Pamplona

On Saturday, itching to get out of Bilbao for the day, I found myself in Pamplona (Iruña in Basque). The Spanish name, Pamplona, is a derivative of Pompaelo, named after the Roman general Pompey, who used the area as a camp during on one of his campaigns. History nerd side of me=satisfied. 

The Camino de Santiago goes through Pamplona

Pamplona is in the provence of Navarra, and is on the edges of the Pyrenees mountains, which immediately makes it pretty nice to look at, especially in the fall. 

Pamplona is famous for two things that you're probably familiar with. The first is the Festival de San Fermín, or the Running of the Bulls, the second, for Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway penned The Sun Also Rises after witnessing firsthand the bullfights and the festival. He visited Pamplona 9 times, and was greatly inspired by what he saw there. 

Running of the Bulls statue

Since San Fermin is in July, we weren't able to participate in those festivities, but we did get to explore some of Hemingway's haunts. 

Café Iruña

The Plaza del Castillo, main square in Pamplona, is one of the more beautiful that I have seen in Spain. I found it a lot more open than most plaza mayores in Spain. In the plaza, there are a plethora of establishments that Hemingway visited whilst in Pamplona. The Hotel Perla, Bar Txoco, and Café Iruña are all still alive and serving. 

Plaza del Castillo

Looking to be inspired, we decided to have a coffee at Café Iruña. The interior looked like it should be in black and white, and I wish I could have stayed there all afternoon, scribbling notes and smoking a cigarette (except that smoking is banned in Spain, and I don't smoke). 

After the café, we walked around the town, looking in all the shops and admiring the multiple churches. The rest of the day was spent looking for the "deer park", which we had heard about from multiple people. We walked along the old city walls, and eventually came across the park, which did indeed have deer, along with geese, swans, and turkeys (which we contemplated snatching for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend). 

Overall, Pamplona was a great place to spend a day, and I recommend it to anyone that comes within a 2 hour radius (which, coincidentally, Bilbao is). Definitely worth it. 

I'll leave you with a quote from Mr. Hemingway himself. I think my expat friends can relate to his words. 

"You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You’re an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés." 

The Sun Also Rises

Originally published 11.21.11