Valencia was my first stop.
I decided to take the train for this trip, that way I could see the
countryside of Spain instead of flying over it.
I took the fast train from Barcelona to Valencia to Madrid and back. It took about 3 hours for each leg of the
trip. The trains went about 300 km/hr or
200mph; it did not feel that fast and I slept a lot of the time.
(Valencia Cathedral)
Once I got to Valencia and checked into my hostel I decided
to walk around. I was staying at a
hostel right in the heart of Valencia in a room with 6 people. I decided to do a little tour of my own and
then go for a walking tour later that day.
But first stop was so lunch!
(Plaza de La Virgen)
I went to a little Irish Pub, I have a lot of time in Spain,
so Spanish food was not a necessity!
While I was sitting there an older Valencian man approached me and
started talking away! He wanted to show
me around Valencia, since I looked very out of place. He was very nice, but I respectfully
declined. People seemed nicer there than
Barcelona.
(Thinnest building in Europe, due to tax reasons ((red building)). Less than 1 meter wide)
I walked around and saw all the cathedrals, small quite
streets and old towers. The city of
Valencia was once completely surrounded by a wall and all that is left are the
towers. I think it would be very strange
to live in a city that is completely enclosed and the only way out was through
a gate.
(The remaining tower of the outside wall- Torres de Serranos)
I then went on the walking tour and met some very nice
people from the Chicago area; they were studying abroad in Madrid and go to St.
Louis University. I asked if they knew
Tom, but unfortunately they didn’t. It
would have been crazier if they did. The
walking tour was okay; it was the tour guide’s 4th time giving the tour and he
kept apologizing. What he didn’t realize
is that he could have told us anything and we would have believed it! Maybe I should be a tour guide in Barcelona,
just need confidence!
(Plaza Lope de Vega)
After the walking tour and got a little history lesson about
Valencia I decided to get some food. I
went to a Chinese take-out place, Walk-N-Wok.
They have this “fast food” place in Barcelona and it is so
addicting! It is like a Mongolian BBQ
fast food, so yummy! Then I had some
gelato and decided to call it a night.
Saturday, September 15th. I then got up early in
the morning and jumped on a train to Madrid.
That was another 3-hour ride and once I got there I found my hostel
right away again! I am starting to get
very good with directions, metros, trains and not knowing the language to ask
for directions. The hostel was right in
the middle of Madrid, there were bars, cafes, restaurantes, shops, anything you
wanted right around where I was staying.
(Calle Arenal)
(Plaza Espana- Hey Don Quixote!)
I wanted to walk around a bit and then do a bus tour. So I got my map out and walked around and saw
the Palace Real. The king of Spain
doesn’t actually live here, but it is his palace. It was GIANT and so pretty! I then walked around to the different plazas
and looked like a total tourist. Then I
started to get tired. Tour bus time!
(Palacio Real)
(Love all the street performers!)
I jumped on a tour bus and because of all the protesting
that was going on the tour was delayed.
The Spaniards were “friendly protesting” due to wage cuts and I am
looking for a job…. Oh geesh! So since
the tour was delayed the bus driver decided to drive all over Madrid and we got
some stares because we were in areas that were not on the tour.
(Catedral De La Almudena- right next to the Palace)
After the tour I went back to hostel and checked into my
room. I met a nice English girl,
Olgy. And we decided we wanted to go out
Saturday night and see what the nightlife was all about. So we met up at 7pm at the hostel after
getting some dinner and dove right into some wine. Another girl staying in our room decided to
join, we enjoyed 3 bottles of wine and headed on out.
While we were hanging out on the terrace with the wine Olgy
mentioned that she was going to go to bullfight Sunday night. I decided I could stay an extra night and
would go to the bullfight with her, I’m in Madrid, I have to go right?!
It was crazy because all of the bars/clubs want people to
come to theirs. So to get you, they
offer free entry and a free drink. We
took full advantage of this! We went
from bar to bar getting free drinks and then just leaving. We had about 4 drinks when we found this big
beer house! It was a bunch of tables and
you ordered a bucket of beer- 5 beers for 3 euros! Unheard of in the States!!
(Olgy and Mercedes)
We then met some very nice Spanish guys and they wanted to
go dancing. They so happened to choose a
place right next to our hostel!
PERFECT! We went and learned how
to salsa, it was a ton of fun but exhausting!
I spent a total of 13 euro the whole night.
After the dancing we headed back to our hostel and decided
to call it a night.
Sunday, September 16th. The next morning I was
not moving too quick. I decided to walk
around a bit more, get some lunch and café.
I then went back to get ready for the bullfight.
(Showing the bulls some love)
I knew I was not going to like the bullfight. It was very unfair and complete torture. There was a total of 6 bulls and 3 matadors
(or torero). The matadors had a little
posse called banderilleros (who are similar to matadors and are on the ground)
and picadores (who are on the horses).
The posse is in the ring with the matador to distract and taunt the poor
bull. The fights are very brutal and far
more dangerous than I thought.
(Las Ventas)
The matadors are so good at teasing the bulls with the cape
or muleta that it does not look dangerous.
There are 3 stages of the bullfight.
The first stage is when the matador and banderilleros are in the ring
teasing the bull to see how fast and furious it is. The second stage the picadores enter the ring
and the bull with charge the horse (which is protected with an armor) at which
point the picadore will stage the bull with a long spear. Then two banderilleros will try to plant two
banderillas in the bull to further agitate him and weaken him. The third stage is when just the matador is in
the ring with a smaller red muleta and a sword.
He is trying to stab the bull right in the neck/shoulders which will be
the final blow. The whole scene made me
sick and I do not want to go back again.
However, the most advanced matador after his first fight
pranced around the right and was blowing kisses to the crowd. It just so happened that the last fight gave
him a little more trouble. The matador
got stepped on and tossed by the bull but was not entirely hurt. Once it got to the third stage the matador
kept missing where he was supposed to stab and the crowd was booing him. They look at it as “inhumane” to not kill the
bull quickly; the whole ordeal is inhumane.
So the matador was getting frustrated and less careful. The bull got ahold of him really good and
threw him multiple times up in the air and was stabbing the matador with his
horns. It was so awesome to see the
matador get beat!
The matador had to get carried off and was not moving. Jesus Chover was the matador and he did not
die, but both of his had puncture wounds 15-20cms deep. After Jesus was carried
off the bull was killed very cowardly. A
man was standing behind a fence stabbing at the bull until he hit the brain and
killed the bull instantly.
(Jesus Chover had it coming!)
(These guys went out first and saluted the royalty, and Ogly and I were the only ones allowed to get a picture with them.)
The people were furious that this is how the fight
went. When you walked into Las Ventas
(the stadium) you could buy a cushioned seat to use while watching. After the last fight people were throwing
their seats into the ring. This is very
uncommon and disrespectful of the crowd but the fight took way too long,
according to the people.
(the seat covers in the ring)
Overall I saw a very uncommon fight but I would still never
go back. Afterwards I was not too hungry
and Olgy and I decided to find a nice restaurante with an outside terrace and
enjoy some wine and maybe some tapas.
Once we were finished with our drinks we were getting ready
to leave and other waiters from the restaurante right next to the one we were
at asked us to sit at their restaurante for a complimentary glass of wine. We
could not turn it down, it was so weird how many drinks we did not pay for that
weekend! Love it!
After that we went back to the hostel and got some
rest. The next day I headed to the train
station to hop on the 10:30 train, which ended up being sold out so I had to
wait until 12:30. I got back to BCN
around 4pm; the metros were taking forever because everyone was on strike. It was a long day, but a well-worth trip!
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