So last week I was so busy! On Tuesday we went to Una
Corrida de los Toros (Bullfight), in Madrid!
Very interesting sport. To be
honest I did not really enjoy it but I
will explain how it works.
There are three toreros (bull fighters) sometimes called matadores (literally "killers"), two picadores (literally
translates to “pokers”) and several other toreros of lesser rank that serve a
different purpose. There are six rounds, each with a new bull. Each torero has two
rounds. To start off each round, they
let the bull go and the lesser toreros use their brightly colored capes to draw
the bull towards them, and all basically take turns, drawing the bulls
attention. After maybe ten minutes of
getting the bull's frustration up, the picadores come out on some pretty sturdy
looking horses. The horses wear a protective
armor and are blindfolded. The picadores
have basically a ten foot spear, and the toreros work together to draw the
bulls to the picadores so that they can poke the bull on the top of its
back. The crowd really likes it when the
bull charges the horses and the horse has to push back in a battle of
strength. While that is happening, the
picador is driving his spear deeper and deeper into the back of the bull. After about five minutes of this, the
picadores leave the arena.
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| Other Toreros |
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| Un Picador |
The other toreros next take
turns, without capes, running at the bull and sticking it with a hook like
thing that then hangs on the bull.
Pretty dangerous, since the bull is enraged by now. they run at the bull then at the last moment possible dart to the side and hook the bull as it runs by. After the bull has been stuck four times, the
real torero comes out. The real toreros are
dressed in very traditional costumes with the weird hats and the glittery jackets
and tight pants with the long socks and dress shoes, all in very bright
colors. Their cape is red, and
smaller. They iniciate by going through
a whole bunch of exercises with their cape and the bull. Drawing the bull towards him while he stays
exactly where he is. The torero shows
the audience how he has complete control over the bull by making the bull
follow every move of his cape. Finally,
once he shows the audience that he can make the bull go anywhere he wants, and
shows how brave he is by bringing the bull within inches of goring him, and
many times the bull has even been close enough to rub its dripping blood on the
torero´s tunic. He then recieves a
sword, about two feet long, thin and flat bladed. Next, he is supposed to bring the bull to him
and strike the bull behind the head in the spine, killing it instantly. By this time the bull is significantly slower
due to loss of blood and exurtion, but remember this is an 900 to 1300 lb
horned beast running at you.
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| Dominating the bull |
At our match one of the toreros
was somewhat horrible, and after six tries with the sword one of the lesser
toreros had to come help him kill the bull.
After the killing, three burly looking horses yoked together, came out
and dragged the bull out the arena. Our
other two toreros were much better, and killed the bull in one, or two
hits in their matches. Over all, very
culturally educating, but I probably won´t go see another one. Pretty gruesome.
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| The Final Stab |
On Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday
a group of us went and did Madrid walks, which are some walks that the BYU
international studies program put together for us so see certain sites in
Madrid. We went and saw The Basilica de
San Fransisco, La Catedral de Almudena, and La Chocolatería de San Gines established in 1894. In the United states, many people go out to get a snack or treat together and chat. Many times we go to a smoothie place like Jamba Juice. In Spain there are no smoothie shops. What
you get here in Spain is churros and hot chocolate. Super rich, thick, and
warmed chocolate that you dip your churros in! Way up my alley!
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| La Catedral de Amudena |
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| Self Explanitory |
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| Haley, chocolate, churros, Me |
We also visited several parks and
enjoyed walking through all of the beautiful trees and flowers. We visited the Palacio Real and spent a whole
afternoon there! Huge! We did a tour
of the inside, which was similar to the other palacios that we have visited,
but the gem was being able to walk through the armory! Hundreds of full suits of armor both for
horses and men. Swords, spears, weird
cannon things, axes, pikes, bows, cross bows, lances and clubs. That was really
cool. It is eye opening to think that
real people really wore those suits of armor, and it was an honor and a
protection for them. It is amazing how much the times
have changed.
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| El Palacio Real
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| Royal Armory |
Friday evening, we went to a
puppet show for children. An older
couple performed several acts using just their hands and their mouths. So they would put gloves on that hid certain
fingers and only use certain fingers or a mask that hid all the face except the
mouth and then put on eyeball glasses and stuff. Mostly it was strange, but some of it was
funny also. I think the art culture is
just different here.
I have
run several times in the nature park behind my home this week and I have to share an experience that I had. The
Henares river is right behind my house, and there are several clay cliffs that
the river has carved out over time. So
on one of my runs, I had the desire to climb one of these clay cliffs. Good idea, right? Of course!
I loved it! So holding onto roots and grass blades mainly, I climbed
this clay formation, and slipped a few times, but always caught myself and
ended up at the top. So pretty! I was running near sunset and the sky was
gorgeous! And I was above the trees and the houses! On all sides but one was a thirty five or
forty foot drop! Invigorating! So then came the harder part of getting
down! I go back over to where I came up
and decided it would be a bad idea to go back down that way, as I could slip
much easier and possibly hurt myself. So
I move a little further on and see some sturdy branches near the top of a tree
and decided I should use the tree! So I
shimmy out on one of these branches and drop several feet and start getting a few
butterflys in the stomache, but I kept going down. I got to a junction in the branches that
didn´t have any branches below. Since I
was now only about fifteen feet off the ground I decided to grab a horizontal
branch, hang down, and then drop to the slightly sloped base of the mountain
cliff thing. When I was hanging there, I
thought to myself “hmmm, this is a little higher than I thought!” But I said a
quick prayer that I wouldn´t spain or break anything, and I let go. I have to say that free falling is one of my
most favorite feelings! I can´t wait to
go skydiving some day! I dropped down and landed fine.
The ground was somewhat soft because of the loose clay. I didn´t sprain anything, and had an awesome
adventure!
El Viaje
Now
finally to the goods. On Saturday we
first went to El Escorial. El palacio
real built by El Rey Felipe II, and is where he is buried. I was very impressed by the library that had
books from many cultures and many ages. The basilica was soo impressive! I just felt like I was walking into the
“mines of morea” from the Lord of The Rings.
The pillars are so big! The palace is built to over look the valley and
the views are fenomenal! It only took
twenty-one years to build becasue El Rey Felipe II employed the three million
workers from nearby Madrid to work on it day and night! We had a really cool tour guide that really
helped us understand alot about the palace and the royal families. He even made some american jokes and was
pretty entertaining. There are over two
hundred crypts for the royal family
inder the palace. All of which
are done in marble! And the walls, the
floor, the ceiling, the casskets, everything! So much marble, and gold and
silver! I want marble and gold and silver in my home!
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| El Escorial |
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| La biblioteca del Escorial |
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| La Basilica |
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| The royal crypts |
After El Escorial we went to El Valle de Los Caídos. A huge cross is erected on top of a mountain,
underneath which is a huge basilica. It
is a built into the mountain, and everthing inside it is on a x10 scale! It is husge!
The halls, the arches, the gargoyles, mosaics, statues, the organ. Walking down the hall to the main worship area,
there are maybe ten to fifteen tapestries each with some of the organ pipes on
either side of them, twenty to thrity foot gargoyles with swords and lances,
the whole main chamber is probably as wide as two of my familiy´s house in
Naperville, and at least two of them tall.
It is a huge dome, or cupela, all plated with one big mosaic. Again all of this is built under a mountain,
in the rock. Very impressive. Everything echoes in there. I can only imagine how amazing the organ and singing
would be in there! But on the negative
side, it was all built by the slaves and prisoners that Fransisco Franco, the
dictator in the early 1900´s, had forced to do so. All those that died while working on it are
buried there, as well as special graves for Franco and his right hand man José
Antonio. Franco built it more for a
memorial to him. Now it is called what
it is because of all that have fallen for Spain, including those who fell while
building it. The basilica overlooks the
whole valley, and it is beautiful.
To finish
our Saturday excursion, we went to a small little castle called Manzanares El
Real. It has been restored completely,
and the inside has been turned into a museum to show what most Spanish castles
would be like in the era. It was
interesting, but no where near as big as some of the other castles that we have
visited. I did really like how the
inside of the castle was a courtyard with the three levels of the castle
surrounding it. I made me feal like I
was in a really nice home instead of a castle.
What a
week! I only have a few weeks left! But we are making good use of our time! My next post will have more on my most recent
Madrid walks and our trip to Salamanca, and Avila!
