Bull-running festival starts today in Spain

by Abha Malpani on

Spain is is known to create their own festivals because, oh, it’s fun! Anything to have a party and drink on a large scale.

Most of the festivals have some deep-rooted historical connections to a saint, but other than that, Spaniards do not have solid reasons for celebrations, nor will majority be able to explain the root of the traditions.

Two such festivals, now famous as they’ve become tradition are 1) The Tomatina: where people get together in the street to throw tomatoes at each other, 2) San Fermin: where people get chased by bulls for the fun of it — a festival that started today in Pamplona, and runs till July 14.

So this is how it works: people get drunk the night before, at 8am runners put on white shirts and red scarfs and prepare to race with the bulls along an 800-meter path. The idea is to beat the bulls to it or you will get trampled to serious injury or in some cases even death. The afternoons are normally filled with bull-fights.

Of course, the main runners are professionals who practice for this festival, but there are always the over-enthusiastic and semi-drunk tourists who think they should have a go at it. Although only 13 deaths have been registered since the festival began in 1924, the tourists are the ones who always get severely injured.

This time round, 9 people have already been injured and one has died from falling off a wall after a night of binge drinking.

This festival is worth going to to experience the craze and the chaos that Spaniards are known for, but be sure to book way in advance. Getting a hostel or finding place in a bar that over looks the street on which people run, is the best situation you can be in to enjoy this stuff safely.

British driver wrecks a $650,000 Mercedes

by Iva Skoch on

I always wondered if those valet parking guys ever crash people’s cars. They must, right? Kind of like this poor guy…

According to the Daily Mail, A British delivery driver for a car rental company wrecked a rare Mercedes-Benz worth more than $650,000 on Friday. He was driving the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren to a London drop-off when an 18-wheel truck ripped off the front end of the car. He says he was “creeping along in this very narrow lane and the power steering was very hard at such low speed and he couldn’t turn.”

The driver said he was only two minutes from his destination when the accident took place and estimates repairs could cost about $100,000. The Mercedes is the most notable car the rental company offers and was being repaired by engineers at the McLaren workshop in Weybridge, England.

The driver says he feels awful. I bet.

[via UPI]

Adolf Hitler beheaded! Chaos breaks out at the grand opening of Madame Tussauds’ newest museum in Berlin

by Jeffrey White on

A German man waited patiently in line yesterday for the grand opening of Madame Tussauds’ latest museum in Berlin. He was the second person in the building. What did he do?

He promptly ran to the wax statue of Adolf Hitler on display and ripped off his head, shouting three times as he did, “Never war again!”

Germany’s national tabloid Bild has the whole story today (sorry, it’s in German), and it’s pretty funny.

A man authorities are only calling “Frank L.”, from the Berlin neighborhood of Kruezberg (where I live!) tussled with and injured several security guards on his way to bringing down the Hitler display. Witnesses say he was fanatical and determined.

His girlfriend, who was there, said only, “I am proud of what he did. He was really angry for days about this display. He is a quiet, loving person.”

Police arrested Frank and questioned him, but eventually let him go. He told police that he simply objected to the proximity of the Hitler display to the city’s Jewish museum (though, in reality, they are not that close: Tussauds is near the Brandenburg Gate, while the Jewish museum is more than a 30 minute walk away).

The Hitler display at Madame Tussauds has been a subject of controversy in Germany for months, with most concluding that the man who wreaked havoc on a good chunk of the world does not deserve to be immortalized in wax for deep-pocketed tourists to gawk at. In many ways, the controversy is not such a surprise in a country that still takes all matters relating to WWII seriously and that has officially outlawed naming boys Adolf.

Predictably, the German press today mocked the attack. On its German Web site, the major news magazine Der Spiegel said, “Finally a Hitler assassination that worked!”

The Hitler display at Tussauds cost about $300,000 and right now museum officials are debating whether to replace the display, which originally depicted Hitler at work at his desk.

Reaction today among museum goers was mixed.

Bild quotes one tourist from the German city of Mannheim saying, “Hitler belongs to our history. That’s why I would have liked to see him.”

Another tourist says bluntly, in a nod to Germany’s past greatness in tennis, “Hitler? I want to see Boris Becker!”

The Eiffel tower turns blue

by Grant Martin on

To celebrate France’s rotating presidency of the European Union (EU), the Eifel tower is glowing blue. Additionally, twelve stars are mounted on the northwest face of the tower to look like the EU flag. From the Trocadero Gardens and The Pallais de Chaillot, you can get a square view of the spectacle, which is where the above picture was taken.

The tower will continue to glow blue through the end of the summer, so if you’re in Paris make sure you stop by to take a look

Remember that for ten minutes at the top of every hour, strobe lights will be turned on the tower to make it sparkle, a feature that was originally installed earlier this decade but just brought back because of its populartiy.

Bon voyage!

Heathrow: Still Europe’s worst

by Iva Skoch on

I wonder whether they should just tear down Heathrow and build a new airport from scratch. Heathrow consistently gets the worst ratings among airports. And with competition such as the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, that’s saying a lot.

According to the latest statistics published by the Association of European Airlines, nearly half of flights left or arrived at Heathrow at least 15 minutes late during the first three months of the year, Telegraph reports. Not only was Heathrow rated as the worst of the 27 airports in the survey, but this was the 16th quarter in succession that it was rated among the poorest five performers.

Heathrow suffered particularly badly with air traffic control delays, which were responsible for 15.3 percent of flights arriving late. Loading and handling at Heathrow was also bad, being cited as the key factor in 11.1 percent of planes’ delayed departure.

Even with the new Terminal 5, Heathrow just can’t win.