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Published: July 23rd 2009
As predicted we arrived in Madrid to a very warm welcome.” Spicy” i believe was the word we used for the last 6 days in Madrid. Temps were very similar to Brisbane summer but damn the sun really had a nasty bite to it. Especially seeing as though we were actually camping 40km out of Madrid in the desert! Yes literally in the desert with huge rocky mountains right behind us. Therefore it was scorching during the day at the campsite but extremely cool at nightime - great for sleeping!
The campsite was dead for most of the week but come the weekend it was packed. There were heaps of young people there but unfortunately none that spoke English that we could party with! However, late Saturday night three Spanish amigos arrived right next to us (Eva, Laila and David). After a brief encounter we discovered they spoke English very well and loved Australians.....even better! They were very hospitable by feeding us dinner and giving us all the tips on the best Spanish meats, drinks and places to go. So that got the party started on Saturday night and the 5 of us drank and chatted well into the wee
hours of the morning.
Anyhow onto sightseeing, we had 3 days in big bustling Madrid. It really is an amazing city and for all those art/architecture/literature buffs you would love it. Actually all those shopaholics would love it too. Madrid is packed to the rafters with young women’s and men’s fashion (unfortunately not the greatest for the older generations)! As the guide books explain, Madrid is really a city that you need to take in by people watching, wandering the shops and sipping coffees around the myriad of cafes lining the tiny streets, parks and plazas.
The old beautiful buildings were simply amazing, Banco de Espano, The Royal Palace and its glorious gardens, The Finance Institution, The Post Office, just to name a few, are wonders in themselves. The thing about all of these buildings is that they are absolutely HUGE! I think Madrid works on the concept “bigger is better”. In these cases I would have to agree, the Royal Palace dwarfs Buckingham Palace and its gardens are so immaculate they put all others to shame. We’ve also never seen such an elaborate post office in any city as in Madrid. With a towering horse and carriage
type statue adorning the entrance (the horses actually being lions), a building the size of a football field and its own Champs Elysee out the front, it really is magnificent.
We also encountered our first bull fighting show. Unfortunately poor me ( Suz) thought it was like what you see on the movies, slightly naive of me, but I really did think that they just round around and the matador was brave and clever avoiding the bull. I found out a few days before the show that this indeed was not the case and it actually involved a fight and generally it was to the end of the bulls life. We arrived at the stadium which was packed with cheering and eager spectators. There was a parade of the matadors, horses and all sorts of other assistants and then it was on to the show.
The first bull came charging out, it is unbelievable how fast these beasts move and the force behind them when you watch them try to stop. The first show was slightly bearable as it was similar to what I had expected. Numerous matadors were dodging the bull and showing their tricks with their
capes. The part that we didn’t expect was when a huge blindfolded and fully armoured horse came out with a man on it with a huge spear. After cornering it the rider stabs the bull (in this case only very superficially, not deep) and basically slows the bull down - but not nice to watch at all. After this the horse leaves and so did the bull - still very much alive and kicking. Maybe they thought this bull was worth keeping around for another day.... we aren’t entirely sure.
The next show started the same but then took a slippery slide to being a whole lot worse. I couldn’t watch most of it and really couldn’t understand how people could cheer these matadors. To me they were simply tormenting this bull and tiring it out so much so that there was no fight, it was really just an unfair killing. The best part for me was when the bull got one or two back on the matadors either hitting them or making them at least stumble. It is really quite sad as once the bull has been run ragged they throw little spears into its back, then another
matador has a one on one with the bull and eventually stabs it in its back with a long skinny sword. After tormenting the bull a little more it eventually falls down and then the show comes to an end with a small knife being stabbed into the top of its back/bottom of its head. So how does the bull get off the arena? Well three horses come out with a carrier behind it. The bull is attached to this and dragged off the......again horrible. Needless to say I only caught glimpses of the second show, I couldn’t handle the barbarity of it all and as I said earlier I really can’t see how the matadors can claim they are brave and glorious when it seems to be a one sided fight.
I guess the thing is, this is a Spanish tradition and has been going on for years and years. It certainly opened our eyes and is good to know the culture and ways of these countries. Definately not for the squimish. As you can understand Vince and I left after the second show, if you’ve seen one bull fight, you’ve seen them all.
However, there was
some good that came out of the bull fighting show.... Vince now has a newfound respect for bulls. Watching their thunderous bodies run with such power and strength has given Vince an inside into what will really be running up behind him in the streets of Pamplona. All I can say is thank God he is more cautious now and will indeed treat these beasts with the respect they deserve. But come Saturday I will still be praying hard that’s for sure!
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