Ernest Hemingway during his last visit to Pamplona; Café Iruña interior; Spanish brandies at the bar
Pamplona is not Seattle, we can all agree. The bulls run every morning in Pamplona during the ten-day festival of San Fermin in July, which would never work in Seattle.. Blue Angels strafe Seattle every August during Seafair, which would never work in Pamplona.
And yet.
There's a huge campus in Pamplona for the Opus Dei university just as there's a huge campus in Seattle for the University of Washington. Big medical centers, check. Educated workforce, check. Nightlife, check. Green industries, check. Nearby mountains, check. Independent streak, check. Better still, Pamplona gets 130 days of rain every year, just like Seattle. This is one of those days.
Hemingway would come to Pamplona to drink and run with the bulls. Then he'd hang out at the Café Iruña and drink some more. Sounds like a good plan.
Oh, how I fancy to return! I spent a year in Madrid in 2001 with frequent train trips to Barcelona and back. Have the siesta's kidnapped you yet?