Bullfight!

The bullfight in Spain felt, overall, more geared toward tourists. In Portugal, I felt that there were a great many locals around me -- all I heard was Portuguese being spoken -- and my ticket was more expensive. In Spain, my ticket was $5, I took a picture of some Japanese girls for them, and the guy next to me and I debated about why one of the bulls wasn't killed. (They seemed to give up on him or something.)

This bullfight involved three young matadors and six bulls. They were showy little guys, which made it interesting. For a while. Two and a half hours is a long time to sit on a concrete bench in the heat (yep, still hot between 9:00-11:00 pm) watching, essentially, the same thing. There aren't any loonies in Spain.

But, it had its moments. At this fight, the matador would enter the ring and "greet" the bull as it entered. One guy started on his knees. This is when the bull isn't even tired, after all. Intense.

Then the other matador-esque guys would join in. A trumpet would sound, and a man on a heavily-armored horse would enter. They would get the bull to charge the horse, and the man would stick his spear into its back and hold it there. Meanwhile, the horse is on two legs or whatever, totally chillin' out. This, really, was the best part. The bull hit that horse with a lot of force. Once the horse almost tipped over on top of the bull. I'm pretty sure I gasped. Another time the rider lost his spear and nearly fell off. Usually they would have time to do two stabs before the trumpet sounded again and the rider left the ring.

The other matadors took turns sticking the bull with spears, two at a time, for a total of six. This is done on foot, sans cape, obviously, since each hand holds a spear. They sort of run at the bull, getting the bull to run at them, and do a rather super-human leap to the side as they stab. I watched this very carefully, and it still looks impossible to me.

I didn't think I'd be able to tell the difference between young matadors and experienced matadors having only ever seen one experienced matador, but I kinda could. These guys sometimes had trouble getting the spears to stick, or even trouble killing the bull. One guy lost his cape -- twice. You could tell they were pretty embarrassed by these things.







And, of course, no bullfight is complete without a good strut around the ring when it's over.