Bull fight!

Hey everyone! Yesterday was a national holiday in Spain, it's called National Day or Día de la Hispanidad. It also happened to be the day that they scheduled the last bull fight of the season. A bull fight where the matador (torero) is on the ground with his cape is called a corrida de toros. The event yesterday was called a corrida de rejones, which means the toreros were riding horses. It was pretty spectacular. I have never seen anything like it before. The horses were so quick and graceful and the toreros controlled them so well - it was quite the show. It consisted of 2 toreros and 6 bulls (3 each). The man sitting next to us told us that the first torero is one of the best in Spain on a horse. You could tell. He was constantly putting on a show for the crowd and it was pretty impressive to watch.

In bullfighting, after they kill the bull (yes, a little sad), if the crowd likes what they saw they stand up and wave white kerchiefs in the air. If the torero did really well, they will cut off an ear of the bull and give it to him. If the crowd is really going crazy, then they take two ears. And finally, if it was the most incredible thing of all time, they cut off both ears and the tail. Well on the first bull the torero got an ear, and on the final bull he got two ears, so that should give you a feel for how good this guy was. After receiving the ears the torero gives them to a woman in the crowd. Literally. Just throws a bull's ear to a woman and she takes it home with her. Noelle asked me what I would do if a torero gave me an ear...well of course I'd keep it, but how do you declare a bull's ear at customs? Haha. I have some great pictures of the show. I keep struggling with what to call it; a show, an event? It was like half sport and half art. After getting both ears everyone congratulated the torero like he'd won a big game. But the way that they are judged is much more art than sport. It is a really interesting cultural event and it was amazing to get to see it at a bullring as prestigious and beautiful as the one in Sevilla. Enjoy the pictures!

Overall shot of the Plaza de Toros from within. The people on the other side are the ones who opted to pay 50 euro more for seats in the shade! The cheaper sunny side was packed.

Bull chasing horse. The torero starts with the hat on, then as the fight progresses it comes off (see next picture).

They run the bull in circles and wear it out. The torero is holding a sort of flag/stake that he puts in the bulls back (you can see some hanging off of the bull).

Una oreja! After the first fight you can see everyone waving their kerchiefs (I used a Kleenex) demanding they give him an ear.

Action shot. We asked the man next to us if the horses ever get injured, and they rarely do. You can see this is a different horse than the previous pictures, because the toreros change horses every 5 or 10 minutes. The way those horses move, they get worn out quickly, so the torero gets a new horse for each stage of the fight. And every time he comes out on a new horse, they announce the name of the horse. It seems like each torero has about 6 horses that he rotates through.

This is the torero taking a walk around the ring after the fight. You can't really see it, but he is holding an ear in his left hand. About 30 seconds after this picture he throws it to a little girl in the front row. In the U.S. we toss baseballs to the crowd, here, ears.

I know this post is getting a bit long now, but I want to recap the rest of the day. After the bull fight Noelle and I went up on the rooftop terrace of a hotel next to the Giralda (Hotel Doña María). It had a spectacular view of the Giralda and it was right at sunset, so it was pretty cool. After this photoshoot, we went to this great tapas place nearby called la Bodega de Santa Cruz. It's an interesting place because it gets a lot of tourist traffic being so close to the cathedral, but it's also a very authentic with delicious tapas. Noelle and I had some fried eggplant with honey (a favorite at this bar), a pringá (which is some sort of little sandwich...I'm not sure what was in it but it was good!), and some espinacas (which is a spinach dish with garbanzo beans and potatoes, yum). We were just sitting and relaxing and Noelle struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to us. We ended up talking to her and her partney Mauricio for the next three hours. They told us the incredible story of how they met more than 15 years ago and how they've finally, after so many trials and tribulations, come to be together again. It was one of the most romantic love stories I have ever heard; it was like something out of a movie. They met when she was 14 and have been in love ever since, despite the other plans life had for them, and now they are finally moving to America and getting married. I know its sappy, but I literally got goosebumps. It was a great end to a pretty spectacular day.