at night

As I’m sure you're all aware, Bordeaux is famous for its fantastic wines and most people visit this region of France purely for the wine tasting- and taste wine we did! I would say that the city of Bordeaux itself is completely skipable. While it did have some very nice parks in which you can sit and enjoy a fabulous picnic of French wine, cheese and bread (all of the best things about France), the city is otherwise not very interesting. I think most people just use the city as a home base for wine tasting- and rightly so! Just 15 minutes out of the city you find yourself in the heart of wine country. Vineyards and sunflower-filled fields span as far as the eye can see.

French picnic: Baguette, Brie, Jambon and Wine

We drove from Bordeaux to St. Emilion stopping at a few of the most famous vineyards along the way. They were so famous, that they didn’t let ordinary people like us in to taste the wine! Only wine experts and the super-rich allowed.

Chateau Cheval Blanc: Owned by the Louis Vuitton empire and too fancy to let us in!

Bottles of Petrus wine go for about 5,000 euro a bottle (about $7,000)

I adored St. Emilion, despite the fact that it was packed with tourists. A small mountain of a town, it is topped by a historic Catholic church and contains tiny, winding, cobble-stoned streets lined with shops and cafes all the way down to the surrounding vineyards. The St. Emilion region is said to have some of the best wine in the world.

The countryside as seen from the top of St. Emilion
Me, St. Emilion

St. Emilion's winding streets

We spent an all-too-short hour or so in St. Emilion, just enough time to grab a sandwich and gawk at the rustic beauty, before heading on to château Clos de Madeline to do some wine tasting. We were greeted by the very friendly and exuberant owner who led our tasting, taught us the proper way to taste wine (“you must first warm it up in your hand, smell, swirl 6 times, smell, taste, swirl again”), taught us about the wine aging process and how to decant wine properly if you are trying to drink wine while it is “too young.” Our conversation often revolved around the effect of Global Warming on the French wine industry-something the château owner was very concerned about. He informed us that they were testing vines from the center of Africa to incorporate into their crop- as these vines would be more able to withstand the heat. He also informed us that some British wine-lovers are already beginning to plant vineyards on the southern coast of Great Britain, with the expectation that the weather will be the perfect temperature there in 10-20 years for wine. He told us, and I quote: “French people drinking British wine? Never! It will be world war three!!”

The Chateau owner

The countryside of Bordeaux was beautiful and the people extremely friendly- I would highly recommend a wine-tasting excursion here if you ever get the chance. Be forewarned, however, that unlike my wine-tasting experiences in California, vineyards truly expect you to buy wine after the tasting!! In fact, if you didn’t purchase wine after the tasting, they charged you 10 euro. This is understandable to me in the long run, but could become very expensive if you visited lots of châteauxs!!

After our visit to Clos de Madeline, we headed onto Pamplona, Spain for the San Fermin festival (aka Running of the Bulls) and the next leg of our journey!

<----------- Another New Blog Link

I've added another new blog link to the left here. This is the blog of another friend i've had since highschool, Lara. Lara lives on a boat in Charleston, SC and has just quit her job to pursue her art career full time. Check out her blog to see her fabulous gallery of artwork (hopefully more to come now that that pesky other full-time job isn't in the way) and follow her life in Charleston and beyond.

One of Lara's paintings entitled "Cows in Field"

Barcelona

As you may have noticed from our calendar on the left, it has been a hectic few weeks to say the least. So, let’s start at the beginning.

At the end of June, our friends Brian and Candace came out from the states. They spent a few days in London, but we also convinced them to travel with us to Barcelona, a city I have long wanted to visit.

We spent our first day in Barcelona walking up and down La Rambla, the city’s main shopping/people watching boulevard. We loved its restaurants filled with paella as well as all of the food markets.

Paella- yummy!

Food market on La Rambla

Next, we headed out to Gaudi’s famous church: La Sagrada Familia. From the outside, the Sagrada Familia reminded me of those sandcastles we used to make as kids by holding wet sand in our hands and letting it drop to the ground little clump by little clump until you have a lumpy looking mound. While the outside, to me, wasn’t very pretty, it was very interesting. The inside of la Sagrada Familia, however, was SPECTACULAR!!! It was like nothing I have ever seen before. Gaudi is said to have been inspired by a forest and wanted the cathedral to invoke the feeling of lying on the forest floor and looking up at the trees. I think he was successful. The stained-glass windows blew me away more than anything else. They were so modern looking and produced such amazing light. The cathedral has been under construction for 100 years and is not scheduled to be completed until 2040, but I would go back just to see what it looks like at the end!!!

La Sagrada Familia

Inside

The next day, we hopped on the train and headed 45 minutes south of Barcelona to the beach town of Sitges. Lined with old Spanish churches and courtyards, this town had a very wonderful old-world feel to it. However, once you delve into the town centre, you are instantly aware of why it is called one of Spain’s biggest party retreats. Bars line most streets and colourful drinks are aplenty!

Brian and Candace in Sitges

On our last day in Barcelona, we headed north of the city to Park Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. It was originally planned as a city retreat for the wealthy, but was never really completed. It was wonderful to walk through the park and see all of Gaudi’s nature-inspired designs intertwined with the Spanish landscape.

Me and Bobby, Park Guell

Bobby squishing La Sagrada Familia from the top of Park Guell

If I were every to go back to Barcelona, I would definitely plan on staying in Sitges and making day trips into the City instead of the other way around. While Barcelona was fantastic, there wasn’t a lot to do there and it would have been nice to sit on Sitges’ beautiful beaches a while longer!

UK Factoid of the Day

In the UK, the dance/song we call the Hokey Pokey is called the Hokey Cokey and the lyrics are as follows:

Put your left leg in
your left leg out
In
out
in
out
shake it all about

Do the Hokey-Cokey
and you turn around
That's what it's all about

I like Cokey
I like Cokey
I like Cokey

Knees bent
arms stretched
rah
rah
rah