The calm encierros didn't last. 6 and 7 were disasters.
I watched both of them from home with Nerea, and both of us were terrified. The 6th running there was a leading bull and a trailing bull. The two most dangerous things that can happen. They both managed to get their horns into people, but the trailing bull was the worst.
I felt horrible for the man who was attacked for a solid 40 seconds by the trailer, but I felt even worse for the poor bull--he was so confused and turned around and lost and it was horrible to watch... The man didn't make his situation much better by trying repeatedly to get up. He made it easy for the bull to get a horn in his leg (which was disgusting by the way). As far as I know, everyone who was injured survived, but some of them were definitely in critical condition.
The danger of the 7th running was the ridiculous amount of people that ran. There was only one goring, but there were many trampled people at the mouth of the bull ring. It was a literal mountain of bodies and the bulls slammed right into them. One Australian man was "flattened" (the only thing that was funny about it was how it translated into English). Thankfully no one died that day either.
The 8th run was fun to watch again from the inside of the ring. We had much better seats this time and we could see everything very clearly when the bulls thundered into the plaza. It was a good last running for the week. We decided to rest for most of the day so that we could go to the closing ceremony at 24:00 in the same plaza as the chupinazo. It was really beautiful and calm. Much the opposite of the antics of the opening ceremonies.
This morning walking around the city it was so strange not to see anyone in their red and white garb. And to see Pamplona return to its calm self. It'll take weeks for it to recover completely, but we are all relieved to have our quiet city back. I can't imagine having to see the city take that much abuse every year.
I've enjoyed the fiestas, but I am rather excited to settle down for a few days. Only one more week :( See y'all soon!
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