Sunday

This morning the two of us went down to the most famous flea market in Spain, el Rastro. It is held on Ribera de Curtidos (mostly), where slaughtered animals used to be dragged (hence, “el rastro” or stain, streak). We saw all types of things: antiques, cheap clothes and shoes (Amy bought some very cute brown shoes), scarves (I bought a Indian style scarf), CDs, leather belts and bags, art, tourist souvenirs, lace table clothes, quilted wall hangings, and pretty much anything else you can think of. The narrow streets, made even more so by the venders’ stalls, were fill with more people than should have fit. Because of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, we had to push our way through most of the time. It’s part of the fun! In all, we spent two hours in the market and didn’t walk through the whole thing. Of course, some stalls were more interesting or worthwhile than others. For lunch, we left the crowd and found a clean looking place that had pasta and hamburgers. Our hamburgers were very good.

After lunch we headed via metro to the Las Ventas bull ring, picked up our tickets at the automatic dispenser, and found an ice cream shop in which to relax. It was really good hard serve ice cream…mmmm. I think we pushed the limit on how long one can stay in an ice cream parlor (45 minutes), but at least they weren’t busy except for some American foreign exchange students in Madrid for the weekend.

We had bought the second to cheapest tickets offered to the novillada (younger bulls, apprentice matadors), which put us in the second to bottom tier of seats, which was as close as we would have wanted to be. In the photo album, I organized the Amy’s photos from beginning to end of the event. First, all the participants paraded out accompanied by the pep band of the bull fighting world to salute the presiding dignitary. Then, a man in the center (not pictured) twirls a sign in the center of the ring advertising the bull’s number, and other facts. Each part of the corrida is signaled by trumpet sound. The first part that the bull actually acts in begins when he is let to circle the ring, guided to charge by the matador and banderilleras with their magenta capes. This helps the matador know what the bull is like. Then, the picadores come out on their heavily padded horses and stab the bull in the neck to make it bleed, weakening the bull. After they manage to detangle the bull from the horse, the banderilleras come out and jab ornamented spurs into the bull’s shoulder/neck. The guy behind us liked it best when one of the banderilleras managed to get his to hang from both sides of the bull. Third, the matador comes out and makes the bull charge his red cape, doing special “passes” and getting lots of cheers and ole’s before eventually stabbing a sword into the bull’s neck. Then someone stabs the bull in the spinal cord to kill it instantly, so it stops suffering. Last, the dead bull is dragged around the ring and out by a team of mules. All of these parts should be in the photos. It was pretty gruesome, I must say, though not as gruesome as I thought, and neither of us wants to go again. It is considered an art, not a sport. The worst part was when the 19 year-old matador from Colombia was charged by the bull (he was being too daring, according to the man behind me, yelling at him) and thrown, which put him in the hospital. I think he’s okay, because if he had died, it would be in the news and he wouldn’t have been standing (albeit supported) afterward before they carried him out.

Novillada de Ocho Naciones (aka bullfight)