Spain (Days 41 - 45)

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July 1 - 5
I took a ferry from Tangier, Morocco to Algeciras, Spain. It took less than an hour - it was a cool way to see a country for the first time. The countryside down near Gibraltar is covered with these monstrous wind generators. Each blade must be over 100ft...

I took an afternoon train (6hr) to Madrid. I didn't have a Spain guide book, so I had to borrow one on the train to research how to get around Madrid and Barcelona and find places to stay. Unfortunately, the only one I could find was in Spanish (which I don't speak). I was able to draw a few maps and write down a few hotel options.

When I arrived I was told there were nearly no hotel rooms left in the city because of a festival (which ended up being the gay pride parade). I checked my bags at the train station and took the subway to a square where I hoped I could find a room for the night. It was nearly midnight, and the subways were packed. There was a line of 50 people just to get a ticket. I found the square and luckily a reasonable room. The streets were a mess. I had an early train, and the streets were still packed in the morning around 7am...

I took another 6hr train to Barcelona and I found the hotel that Elisabeth had booked for the first few nights (she wasn't flying in until the morning). I had an afternoon to kill so I caught a bullfight. Spain has really cut back on bullfighting, and it is about to be stopped altogether in Barcelona (although it's still big in Madrid). I wasn't excited about seeing bulls killed but I thought I should check it out b/c it's such a part of the culture.

Corridas de toros (bullfights) (WARNING: some of pics are of bloody/dead bulls)
As you can see from the pictures, the stadium was only about 25%!f(MISSING)ull. Tickets were very expensive. I bought the cheapest (~$24), which was up top in the sun. The locals all got the tickets down low in the shade, which were more like $80. I watched the first few up top in my assigned seat, but went down to the bottom level and then front row for the later fights.

There are 6 fights. They start off with a ceremony where everyone involved with the fights comes out in the ring to present themselves. From what I can tell, there are many bullfighters, some assistants on foot, some on horseback. But there is only one real 'torero' per bull, the main bullfighter.

Some of the fights featured horseback. This part is pretty impressive. I have a set of pics where the horse dodges the bull and the fighter sticks him as he runs by. Some of the fights featured these horses that were armored (and blindfolded), and the bull would actually run into them while the fighter stuck him with a big spear.

After a few minutes of this, the band would play some notes and the bullfighter would get off the horse and mess with the bull on foot. This was the sick part. The bull by this point is pretty bloody and tired, and his neck muscles have been cut so much he can barely hold up his head. In a few of the fights, he would keep falling down, and the assistants would have to get him up by pulling on his tail and horns at same time. He was pretty harmless by this point, and the fighters get pretty close to him without much risk. Then the torero would stick him with a sword right above his head and he would fall, dead. A few times he had to do this like 5 times, and the crowd would start booing. When he did it well, the crowd would cheer and start waving white handkerchiefs. I forgot mine...

A few times, the bullfighters fell down and the bulls came at them and gored them (see pic). The crowd would get very loud, and sometimes I felt like they were cheering for the bull.

Elisabeth arrived on my second day, and we walked around checking out the cathedrals... We randomly ran into a Darden classmate of mine and his wife (Brian Ehrig), who I trained a lot with in c'ville. I liked the city, but was ready to get out into the countryside and relax...

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