España Day 2, Part 2 - Viva, Viva Pamplona!

So after a crazy morning, the rest of the day was much more chill. Around 10, we met up with Lauren, Jacque, and Justin and shortly after, we ran into David's friend Charlie, who was there with a big group of Georgetown students who were studying in Barcelona for the summer, much like our program in Tours.
Armed with bottles of cheap Sangria, we headed over to meet the rest of Charlie's crowd, who were all passed out in the sun next to the stadium. This was the low point of the day - it was hot, I was extremely tired, Charlie was REALLY loud, and I just wanted to nap.
But we plowed through it. And after an hour and a half or so here (during which I chatted with a cool dude named Aaron who was from UC-Davis and was on a 6-month world excursion on less than 5 dollars a day), we moved to another, shadier park. We all fell right asleep, taking a good 1 1/2 hour nap.
We woke up to Charlie being loud as always and talking about how he forgot where he was. We eventually decided to get some lunch, which we did at a supermarket. At this point, I was mad at myself for successfully forgetting next to ALL of my Spanish - 10 years of studying it wasted. Yikes. The bright side was that I did understand quite a bit when it was spoken, but could barely speak it. Yet we got by just fine.
After picking up ham, baguettes, carrots, etc. for lunch, we headed back to the park to find our group size doubled. We merged with some French dudes and a Dutch guy, all of which were very cool and we were happy to speak French again. One of the French guys managed to get a huge gash in his leg while wrestling with Aaron, causing him to get 11 stitches. Ouch. When you do stupid stuff, you get hurt.
At this point, we learned the greatest cheer: "Pulpa Paul" - the Spanish name of the German octopus who had successfully called all of Germany's games in the World Cup up to this point and picked Spain to beat the Netherlands during the final. A stupid superstition, but entertaining - especially as we led the cheer the next day after Spain won.
We chilled here for a good 5 hours or so - and we weren't the only ones. The park was packed with people from all over the world - I estimate about 300-500,000 people were in Pamplona on this day.
Finally, around 10:30pm, we headed out for the night. We quickly lost Charlie's group on accident but managed to have a great time nonetheless. First, we found a funny Santana cover band, where we danced to "Corazon Espinado" and I managed to get some of my Spanish-speaking ability back. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a massive crack - fireworks! We sprinted through the streets for a view - and what a show it was - one of the best I've ever seen.
A bit worn out, we headed back to the main plaza - Plaza del Castillo - where we rested for a bit and waited for the performers who were going to play at the big stage in a little bit.
So we struggled to find a spot to sit down that wasn't absolutely gross, however. The whole city smelled like a mix of urine, sweat, sangria, and bad eggs - nasty. But eventually we found something and waited 30 minutes for the band to start.
Oh what great fun the band was - two old guys singing with two back-up dancers and some guys on guitars and a piano. The music was great - very Spanish and truly a lot of fun to dance to. When we started doing the Macarena, I got suspicious. Once we did it twice, I knew - these were the ACTUAL creators of the Macarena!! Haha - Los del Río, owners of the biggest one hit wonder that ever existed. Hilarious, yet great. And they managed to get the tune "Viva, Viva Pamplona" stuck in my head for the rest of the trip.
Eventually, after 2 hours of dancing, they finished - and we were exhausted. After watching another random band for a bit, we decided to find a place to stay. We decided not to go back to get our bags and we simply would sleep in what we were wearing. So we headed back to the same park from the afternoon and found a nice spot away from the craziness and loud music.
Boy were we creative - David found some cardboard boxes, which we laid on, and a random jacket and a wet, white sheet. What a sight it was - five college kids cuddling under a jacket and a wet sheet on some cardboard. The closest I've ever felt to homeless. And sleep we did - I was out within 5 minutes. It was about 3:30am by this time. What a long day. But wicked awesome.