The Pamplona thing reminded me of a funny story. It is kind of long..
When I was in law school I did a semester abroad at Oxford, taking classes, but mainly traveling and having fun. We had 3 day weekends and one weekend some of the students went down to Pamplona. One of the guys went down there on his own, not in a group (I don't remember his name, so I'll just call him Todd). Todd had a hearing problem, although not deaf, which made him kind of a "close talker." He was not very popular, I'm sorry to say, because the guys all thought he only did the "close talking" thing to hit on girls - and since he DID try and hit on the girls CONSTANTLY - they didn't like him too much either.
Sunday night comes, I'm sitting in the commons room, the lights are off and I'm watching TV. I hear someone arrive back at the dorm (turns out it is Todd) and he calls out to me from the foyer, asking if I can help him carry up his bag (this was a 5 or 6 story dorm with no elevator). Now Todd wasn't fat, but he was a big, husky guy so of course I think to myself, "Dude, why do you need me to help you with your luggage?" But not wanting to be rude, I didn't say anything but headed out to help him.
Todd was standing there with his arms and shoulders in a cast, his arms straight out in front of him propped up by rods embedded in the casts. His luggage was by his side (apparently a cab driver had dropped him off), and his jacket and shirt were just kind of haphazardly buttoned around his neck, with his chest and stomach exposed. He did, thankfully, have pants on.
Todd proceeds to tell me that he had been in Pamplona and there was some square with a tall statue (he said about 20 feet tall) and a huge crowd around it. Everyone, including Todd, was drunk, and people would climb up to the tower and jump into the crowd and "crowd surf."
So Todd decides that looks like fun and he is going to try it. Todd didn't speak any language other than English, and his hearing wasn't too good, and he had no friends in the crowd, and he weighed about (I'm guessing) 180-200lbs. I don't know if people warned him not to jump and he didn't hear, or didn't understand the language, or was too drunk to notice, but when he jumped, the crowd scattered and Todd splattered.
Todd was taken to a hospital where there was some major communication problems (and I get the sense from Todd that he wanted to stay at the hospital but they hustled him out fairly quickly) and somehow they patched his two broken arms and stuck him on a train back towards England. I know that this trip took the better part of the day and I'm still not sure how he managed it by himself or what strangers helped him along the way, but here he was back at Oxford.
By this time we're in his dorm room, I've hauled up his suitcase. He asks me if I can get him a glass of water. He mentions he needs to use the restroom. Then, can I unbutton his jacket? Then his shirt. At this point, I'm afraid what he is going to ask me to do next so I tell him I'm going to go get the class chaperone, a professor whose room was also in the dorm.
Up until this point, this professor was having the time of his life on a university-funded-all-expenses-paid vacation. He had brought his wife along and they were hanging out, sightseeing. He occasionally spoke at one of the classes (but didn't actually teach any). I get him, tell him and his wife what had happened, and head back downstairs.
About an hour later the professor comes down, VERY flustered and upset. Todd has the insurance we all had to purchase for medical emergencies that provides for transport back to the states, and the professor has called and arranged for someone to come tomorrow and escort him home. "He CANNOT stay here. He can't do anything for himself. I mean ANYTHING, and I am not going to..." his voice tapers off, very upset, shaking his head. "I can't do that again..." He didn't tell me WHAT and I didn't ask.
The next morning my roommate and I looked out our dorm window and there was Todd sitting in the courtyard. His belongings were all packed and he was waiting to be picked up. Todd was a smoker, and someone had taken a hanger and straightened it and put a loop in one end. There was a cigarette in the loop and Todd held the hanger in his right hand, at the end of his outstretched, immobile right arm, and slowly moved his right hand back and forth so that the end of the hanger with the cigarette in it went back and forth to his lips. That was the last we saw of Todd...
Aaaahhhhh....it all makes sense now. At least riding the Harleys, but are you suggesting bull riding is dangerous???? Shocking.
Too bad the bulls won't be running in Pamplona when we're all in Spain. Now, that would be an excursion!
I wonder if
travel insurance would cover it?
...
) two pairs of trousers (pants). not necessarily for the cruise, but hey, its a start......
ed. Plus I need some for Barcelona they day before the cruise anyway...
