24 hours in the Sanfermines

Never has a 24-hour delirium seemed so sensible and timely to me. Fed up with us all? Do what Charo, a retired telephone operator at the Casa de Misericordia in Pamplona, did when some joker called (read in Diario de Navarra ): laugh things off. The Casa—housing the elderly for three centuries—is the organizer of the bullfighting festival, its livelihood, and Charo answered the most unusual questions in July. “Do you know if I can go to the Family Bullfights with friends without family?”

The bullfighting clubs take bullfights seriously, and some are so anti-bullfighting that they whistle at the matador when he takes the sword. Concha Velasco has passed away, but the sunny stands continue to bellow " Chica Ye Ye" or "No Te quieres enterar" (You Don't Want to Enter). The Socialist president of Navarra, by the way, is away from Pamplona these days.

"Do you know if I can go to the Family Bullfights with friends or without family?"

Dinner at the Alhambra. Big-time family business, like the pranks of Iñaki Idoate, one of the brothers. Years ago, he went to Paris with a friend and they decided to play a trick on the antique dealer Jean Marie Rossi: the nouveau riche—Iñaki played the role of the official—had 100 million pesetas to spend on paintings for a tacky estate. In two days of negotiations, Rossi invited them to the best places. Hours before closing the deal, they cited a family matter as their excuse...

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The churrería La Mañueta is one of the best in the world, friends of Joaquín Ausejo, owner of the Alma Hotel. Sixth generation. They only open during San Fermín and out of loyalty to their ancestors. They're not the caves of sadomasochism; they only appear to be. Victor Gómez Pin, philosopher and resident of Consell de Cent, says while observing the artisanal mixture—not a lump in it—:

–A gourmet churros shop has opened in my neighborhood...

The Casa del Libro, in Estafeta, on Fifth Avenue from the running of the bulls. There's press! And runners still carrying their rolled-up newspapers to quote the bull. "The other day a foreigner thought it was for beating the animal." They sigh. I buy Hemingway at the Sanfermines , by Miguel Izu, to disprove all those plaques "Ernest Hemingway ate (or spent the night or got drunk) here." I was afraid of it: the Nobel Prize winner only attended nine Sanfermines. And already in the first, 1923, the local press estimated that many, too many tourists came to the festivities...