Los toros

Went to see my first and last bull fight yesterday. It was really sad. Actually I saw three bulls being killed before I left. I'm not sure how many bull fights there are per session but three was enough for me. The first one was all right, because we weren't seated and I wasn't wearing my glasses so I could only see the back of the person in front of me. But the second and the third... really, the bulls don't have a chance. The red and yellow striped things sticking out of the bull are darts that get chucked at it to weaken it. I think three or four people have a go at chucking them, which means the bull could be stabbed eight times before the matador, the star of the show, comes out and has a go at stabbing the bull with his sword/foil/rapier. In all fairness, the matador must be pretty brave to get in a ring with a bull, but the bull doesn't have much of a chance.

It was very depressing. The bulls are feisty and one of them nearly gored the matador but in the end, with blood running down their backs, panting heavily and with the matadors closing in on them for the final stab, they stumble and go down. And then they get harnessed to some horses and dragged out of the arena. I'm not sure if they're even dead then.

They'd be so confused, people waving pink and red capes at them, random stinging pains in their back, cheering crowds...

I don't see the glamour or the excitement. Sure, I wanted to go once, for a 'Spanish experience' but all three fights started and ended the same way, and the middle was pretty much the same. It could be scripted, for all the variety there was. I wonder how many end with people getting killed.

Laure, my flatmate was saying how crazy Spanish people are, that they have the bull as their national symbol and yet go around stabbing and killing them for entertainment.