Sangre y Sangria

Making our way to Morocco to meet our friend Kelly Belly we decided to swing by Spain for a couple of days, in particular the cities of Barcelona and Seville. Spain wasn't on our original itinerary but something about the the weather mad us want to continue our trajectory along the coast.

Barcelona is home of the Seussian architect Gaudi and is otherwise a fantastic town. We stayed in the Bari Gotic area near the cathedral and old ramparts..we wandered the town, we ate tapas and drank sangria. After a couple of days in B we decided to mosey over to Seville for a couple of days.

Barcelona Skyline

Bari Gotic

Gaudi - Familla Sagrada

Seville was a very cool place to visit. In addition to the fantastic architecture, the town is capital of Andalusia and of flamenco guitar and bull fighting. And, as it turns out our first night there whilst wandering the old town we stumbled across a crowd gathered outside an arena...the bullfights were on.

Sevilla Cathedral

Sevilla

Sevilla Riverside at night

We spent ~7 euro each for tickets, a surprisingly paltry price to watch 6 bulls fall, and sat about 10 rows back from action...and this is where I say that 1) i have never been a huge fan of the idea of bullfighting given the relentless cruelty suffered by these poor brutes..and 2) if you've never seen a live bullfight you should..

Sevilla Bullring

Bullfighting apparently comes in several styles..we were lucky to see the on-foot style (as opposed to the man on horse with spear versus bull style). The bullfight goes like this: 3 young matadors enter the arena. They are all in their teens and are all wearing fancy, brightly colored coats embroidered with gold sequined, they wear tassels knickers, fancy flared hats and matching shoes and of course their deadly red capes.

They strike their pose near these double walled exits that they can duck behind when the bull charges. The brass band sitting in the far side of the arena plays a sketches-of-spain-esque flourish and with a snap of the latch the gate slams open and the bull bursts into the arena. With a short pause in its stride the bull spots one of the matadors across the floor and immediately bolts in his direction.the matador challenges the beast with a few flicks of the cape but as the bull nears the matador ducks behind the blind and bang! the bull rams into the wooden fence..almost immediately the bull spots spots the next matador and charges him..bang into the fence again and then onto the third matador..this cycle repeats several times until the bull starts to slow its pace a bit. Once tired the game changes and the matadors leave the safety of the blinds and enter the ring with their capes en garde..this time one however, one of the matadors is carrying two spears. The matadors take turns taunting the beast. The beast charges, matador pirouettes and slips the bull past his hip..the crowd cheers Ole!..after a couple of turns like this the stage is set for the first strike. The spear matador positions himself just past the cape of the matador fighting the bull, he holds his spears above the head and readies himself in a postures that recapitulates the horned bull himself. At the next turn the bull charges past the other matador's cape and finds himself flanked by the spear man..and with a lunge and a downward thrust the spears find their way into the back of the bulls shoulders..the now defenseless matador sprints back to the blind as the now bleeding bull is again distracted by the other matadors in the ring.. This cycle continues until there are six spears solidly planted into the bulls neck/shoulder area.. At this point the bull has six spears in his neck and has been fighting about three matadors nonstop for about twenty minutes..he is tired and barely fighting back..now the matadors leave and the main matador enters the stage alone. This is the quintessence of the bullfight, man versus beast one on one. This matador, like the ones before him teases the beast into his cape turn after turn. Several times in this dance the matador will turn his back to the vanquished bull and bow to the crowd in a show fearless mastery. After several more turns and Ole's the matador eventually slips his sword out its it holster and readies his blow. Now comes the finally..the matador approaches the bull only feet away from the horns, flips the cape, bull charges, matador drops the cape, sidesteps and drops the sword 2 feet in the base of the bulls neck straight into the heart. Again the brass band plays its flourish as the triumphant matador walks the edge of the arena, bowing to the crowd and receiving his applause. At the same time a several of what looks like janitors enter the ring to begin sweeping the bull's blood and feces..they are followed by a team of horses who are lassoed to the bull to drag it away. Or at least this is how its supposed to happen..and we did actually see one fight that ended with the matador performing this blow..it was completely morbid but beautiful at the same time..the matador must have struck the bull in its heart or aorta or something because almost immediately the bull stopped in its placed and began to lean sideways while blood shot from the bull's next in an arc that nearly reached the first row of seats..this won the matador a standing ovation followed by a full house of white kerchiefs being waved (which apparently means "you're the best"). Not all the fights went this smoothly however..several of the fight had the bull catching one of the matadors with his horns, flipping them onto the ground and the trampling and goring them with his horns..mostly the other fighters would comes to the matadors rescue and help him to his feet but one of these incidents actually ended with the matador being injured enough to be taken of the ring and be replaced. Other times the fights wouldn't end so cleanly. The bull would not be felled buy one blow and would require several and some times several several additional strikes to kill..this was depressing to watch; the mortally wounded would just cower in the corner attempting to get to its feet or turn to run as the matador was handed sword after sword to strike the bull with..the most depressing of these was the bull that required five swords. Basically this was the mark of the bad matador and the crowd would boo these guys. By the time the fights were over we had seen six bulls die..we left feeling strangely charged and yet dismayed at the same time..I think we were both glad that we were able to see the spectacle but I don't think either of us will be back to the fights anytime soon. on a lighter note..we loved Seville and will definitely go back, we also loved sangia and tapas..in fact we plan to have a tapas and sangria party when we get back..you're all of course invited.