EXPEDITIONS
THE REAL SPAIN – WITHOUT THE BULL T hink of Pamplona and you tend to picture bull running. Yet there is much more to the city than the festival of San Fermín, which is famous for that dangerous activity (el encierro in Spanish). Indeed, we discovered that many of Pamplona’s residents actively protest against the maltreatment of bulls and view the bull running as merely a perverse form of animal torture encouraged by thrill-seeking tourists. The city actually has a much greater cultural role within Spain, with its renowned seafood-based cuisine, wineries and the beautiful Casco Viejo (Old Town), which all serve to attract a steady flow of visitors. La Plaza del Castillo (Pamplona’s town square and its social hub) is a breathtakingly beautiful scene: an array of restaurants on its periphery sell a variety of local Basque dishes including pinchos (small bread-based snacks) and changurro (a spider crab dish), as well as stereotypical Spanish food such as churros. Pamplona is renowned for its Michelin-rated restaurants and delicious cuisine and we were lucky enough to experience this hands-on. We created a full, three-course Spanish meal, consisting of tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelette), paella (fish and chicken stir fry) and cuajada (a curdled milk desert), all of which were extremely appetising yet relatively simple and quick to prepare.
Ziyad Elkhawad (Year 12) and Kwaku Gyasi (Year 12) experienced a week of culture, cuisine and competition in Pamplona
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