October: The Craziest Month of My Life

Phew! This past October was definitely one of the busiest months of my life. Between the 14 concerts I attended (including #100), being swamped at my new job, birthday celebrations, Orioles playoff runs, family occasions and visits from far-away friends I can honestly say October kicked my butt! I finally finished posting about Europe from this summer (ha) and can get back to all the festive Friday recipes that have been stuck in my draft folder and perhaps more current frolicking adventures.

October Gram-Moments

 

1. Concert #100

2. New phone!

3. Festive Friday

4. Birthday celebrations

5. Orioles playoff run

6. Bloctoberfest

7. Toy Soldiers

8. Historic Philadelphia

9. Fall

10. The perfect shot

11. Spoken word

12. The best bottle of wine with Steph

13. Tequila Shots

14. Poe's House

15. Hurricane Sandy

16. Halloween

 

I'm telling ya, October was packed to the brim with various engagements and though I had a blast I am looking forward to a semi relaxed couple of weeks before the holiday madness starts up.

Pamplona

Elizabeth and I left the last three days of our trip open for us to decide what to do with once we were in Spain. Once we realized we were in Spain at the same time the running of the bulls were happening in Pamplona we knew we just had to go! So off we went by train to Northern Spain for the craziest 24 hours of our lives.

As soon as we hopped off the train we grabbed some red and white running of the bulls gear and jumped right into all the festivities.

Crazy enough another friend of Elizabeth was also in Spain and met up with us in Pamplona for an epic night of dancing, drinking, street music and just all around unforgettable moments at this insane tradition.

People and booze were everywhere you looked. We literally ran into this parade that turned out to be one giant musical bar-hop where drinking in the streets very much encouraged. America get on Europe's level when it comes to alcohol.

The whole night was full of so much happiness, it could possibly be one of the best nights of life: great people, unforgettable memories, live music, dance-offs and dance-parties. We some how managed to stay up the whole night (to avoid needing to pay for any where to stay, ha!) and grabbed our front row spot for THE running of the bulls.

Everyone was extremely tired as we patiently awaited the running, which took about all of two minutes to watch. There are two sets of gates, the first being the actual barrier between the bulls and runners and the second being where people could start lining up to watch. The gap in between is used for press and emergency medics when the drunk runners get hurt..SMH

I nearly ran with the bulls myself but was convinced by a local that it was more than dangerous, it would be stupid to participate in the actual running. He himself had lived in Pamplona for over 35 years and never ran it because it's more than just the bulls you have to worry about, the biggest issue is avoiding all the drunk careless fools who are also running. No matter what it was an amazing night that I won't ever forget. Plus, it was the first all-nighter ever! Bucket List, Check Check