Bull Fights, Madrid

Id tell you about the crawl but its kinda sketchy on all accounts... In Spain, they continue with the cheap grog theme with Vodka oranges in 50/50 mixes and the shots of tequila come in tumbler glasses about 1 to 2" deep. The biggest surprise was everyone smoking in the bars and clubs- We all came out rubbing our eyes and even the smokers were loving the fresh air on the walks between pubs. The buckets of Heineken's on ice for $15 went down a bit too smoothly and the next morning no one from our Perth clan still thought stealing the extra shots of tequila at the last club was a good idea.

On the Sunday we were woken by a knock at the door about 10am- Lynda was quickest to respond (about 30 seconds after the knock) with a "venti minuti, per favore!" as we rubbed the sleep from our eyes, thinking it was the house maid waking us up again. Then Richard, a Canadian bloke we met on the pub crawl walked in (we forgot to lock the door as well) and reminded us of the agreement we all made to check out the bullfights. 2 hours of showers later we were off. I knocked back 4 litres of water and still felt shady from the night before- I think we all sobered up around lunch time.

We were well early for the bullfights, so did some sightseeing, including the Dali Plaza, a 10-storey shopping centre, a few kids playgrounds, some more water vendors and then hit the local Madrid beach. This place was a HUGE park with a HUGE lake, so big it had paddle boats for hire, weaving around a cruising pontoon skirting the outsides. It put kings park to shame (mainly because we don't have tanned birds in bikinis everywhere, and beer taps in the kiosks) and went in for another Spanish institution- the Siesta.

When we got to the bull fights, it was not like anything we expected. I can seriously say I don't think it was what most of the tourists expected as most left at the first opportunity. The process is: Matadors signal they are ready when they are hiding behind concrete and wood walls, and the bull is let into the ring. The matadors harass the bull from afar and when it gets near they bolt to their barricades, and the next matador gets the bulls attention. After it is worn down some from all the running, a horn sounds and 2 mounted blokes come out on horses shod with what looked like a thick gold studded quilt, blinders over its face and a bit and muzzle over the mouth, and he gets the bulls attention. The bull then charges the horse, and on impact the mounted guard drives a pike into the bulls back to cut a vein. Sometimes he wont get it so he will stab at the bull, driving his weight on the spear whilst the horse gets rammed and stabbed by the bulls horns. We saw a horse get taken clean out by a bull...

After the bull has copped a few pikes to behind his crown, the matadors come out and get 2x frilled sticks with barbs on the end, and their aim is to stab them in behind the bulls crown and get them to stick in, letting more blood. This is almost the only part that impressed me- The way an unprotected bloke can take on a charging bull and evade its aggro while getting close enough to almost kiss it was impressive. From here the one chosen matador whose battle it is will take on his red flag and dance with the bull until its blood is almost let and the bull struggles to stand up. From here a trumpet sounds signalling the end of the fight and the matador corners the bull and drives his rapier into the behind the crown to fell the beast.

As much as I admire the balls of the blokes that do it, I was taken aback with some of the action. Lyn and Wilko bailed from the arena after a few fights because of some of the stuff that went on. You might want to skip to the next paragraph now. There was one matador that tried 4 times to fell the bull, getting his sword stuck in the thick of its neck each time, and failed on each one. The bull seemed to give in after the fourth as the crowd boo'd, lowered his head and just waited for the killing blow. Another matador plunged the sword in to its hilt, and although the crowd expected the beast to go down it didn't.... Then blood spewed out his nose and mouth while his lungs filled and he slowly fell to his knees as he drowned on his own blood. One of the mounted pikesmen got the attention of the bull while it was a little too fired up and it charged the horse at full pelt. After it took the horse down to the ground, it continued to buck and gore the horse with its horns for a few minutes until the matadors got its attention and it could escape. The horses golden blanket was covered in blood at the end of it, and that horse was one of a few that didnt return to the arena.

As good as it was to see some parts of the Bull Fights, Its one thing I've crossed off the list and wont be queuing up again to catch. Not surprisingly, we found ourselves cheering on the bulls over the matadors, but I do tip my hat (or beer.. whatever) to the matador that got gored in the arse, flicked over the bulls head and landed on his forehead. He finished his fight with a solid eyebrow gash and blood-blurred vision, much akin to the wilko-esque dedication on display at tomatina. 30 mins later he was stitched up, and straight into the pit again.